Once There Was a War
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Average rating3.7
A Penguin Classic “Age can never dull this kind of writing,” writes the Chicago Tribune of John Steinbeck’s dispatches from World War II, filed for the New York Herald Tribune in 1943, which vividly captured the human side of war. Writing from England in the midst of the London blitz, North Africa, and Italy, Steinbeck focuses on the people as opposed to the battles, portraying everyone from the guys in the bomber crew to Bob Hope on his USO tour. He eats and drinks with soldiers behind enemy lines, talks with them, and fights beside them. First published in book form in 1958, these writings, now with a new introduction by Mark Bowden, create an unforgettable portrait of life in wartime that continues to resonate with truth and humanity.
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Uneven, as you'd probably expect of a collection of articles. One or two that are truly incredible, though.
Steinbeck for Steinbeck's sake. Nothing particularly brilliant or memorable here, but these essays are full of that signature Steinbeck voice. Though I've read the majority of Steinbeck's writing, it wasn't until reading Once There Was a War that I saw in Steinbeck's lighthearted writing a comparison to Twain's charm and anecdotal style.
Written originally as war correspondence to be published in newspapers, these vignettes of WWII were later collected in this volume. Certainly some of Steinbeck's stories here add fodder to the was-he, wasn't-he arguments (ie Communist, misogynist) that are still debated today. Ultimately, this book only fills in a small segment of the life and works of John Steinbeck. As for WWII, Once There Was a War merely adds a few tall tales, hope, and the occasional laugh to an otherwise dismal war.
