Despite It All, . . . I'll Do It Again

Armageddon by Leon Uris . . . my first Uris book, and I liked it. Liked it more than I thought. When I started it I was a underwhelmed. It was a slow start and really the first quarter of the book was slow to start. It's a novel about Berlin, yet Berlin doesn't come up until the second half of the book.

That being said, I had no idea I wanted to read about the Berlin Airlift. Here I was thinking I was going to read about World War II instead I read about the nascent days of the Cold War. Who knew that the Berlin Airlift was so interesting? I was enthralled and engrossed once that sucker got off the ground. As long as the reader as the patience to wade through the politics that Uris describes, in somewhat agonizing detail, then the payoff is worthwhile.

It reminded me of Red Storm Rising. There is a huge cast of characters, one of whom is a main character, but who is not always a part of the central storyline. There is a war, political intrigue and lots and lots of detail. The problem? . . . Like my problems with Michener . . . I hate fiction that takes place in the real world. There's a fine line between writing historical fiction, history and fiction. I never knew what to believe in when I read a Michener book. That's the same way I felt with Uris. It wasn't historical fiction so much that it was true fiction. I don't like not knowing which parts are actual events verses which are completely made up.

I highlighted a description of the morning . . . it happens in every book.

DAWN CAME WITH A crispness that gave a new life to the wet misery of the soldiers; and it brought the news that during the night a battalion of infantry had crossed the Landau in rubber boats and now held the south bank.

This next one is a long one, but I loved this description of Russian soldiers.

“Russians are like a pack of animals on the attack and otherwise. The pack strikes best in numbers. And ... like the animal ... he is most vicious when he is cornered. 

“Like the animal, the Russian blends into the natural backgrounds of the landscape and he knows how to use terrain for protection. Like the animal, the Russian is able to endure cold and hunger ... better than any soldier in the world. No Russian soldier would think of surrendering to the enemy merely because he is starving. He can disappear into the land like a fawn. He can survive from roots and herbs. For a Russian soldier to get frostbite is considered a crime by his superiors. And ... like the animal ... his instincts are sharper and his courage greater under the cover of night. He is a superb night fighter. 

“Although this Russian soldier is a resourceful animal he does not exist as an individual for he is a conditioned and controlled animal. All the thinking is done for him from above. He is never asked or expected to make a decision on his own. 

Then there was this, a description of Leningrad.

In the last days of April Russian victories were counted in inches, casualties in tens of thousands. No siege, this; batter it out foot by foot, room by room; isolate it house by house, street by street, section by section; reduce it to shambles. Artillery and tanks fired down great streets at point-blank and walls grotesquely buckled and crashed. Human fodder, bearing bayonets and flamethrowers, gutted and gored its way forward. Rivers of blood spilled into the gutters. The back of the Nazi was being broken by unstoppable sledge-hammer blows. 

All things considered, despite my aversion to Michener-esque writing, I'd be willing to give another Uris a try.