A Long Way Back

Finished May 6
A Long Way Back by J. Everett Prewitt

This Vietnam War novel takes a bit of a different look at things. A young married black man, Anthony Edwards, a reporter for the Washington Post, is sent to Vietnam during the war for a short period to get a few stories. Just after Anthony arrives, he sees something that grabs his attention: a small group of black soldiers, coming in from the field on a helicopter. One is badly injured and the rest look like they've been through hell. He wants to know their story, but finds himself stymied at every turn. He was lucky enough to have the foresight to take a photo of them, and this helps him work towards the story. While he is in Vietnam, he gets permission to be embedded with a group of soldiers on a mission, something recommended to him by another, more seasoned, reporter. This experience is a harrowing one, and something that changes him forever.
His wife can tell from his letters that something has changed for him, and when he returns home, he finds himself behaving in ways that he isn't comfortable with, nor is his wife. As he reaches out for help to old friends who've also been overseas, he also finds himself drawn back to the story of the black soldiers that he saw and finds renewed enthusiasm for following up the leads that he has, especially as someone is sending him more clues for this secretive story.
This is a novel of war, of the effects on me, of the way that those in power can take retribution on those without power, and on race. As we get to know the various black soldiers that make up this hidden story, we find men who come from a variety of backgrounds, and who have a variety of ways of dealing with what they encounter. This is a disturbing story, but also one of men working towards a common goal, both in the war, and on home ground.

NewsPrints

Finished December 31
NewsPrints by Ru Xu

This teen graphic novel features a girl, Lavender Blue, who dresses as a boy to work as a newsboy and live at the newspaper's orphanage run by the mayor of Nautilene and his wife. The country they live in, Goswing, is in the tenth year of war against Grimmaea, and many men are away at war. Many others will never return.
As the book begins, Blue is running from a rival group of new deliverers, having trespassed on their turf. She gets away by climbing a fire escape and getting into an abandoned industrial building. There she meets a man who goes by the name of Jack and who seems to be a no-very-successful inventor working on some sort of device to attract birds. She becomes his apprentice, running errands and helping out wherever she can.
On a trip to the shipyards where he plans to meet the admiral in charge, Blue meets the admiral's daughter who has been working as a secretary, and also finds a boy who seems to be living on the edge, a boy who calls himself Crow. As Blue and Crow become friends, and she gradually gains his trust, she increasingly finds herself wanting to be her true self, and reveal her female identity.
This is an interesting story of sexual bias, set in a wartime situation. A story of having the freedom to be who one truly is, without having to hide parts of that, or do what others believe is right for us.

Schlump

Finished December 1
Schlump: Tales and adventures from the life of the anonymous soldier Emil Schulz, known as "Schlump". Narrated by himself by Hans Herbert Grimm, translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch, afterword by Volker Weidermann

This novel was originally published anonymously in 1928, based on Grimm's own World War One experiences. It is an anti-war novel, but didn't get a lot of attention at the time, partly due to it being published anonymously. Grimm worked as a schoolteacher between the wars and during World War II, speaking out as much as he dared against the state actions. To continue teaching, he had to join the NSDAP, and later in the war worked as an interpreter on the Western front. Because of his NSDAP membership, he was still prevented from teaching despite support from former pupils and even the mayor about his anti-fascist attitude throughout. HE worked in other jobs, but after meeting with East German authorities in 1950, he committed suicide.
The narrator Schlump is an innocent, a man with a sunny disposition, who tries to get along with everyone. The afterword describes this as an anti-coming of age novel, as despite everything Schlump goes through, he persists in believing that things will turn out okay. His first official position, as an administrator in a small French region is one that lends itself to this. He interacts with the local French populace in a friendly way, doing what he must do, but trying to do it in a way that isn't cruel. But when he makes an error of judgment and ends up at the front, he sees war for real, seeing friends die in terrible ways, and getting injured himself. Yet somehow he still retains his optimism and innocence. Even as he sees that he is on the losing side of the war, he still believes that things will work out, and as he sets off for home, he imagines the young woman waiting there for him.
I found this book engaging, and still relevant. An appreciated novel, recently released in a NYRB edition.

World War Z

Finished April 21
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks, performed by an all-star cast: F. Murray Abraham, Alan Alda, Rene Auberjonois, Becky Ann Baker, Dennis Boutsikaris, Bruce Boxleitner, Max Brooks, Nicki Clyne, Common, Denise Crosby, Frank Darabont, Dean Edwards, Mark Hamill, Nathan Fillion, Maz Jobrani, Frank Kamai, Michelle Kholos, John McElroy, Ade M'Cormack, Alfred Molina, Parminder Nagra, Ajay Naidu, Masi Oka, Steve Park, Kal Penn, Simon Pegg, Jurgen Prochnow, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Henry Rollins, Jeri Ryan, Jay O. Sanders, Martin Scorsese, Paul Sorvino, David Ogden Stiers, Brian tee, John Turturro, Eamonn Walker, Ric Young, and Waleed Zuaiter.

This was like listening to a movie. The structure takes us around the world several times, workings its way from the first outbreak, through the spread of the disease, to the first public announcements, the ways that various countries or regions dealt with the outbreaks, the refugees, the fights against the zombies in various regions, what worked and what didn't, the emotional, physical, and mental effects on people. We see the heroes, the terrible mistakes, the losses, the struggles to survive. We see big battles and one-on-one fights to survive. We gradually understand the way that people began to understand what they were up against and how they had to adapt their defences and attacks to meet an enemy that wasn't what they'd see historically.
We see how even when they'd established areas of safety, they felt they had to move into infested areas and take back those areas, fighting to the last zombie they could find. We see how different environments made fighting more difficult and how small mistakes could have large effects on the way things turned out.
The casting was well done, and the actors really brought it all to life for me.
One of our pages at work recommended this to me, and I'm glad to have taken it up and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Matterhorn

Finished February 8
Matterhorn: a novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes

This novel was written over many years, with the author drawing from his own Vietnam War experiences in the inspiration. This shows in the writing.
Matterhorn tells the story of a young lieutenant, Waino Mellas, a man who, unlike many of his fellow college grads, takes his commitment to the reserves seriously and didn't try to get out of his service. As the book begins, Mellas sees his time in the service as something that can be useful to him later, but he is nervous about being involved in real action and the responsibility of of being in charge of other men.
As the action of his unit, Bravo Company, First Battalion of the Twenty-Fourth Regiment of the Fifth Marine Division is played out over the course of a few months, Mellas find himself changed irrevocably. We see his feelings, decision processes, and thoughts as he moves through his time around the hill near the front that is known here as Matterhorn. But it isn't only his story. We also see into the minds of some of the other men, other young men in the same Battalion. We see the fear, the desperation, and the anger. We see the racial struggle that was also going on during this time and how it influenced relationships between the men.
We also see the decisions made higher up, the decisions that affect these men's lives. Good decisions and bad decisions. Decisions made for good reasons and for bad ones.
The fighting scenes are graphic, but not in a way that feels celebratory like some war books. We get a glimpse into the real feelings of the men involved, the quick decisions that must be made, and the differences between the action on the ground and how it is viewed even from a short distance away.
We also see the impact of waiting, of moving through this difficult landscape. The brotherhood of the marines is shown in how they handle their dead and injured, how they fight together.
The writing is amazing and this book gave me a real sense of the immediacy of war from inside.

Little Bastards in Springtime

Finished September 9
Little Bastards in Springtime by Katja Rudolph

This novel takes us from 1992 through 1998 in the world of Jevrem Andric. In the spring of 1992, Jevrem is eleven years old and living in Sarajevo with his parents, older brother Dusan, and younger twin sisters Aisha and Berina. His father is a journalist and his mother is a concert pianist. His father is Serbian and his mother is Croatian. His maternal grandmother, Baka, loves to tell him stories of her life as a partisan fighter in World War II and her subsequent years rebuilding the country. His maternal uncle, Ujak Luka, is a fun-loving man that leaves Sarajevo for North America soon after the book's beginning.
As the tensions between ethnicities and religions heat up and fighting begins, Jevrem and his siblings are confined to the apartment building they live in more and more. Dusan is frustrated and wants to be involved in what is going on, and his age, sixteen, means that he has more freedom than Jevrem or the girls, who are only six. Jevrem overhears the adult conversations around him, and worries about what is happening.
Then things get worse. Sarajevo is cut off, Jevrem's father and brother join the fighting, and food becomes scarce. Bombs hit nearby and people Jevrem knows are hurt or even killed. As he struggles to make sense of things and support his family as best he can, Jevrem is changed in ways he isn't even aware of.
The book then moves to 1997 in Toronot, where the remaining members of Jevrem's family have settled. Jevrem's mother has stopped playing the piano, sunk into depression. Jevrem struggles in school, playing truant or absent mentally from his classes despite his intellect. His Baka is lost in her past more and more. Jevrem falls into a gang of other Jugoslavian refugees around his age, breaking the law even as his Baka urges him to do something good. And then something else changes for him and he decides to start doing good. It is only as he descends further into sadness and uncertainty that he finds a way to remember what he has been through and begin to heal.
This is an amazing book, and Jevrem's struggles were very real to me as a reader. I highly recommend it.

More Canadian Fiction

Finished March 30
Where White Horses Gallop by Beatrice MacNeil
This is another wonderful Atlantic Canadian novel. It follows four friends from Cape Breton, along with their families, through the Second World War. Three of the young man enlist and after training in both Canada and Britain eventually make it to the front line. The fourth young man is already dealing badly with the trauma in his life and chooses a life at home. We see the parents of these young men and their feelings around the war and their sons' roles in it. We are invited into the thoughts of many of the characters as they try to understand what they are feeling and articulate it, if only to themselves. We also see the community of this small Cape Breton village and how the members interact and relate to the larger world.
I wept through portions of this book (so keep a tissue handy), and laughed through others. MacNeil includes a poem written by one of the Cape Breton Highlanders at the end that adds its voice to her story. This is a tale of both deeds and thoughts and adds to my list of great Canadian fiction.

A Good Listen

Finished October 4
The Collaborators by Reginald Hill, read by Michael Tudor Barnes
This one took a while to get through (13 CDs) but was excellent. The book was came out in 1987, but the audiobook is recent. The story is set in Paris from 1940 to 1945, mostly during the German occupation. Janine Simonian, daughter of patisserie owners Claude and Louise Crozier, married Jean Paul Simonian who is missing in action. When she tries to flee Paris ahead of the Germans, her car is destroyed by German planes and she and her children, Paulie and Cece, return to Paris. Janine is fiercely anti-Nazi and yet ends up being helped by a German Abwehr officer, Gunter Mai, when she tries to find out what happened to her husband. She turns to Mai later in the war when her children are rounded up after staying with their Jewish grandmother. With Paris under German occupation, some residants accept the patronage, some work with them, some collaborate openly, and some join the resistance. As the characters show their priorities and personal as well as national loyalties and do what they feel they must to survive, the complications emerge. After Paris is liberated, Janine is accused of supplying information to the Germans that led to the arrest and torture of members of the resistance, and to the murder of her husband. What is the truth of it, and where do the betrayals lie. I found the complex characters, the situation in Paris during this time and the actions of the plot engrossing and moving. I would definitely recommend this book.