User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
“[W]hat a target, that mess of airplanes [on the Japanese aircraft carrier] rushing up at him now in the telescopic sight, so clear that he could see white numbers on the fuselages…No other this yet; he’d go. Now his heart was racing, his mouth was parched, and his ears seemed about to burst. He yanked the bomb release, felt the jolt of lightness as the missile flew clear, remembered to keep going to make sure he didn’t throw the bomb, and he pulled up…His body sagged to the seat, his head swam, his stomach seemed to plop against his backbone, the gray mist came and went; he kicked the plane’s tail and glanced backward…A sheet of white fire was climbing out of those airplanes, billowing black smoke; and even as he looked, the fire spread and exploded along the deck and arched into the air in beautiful colors, red, yellow, purple, pink, with varicolored smoke towering into the sky. What a terrific change in a second or two! Debris was flying in every direction, pieces of airplanes, pieces of the deck, whole human bodies tumbling upward like tossed rag dolls; what a horrible unbelievable magnificent sight! The whole wild holocaust of fire and smoke went roaring skyward and streaming astern, for the stricken carrier was still rushing at full speed into the wind…”- Herman Wouk,
War and Remembrance "He will destroy death forever..."- The Book of Isaiah 25:8
How do you follow up an epic masterpiece like
The Wind of War?
For Herman Wouk, the solution is rather easy: Write an even better book.
In
The Winds of War, Wouk told the story of the world’s descent into World War II through dozens of characters, most of them centered around the American Naval family of Victor “Pug” Henry. By the end of that brick-sized tome, Wouk had arranged all his pieces on a global chessboard, leaving the actual war itself for the sequel.
In
War and Remembrance, Wouk plunges all those characters into the maelstrom, where some will live, some will die, and all will be changed forever.
Pug, the hub of the wheel, serves as the commander of a heavy cruiser, then is sent to the U.S.S.R. to analyze Lend Lease, and later finds himself at the Teheran Conference. One of his sons, Warren, is a naval aviator, who participates in the tide-turning battle of Midway. Meanwhile, his other son, Byron, serves on several different submarines while desperately trying to secure the safety of his wife, Natalie, a Jew caught on a Continent that has been swallowed by Hitler. Natalie, along with her uncle, Aaron Jastrow, serve as twin Virgils, leading us into the twisted machinery of the Holocaust.
As in the first book, Wouk uses the device of book excerpts from a fictional book (
World Holocaust) written by a fictional German general (Armin von Roon) and translated by the also fictional Pug Henry. In
The Winds of War, I found these sections distracting, serving mainly to keep me from the storylines I cared about. Here, however, I started to see the utility. Anyone who has ever read historical fiction knows how groaningly bad the expositional dialogue between characters can get. It is difficult to tell a propulsive human story while also smoothly providing the real-life context in which things are taking place.
Wouk solves this problem in typically blunt fashion by interspersing the narrative with periodic lectures on the progress of worldwide events. It is not necessarily an elegant solution, but these sections do a lot of heavy lifting, which allows the characters to focus on their individual experiences, without having to explain them to the audience.
Perhaps the oddest thing about these excerpts, though, is that Wouk chooses a
German to deliver them. The result is a jarring pro-Wehrmacht point-of-view, in which Hitler’s greatest sin is stupidity coupled with overzealousness, and in which most Germans were good and honorable. It is a perspective, unfortunately, that seems to be gaining traction on the fringes of society today, and it is a strange authorial choice on Wouk’s part. Of course, everything that von Roon writes is belied by the events happening elsewhere in the novel. It’s as though Wouk is attempting to work a very subtle meta-critique of the “Good German” theory of World War II. If so, I think Wouk was too clever by half.
One of the things I noted about
The Winds of War is its somewhat incongruous marriage of low, soap operatic drama, with its high-minded historic verisimilitude. That marriage continues in this follow-up, making it one of the few marriages to survive a Herman Wouk novel. Pug continues his romance of the Englishwoman Pamela Tudsbury. Meanwhile, his estranged wife Rhoda moves from affair to affair, though giving her whole heart mainly to alcohol. Madeline Henry, Pug’s daughter, cannot necessarily carry on the family tradition of joining the Navy; she can, however, have her own affair, this time with radio personality Hugh Cleveland. The strange thing about all these couplings and uncouplings is how chaste they are. There is very little cursing or kissing and we are firmly in PG-rated territory.
Wouk’s descriptions of war and suffering, on the other hand, are extremely grim. While the violence is not as graphic or gratuitous as what you might find in more modern publications,
War and Remembrance is harrowing in its depiction of a world convulsed by hatred.
Wouk has an incredible and vivid sense of place. In
The Winds of War, we visited prewar Europe, and saw places that were on the verge of cataclysmic transformation. In
War and Remembrance, we see the end results. For instance, Pug visits a post-siege Stalingrad:
From the air, the approaches to Stalingrad were a moonscape. Giant bomb craters, pustular rings by the thousands, scarred a snowy earth littered with machines. Stalingrad itself, straggling along a black broad river flecked with floating ice, had the roofless broke look of a dug-up ancient city.
Wouk is expansive enough to acknowledge that the Germans and the Japanese, for all the horrors they inflicted, did not have monopoly rights on cruelty. There is a scene with Byron, for instance, witnessing his submarine commander order the massacre of Japanese castaways.
On the instant every gun barrel on the Moray was spitting yellow fire and white smoke…The Japanese were leaping frantically off the boats and rafts. The four-inch gun was methodically picking off boats, and at this point-blank range they were flying apart one by one. Soon the rafts and launches were empty, the troops were all in the water, and some were shucking their life jackets to dive deep. Machine gun bullets were drilling rows of white spurts in the water. Byron saw heads bursting redly open like dropped melons.
Nothing compares, however, to Wouk’s descriptions of the Holocaust. He takes us deep into the camps, right into the gas chambers themselves. Few works of fiction have gone this far, have been this precise in imagining the unimaginable. It is unforgettable.
War and Remembrance seldom gets mentioned in short lists of the greatest war novels of all time, or even great World War II novels. It lacks the polemical force and easily graspable antiwar message of
All Quiet on the Western Front. It does not have the absurdities and cynicism that mark critical favorites such as
Catch-22 and
The Naked and the Dead. Rather,
War and Remembrance is doggedly straightforward and old fashioned in its celebration of military service and patriotism (though Wouk, as he showed with
The Caine Mutiny, is not shy about critiquing the moribund bureaucracy and systemic inefficiencies built into every service branch).
These 1,000-plus pages can barely contain Wouk’s vast ambitions. While many of the plot mechanics center on characters making questionable romantic choices, Wouk’s overarching intent is to capture the essence of the World War II experience in all its forms. It is an attempt at swallowing the world, and Wouk gives it his all. Many of his techniques are about as subtle as a sledgehammer striking a bell (one character’s death, for instance, is intercut with King David’s lament for the death of his son Absalom). These techniques are also incredibly effective, with real emotional resonance. When Wouk reminds you that his characters are not real, it is a bit jarring, because they certainly
feel real.
(view spoiler)
[The description of that character's death - one of the sons of Pug Henry - is given added poignancy due to the fact that Wouk dedicated this novel to his son, Abraham, who drowned when he was five years old. Wouk lived for another 68 years after his son's death. Indeed, he died just short of 104 years old. Yet, in the rare interviews he granted, it was apparent the pain of that moment never left him. He could barely speak of it, even after decades had passed, even after the point when his son - had he been granted a longer life - would have been an old man himself. The straight-to-the-veins injection of Wouk's pain into War and Remembrance really takes this book to a different level. It is a reminder that the vast, impersonal forces of history are a patchwork of extremely personal, intimate moments. (hide spoiler)]Wouk intended
War and Remembrance to be a monument. That objective is built into the title. He succeeds dramatically. Yet this is not a memorial of marble or bronze, but of collective experiences. Somehow, it feels more enduring than any statue or cenotaph.
Herman Wouk never received the acclaim he deserved, his Pulitzer notwithstanding. That does not matter to me. For my money, you can keep
War and Peace, because
this might be the great war epic of all time.
Rating: really liked it
1382 PAGES COMPLETE! Let me first say, was about this being a challenge for me as well as about reading this particular book. From the afterward in the author's notes Herman Wouk sum it all up.
"The purpose of the author in both War and Remembrance and The Winds of War was to bring the past to vivid life through the experiences, perceptions, and passions of a few people caught in the war's maelstrom. This purpose was best served by scrupulous accuracy of locale and historical fact, as the backdrop against which the invented drama would play."That is exactly what this author delivered. I started this journey with Herman Wouk asking the question "What was WWII about?" He gave the settings and the mechanics so to speak in
Winds of War but
War and Remembrance was a masterpiece. There was a depth that completely surpassed the first book. It was more thorough, gripping and at times raw. I asked a question and this author told so much. And though it was very lengthy and I at times felt weary with the undertaking of the comprehension of such a piece, I asked, I was curious, I wanted to comprehend and I asked for it. Although my curiosity is more than satiated and I comprehended the story and the information given I must say I will never and refuse to accept explanation for some things.
This is a good book and I'm glad I took the time to take it on.
6 stars. It's an undertaking but I do recommend it to all who want to take it on and for those who really want to try to understand a lot more about WWII the Pacific, the European front and the Holocaust. It's not the only account or view but it is a pretty broad one.
Personal note:
Years ago working in admissions in the Cancer center of a local hospital I registered a man who had a number tattooed on his thick gray hairy arms. I remember behaving with the utmost professionalism but not being able to to stop myself from stealing glances at it. I knew generally what it meant. For his being admitted for a Cancer treatment he smiled, laughed and joked with me a lot. At the end of the registration as I placed an admissions bracelet on this exact wrist he said, "Deb I survived this tattoo, I'll beat this Cancer don't you worry." I don't remember my response now. I don't remember seeing him again while I worked there. But as I read this book, I wondered...about the nice man with the numbers on his arm. I hoped he survived twice. Just something I remembered & shared here.
Rating: really liked it
This review covers both books in this story of World War II, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Together they follow the experience and growth of Victor Henry, a U.S. Navy Officer, his family, and the many people they meet (American and otherwise) in the great events of that global conflict. As with all great novels, these books are not meant merely to entertain, but to teach and communicate something of the human condition. Here, the auther attempts to reveal the depth of human goodness and evil; to document the human ability to strive, to suffer, to hurt, and to love; and to show the final virtue in individual goodness. I sometimes feel like placid, comfortable lives tend to obscure humanity: there is no need for greatness and no opportunity. This is also dealt with in the story, for though the events of this story take place during a world war, a relatively small part of the book takes place during actual combat. All in all, this is a masterful work, equally attractive to those who enjoy romance and those who enjoy battle. In my mind it stands with War and Peace as one of the greatest novels of all time.
Rating: really liked it
I read these back in the 80s at the same time a friend of mine did. She loved them and sort of aimed me at them (we both liked Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth and a few other authors). I can't say I liked these as much as she did.
This duology concentrated more heavily (so heavily) on the romances and love lives of the characters in these books that I was hardily sick of them by the time I finished. The books basically became one long extended soap opera so far as I was concerned. The actions of the characters were annoying, and by turns predictable or infuriating (for example... no details here to avoid a spoiler, but) one of our female protagonists makes such incomprehensible decisions it came very close to winning the book a flight out the window. it was however a library book so I couldn't fling it.
*******Slight Spoiler Below Line ********
(view spoiler)
[(The Jewish young lady manages to get trapped inside Nazi Germany and set up her emotional adultery as her American love serves on a submarine in the war)....
If I want a soap-opera I can watch TV. So...not great. (hide spoiler)]
Rating: really liked it
I do not think I would be able to review this wonderful book.
The book details the History of the Second World War in all its intricacy, but without the statistics, which is fine for me.
Somehow, I can make the time to understand the statistics but the human History is important to me. Whenever I read about World War II I want to know what happened to the people, what did they go through, how did they cope with this tremendous impact to their lives, how is that they did not go mad, or commit suicide in droves.
That tremendous resilience is what I want to understand.
But my source for anything to do with Second World War, is Wouk. What is amazing is that he gives the German point of view too. The History of the War is laid out simply so that even a person who knows nothing and wants to understand the trajectory the War can begin with Wouk.
Then move on to the more detailed statistics, but Wouk is great to start with.
Rating: really liked it
“War and Remembrance” is a legitimate 5 STAR book if there ever was one! It is, along with The Winds of War, the Gold Standard of historical fiction for World War II.
Readers should seriously consider reading The Winds of War before reading this book for two reasons. One, the first book in the dualology is a prequel and the understanding the story and the characters makes reading the second book that much more enjoyable.
The second reason is to be sure you like how Herman Wouk writes and treats history. Most people do but if you’re one of those ultra-picky readers, you may find his canvas too broad, his characters too perfect and his treatment of historical figures too narrow. If that’s the case, you need not waste your time reading the second book.
For me, however, Wouk is a master storyteller and these two books are fantastic. They deal with a period of history that is my passion and I certainly tip my hat to Wouk for his thoughtful and thorough research. For wonderful thought-provoking entertainment and a history lesson all rolled into one, these two books are the best you can get!
John E. Nevola
Author of The Last Jump: A Novel of World War II
Rating: really liked it
Quite brilliant and at times unforgettable.
Rating: really liked it
Occasionally I get a craving for something a little different, especially in audiobook format since I share them with my husband. And his tolerance for romance is loooooow. So I stepped outside of my usual comfort zone to give the Winds of War (the preceding book to War and Remembrance) a try, since it's considered to be THE quintessential WWII historical fiction novel. I schlepped through W of W on my daily commutes, alternately bored to death or white-knuckling my steering wheel, and when I got to the end, I wasn't honestly sure whether I wanted to listen to the sequel. Impulsively, I went ahead with the purchase, as much because Audible credits make it a good bargain as from any desire to continue the story.
War and Remembrance didn't really improve on the experience of its predecessor. I still enjoyed the sweeping nature of the narrative, the way characters were conveniently flung to the far corners of the world to give the listener an intimate view of mind-bogglingly epic events. I also felt like I got a good education in parts of WWII that were skimmed over or skipped entirely in history class, such as the Paradise Ghetto, the Tehran talks, and the battle of Leyte Gulf. I even enjoyed the long-winded digressions of the fictional German General Armin von Roon. But I found the writing itself to be jarring at times, particularly the wavering between limited- and omniscient-third-person viewpoints. The inclusion of occasional flowery, essay-like passages on the war direct from the author also bugged me. I don't like my opinions spoon-fed to me, I'd rather have characters and plots speak for themselves. It was also very, very clear that the author was writing in the 60s/70s, and some of Wouk's more dour elegiacs weren't nearly as prescient as he likely thought they were.
The big downside for me, which will keep me from ultimately recommending this book (and its prequel) to anyone, is how difficult it is to root for any of these characters. Terrible things happen to most of them, and almost all of them bring it all on themselves. The women in particular tend to be vain, vapid, and stupid. The men don't always cover themselves in glory either; even Victor Henry, the paragon of virtue, tends to wallow in indecision at key moments. I slogged through nearly 100 hours of narrative with the hope that at least some of these characters would redeem themselves by the end, but for the most part, I was disappointed.
Towards the end, it seemed like Wouk himself started feeling like it was a slog, too. The narrative seemed to speed up, as if Wouk was eliding important character-driven moments and skimming through the last year of the war in the hopes of just finishing the damned thing before being buried alive by it. I guess I'm glad I read it, but I kind of feel like I want 100 hours of my life back, too.
Rating: really liked it
This book was my life for a good 2 months and I will never be the same. I read this before Winds of War which is actually supposed to be first. I would recommend reading them in order, but I do believe that War and Remembrance is slightly better. It's the story of a family during WWII, and you grow to absolutely care about everyone, and really understand all the complexities and personality flaws of the characters. Some are in America, some are in Europe, some feel strongly against Hitler, some aren't sure, some are fighting, some are waiting, some are suffering, some are stuck in Europe, some are in love, some are out of love, some are cheating, some are faithful till the end, some are hunted, some are hunting. I could go on. This mass market paperback I found in a used bookstore was like 1400 pages. So be prepared for that. The regular paperback is probably 900-100o pages. So worth it.
Rating: really liked it
Just arrived from Jamaica through BM.
A magnificent work of fiction written by Herman Wouk with plenty of historical facts.
Among the main historical facts, one should mention the battles of Singapore, Midway (unforgettable tale), Leyte Gulf, the Tehran Conference, the sieges of Imphal and Leningrad.
Some hints of the Manhattan project has also been provided by the author.
I have never heard about "The Paradise Ghetto" before I have read this book as well as the "Great Beautification".
It seems the author performed a great research work on the scenes in Oswiecim or Auschwitz.
A TV series War and Remembrance (1988) was made based on this book.
5* Winds of War
5* War and Remembrance
TBR The Caine Mutiny
TBR The Hope
TBR The Glory
Rating: really liked it
After I read the book that preceded this one, I immediately started this one. I liked this one as much as the first one. That kind of surprises me. Both of these books get into detailed war scenes which isn't particularly my thing, but I loved the history of this. The author covered the historical facts and details. He wove that into the story of the Henry family. The family drama was also as captivating as it was with the first one. It felt like real life problems because it wasn't all perfect. But I do have one complaint. The women were all incredibly similar....domineering, bossy, and liberal. While I don't have a problem with any of those things, it was a little monotonous at times. However, still 4 stars.
Rating: really liked it
I can't resist this book. Every time I pick it up in a library or at a book sale I end up standing there leafing through it for twenty minutes at a time.
The only problem is, the only sections I ever read are the excerpts from WORLD EMPIRE LOST by Armin Von Roon, the German general Pug Henry befriends before the war. The strategic analysis and the vast battle descriptions are a lot more real than anything that happens to the characters in the books. Their lives seem to have no reality even to the author himself.
Lots of reviewers have mentioned that all the female characters in this book are weak, shallow, spoiled and stupid. What's really disturbing is that there's almost no description of America, the home front, or even the every day experiences of ordinary enlisted men. It's interesting in that these books are consciously patterned after WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy. They focus on worldwide events and a lot of the characters are actual, historical, movers and shakers. The difference is that Tolstoy could effortlessly conjure up the humanity of a scene -- a peasant girl watching General Kutuzov make plans on the night before the battle of Borodino -- whereas Herman Wouk has no interest in the human dimension of war.
He's more like Von Roon than he realizes!
Rating: really liked it
I never wanted this book to end. I actually read several books in between while reading it, which I never do, so that I could extend the length of the book. I wish there was another book in the series. I loved the characters and their story. The historical references in the book were amazing. If you like to read about history and WWII, I highly recommend the the series. First book is The Winds of War.
Rating: really liked it
The Winds of War, the first book in this saga, did a brilliant job of integrating an interesting and robust fictional story with the real-world events leading up to the U.S.'s entry into WW II. Unfortunately, War & Remembrance utterly lacks this balance between fiction and reality. The fictional portion is a rather dull and paper thin veneer that could easily be told in 100-200 pages. (The book contains over 1,000.) The vast majority of this work presents the story of WW II and, even more so, of the Holocaust. These are certainly momentous events. However, if I wanted to read principally about the actual war and/or Holocaust, I would have chosen a non-fiction work, not a novel. I was also not enamored with Wouk's writing style, which relies heavily on excerpts from three fictional books. As much as I loved the Winds of War, I wish I had not wasted my time on this massive mediocrity.
Rating: really liked it
This truly was a masterpiece that blended an engaging work of fiction with an accurate (and equally engaging) retelling of the history of WWII. As someone deeply interested in WWII history, and whose own family story is deeply intertwined with it, following the fictional Henry family through their trials and tribulations, personal losses and new-found freedoms, was very enjoyable.
The scale of the work was immense, and Wouk had researched the history very well. I was a bit confused with some of his writing techniques, but perhaps this was due to cramming so much into a written account of family/world history. As a couple of minor quibbles, I found it odd that Byron's story was quite scant in this second book. He essentially disappears from view as of 1943 (view spoiler)
[and the death of his captain, Lady Aster (hide spoiler)], until resurfacing (no pun intended) at the end of the war. In fact, much of 1944-45 seemed somewhat rushed, as Wouk ties up all the loose ends--mostly. Another item I found a bit mysterious was how we are left to puzzle out what happened to Berel Jastrow. (view spoiler)
[ However, the ending does give some pretty strong hints as it sketches out Louis' survival and miraculous rescue by Byron. I also had seen the TV miniseries, where Berel's final role is spelled out much more vividly for the audience. (hide spoiler)]Yes--this book does have some (minor) faults. However, I find it incredible how Wouk interwove the political decisions, battle strategies, the terrible Holocaust and so many history-changing events all together with a personal family chronicle. It truly brings much of 20th Century history and politics home to the average person, showing us how our current lives, in both the public and personal sense, were shaped by these immense events.
