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A great memoirist can burnish even an ordinary childhood into something bright--see, for instance, Annie Dillard's An American Childhood. So what about a really good writer with access to a dramatic and little-documented story? This is the case with Catfish and Mandala, Vietnamese American Andrew X. Pham's captivating first book, which delves fearlessly into questions of home, family, and identity. The son of Vietnamese parents who suffered terribly during the Vietnam War and brought their family to America when he was 10, Pham, on the cusp of his 30s, defied his parents' conservative hopes for him and his engineering career by becoming a poorly paid freelance writer. After the suicide of his sister, he set off on an even riskier path to travel some of the world on his bicycle. In the grueling, enlightening year that followed, he pedaled through Mexico, the American West Coast, Japan, and finally his far-off first land, Vietnam.
The story, with some of a mandala's repeated symbolic motifs, works on several levels at once. It is an exploration into the meaning of home, a descriptive travelogue, and an intimate look at the Vietnamese immigrant experience. There are beautifully illuminated flashbacks to the experience of fleeing Vietnam and to an earlier, more innocent childhood. While Pham's stern father, a survivor of Vietcong death camps, regrets that Pham has not been a respectful Vietnamese son, he also reveals that he wishes he himself had been more "American" for his kids, that he had "taken [them] camping." Catfish and Mandala is a book of double-edged truths, and it would make a fascinating study even in less able hands. In those of the adventurous, unsentimental Pham, it is an irresistible story. --Maria Dolan
Book Description
Winner of the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book PrizeA New York Times Notable Book of the YearWinner of the Whiting Writers' AwardA Seattle Post-Intelligencer Best Book of the YearCatfish and Mandala is the story of an American odyssey-a solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam-made by a young Vietnamese-American man in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland. Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California. His father had been a POW of the Vietcong; his family came to America as "boat people." Following the suicide of his sister, Pham quit his job, sold all of his possessions, and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert, around a thousand-mile loop from Narita to Kyoto in Japan; and, after five months and 2,357 miles, to Saigon, where he finds "nothing familiar in the bombed-out darkness." In Vietnam, he's taken for Japanese or Korean by his countrymen, except, of course, by his relatives, who doubt that as a Vietnamese he has the stamina to complete his journey ("Only Westerners can do it"); and in the United States he's considered anything but American. A vibrant, picaresque memoir written with narrative flair and an eye-opening sense of adventure, Catfish and Mandala is an unforgettable search for cultural identity.
Customer Reviews:
a random and beautiful encounter.......2007-07-09
i was travelling alone in Lhasa, Tibet and found this book in Makye Ame restaurant. i started reading and couldn't put it down. it gave me true enjoyable solitude on my lonely journey. loved it. i spent the last two days reading it in that restaurant. ordered a copy from Amazon last week and i can't wait to finish it.
my heartfelt thanks to Mr Pham!
. . arriving at the place where you started. . .and knowing it for the first time.......2007-07-09
`I am a mover of betweens' writes Andrew X.Pham. . . `I slip among classifications, like water in cupped palms.' And in his award winning Catfish and Mandala he takes his readers into those `betweens' with him Viet-kieu, `foreign' Vietnamese, Pham sets out from San Francisco on his rickety 18 speed bicycle riding the Pacific Rim, first up the coast to Seattle, then through Japan, and finally arriving in Ho Chi Minh City from where he begins his odyssey through Vietnam, seeking to understand his relationship to the country of his birth, and the people, and his culture.
The ride he takes us on becomes, for the reader, as spiritual as it is physical. We feel every bump in the road, we push up the hills, we are cold, wet, hungry, ambivalent at times, and we suffer from chronic dysentery. Pham meets people who reject him, who taunt him, and those who, often after initial distrust, befriend him for part of the journey. While he is `pedaling and pushing' alone to Hanoi and back , on a journey everyone advises him is too dangerous, the narrative ebbs and flows through his childhood, through the escape on the boat, through the struggles of his family.
Pham moves comfortably from the specific, the particular, like his recollections of Scarface, Bugsy, Redeye, or Bagman and Mechanic, or the roasting ears of corn dripping with pork fat and scallions, to the philosophic - and then the poetic. It is little surprise he has been linked to writers like Thoreau, Kerouac, Steinback.. . I might add William Carlos Williams,T.S.Eliot or Carl Sandburg. He speaks at once of Vietnam and of his uncertain place there and of the US- and in so doing speaks to all of us who now count among the millions who have left homelands and no longer fully understand what home is, and who `move between.'
By the end of Pham's journey we begin to understand what that is, and value it.
moving.......2007-06-09
This story of a family's escape from Vietnam is a captivating memoir. The author combines his family history with richly detailed descriptions of the landscape of Vietnam. Very well-written and moving.
Great book!.......2007-04-30
Born in Vietnam and came to America at the age of 2--this book is such a great read. It's quite a feeling to see so many of my own thoughts and conflicts regarding my heritage written out this way. Highly recommended.
From another Vietnamese's perspective.......2007-02-23
Overall, this book is well written and has its good moments. As a Vietnamese who came to America at the same time frame and age as the writer, I can't help but to dislike the writer as I read the book.
First of all, I think the writer has a condescending view toward Vietnam and the people. He tries too hard to describe the negatives while not trying to even understand the reason for the state of the country and the people. I feel that the writer sensationalizes, even bordeline fictionalize, his story to appease to the readers. In the book, the author tried to describe the character Kim as a victim of the society, yet, he goes on to use her and skip town so he wouldn't have to face her. He paints such a negative picture of everyone that he met on the road. I wonder why he even took this trip. This author is the reason why Vietnamese Americans are so dislike in Vietnam. The author came back to the country without any knowledge nor understanding, and sadly, all he can do is whined.
I'm two years older than the author and came to United States when I was nine. What the author faced is not unlike any other Vietnamese refugees' story. I wonder about some facts and timeline in the author's recollection of his childhood. Base on the events that were stated, the author must have a photographic memory at such a young age. Some of his memories were a bit far fetched. One has to wonder if the memories were really his or a collection of someone else's memories.
As far as the difficulties in a new country, GET OVER IT!!! Every Vietnamese had to endure the similar situations. My father was a high ranking government official and he too had to work as a janitor. My mother who was a teacher, had to work on a assembly line making seat belts. I grew up in Fresno picking oranges and tomatoes. My wife escaped Vietnam by herself at the age of 16. We all survived and thrived on our experiences. There were many, many more Vietnamese who endured much worse fate than Mr. Pham. I find the author's self-indulgent story annoying by the end of the book.
Overall, I think the author tries a bit too hard writing about himself and forget the real victims, his motherland and the Vietnamese people. As much as the author wants to convey of his noble character, I find his views lack of empathy and understanding for Vietnam. I happen to be very proud of my roots and appreciate all that Vietnam has to offered, even with all of its imperfections. Sadly, Mr. Pham reflects many Vietnamese Americans that have turned their back on their roots. I'm proud that I was born in Vietnam and will be proud of my heritage everyday.
Book Description
In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s
Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger’s
The Perfect Storm comes a true tale of riveting adventure in which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery–and make history themselves.
For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was more than a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents, braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, navigating through wreckage as perilous as a minefield, they pushed themselves to their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than once in the rusting hulks of sunken ships.
But in the fall of 1991, not even these courageous divers were prepared for what they found 230 feet below the surface, in the frigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey: a World War II German U-boat, its ruined interior a macabre wasteland of twisted metal, tangled wires, and human bones–all buried under decades of accumulated sediment.
No identifying marks were visible on the submarine or the few artifacts brought to the surface. No historian, expert, or government had a clue as to which U-boat the men had found. In fact, the official records all agreed that there simply could not be a sunken U-boat and crew at that location.
Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked on a quest to solve the mystery. Some of them would not live to see its end. Chatterton and Kohler, at first bitter rivals, would be drawn into a friendship that deepened to an almost mystical sense of brotherhood with each other and with the drowned U-boat sailors–former enemies of their country. As the men’s marriages frayed under the pressure of a shared obsession, their dives grew more daring, and each realized that he was hunting more than the identities of a lost U-boat and its nameless crew.
Author Robert Kurson’s account of this quest is at once thrilling and emotionally complex, and it is written with a vivid sense of what divers actually experience when they meet the dangers of the ocean’s underworld. The story of
Shadow Divers often seems too amazing to be true, but it all happened, two hundred thirty feet down, in the deep blue sea.
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
CHAPTER ONE
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS
Brielle, New Jersey, September 1991
Bill Nagle's life changed the day a fisherman sat beside him in a ramshackle bar and told him about a mystery he had found lying at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Against his better judgment, that fisherman promised to tell Nagle how to find it. The men agreed to meet the next day on the rickety wooden pier that led to Nagle's boat, the Seeker, a vessel Nagle had built to chase possibility. But when the appointed time came, the fisherman was not there. Nagle paced back and forth, careful not to plunge through the pier where its wooden planks had rotted away. He had lived much of his life on the Atlantic, and he knew when worlds were about to shift. Usually, that happened before a storm or when a man's boat broke. Today, however, he knew it was going to happen when the fisherman handed him a scrap of paper, a hand-scrawled set of numbers that would lead to the sunken mystery. Nagle looked into the distance for the fisherman. He saw no one. The salt air blew against the small seashore town of Brielle, tilting the dockside boats and spraying the Atlantic into Nagle's eyes. When the mist died down he looked again. This time, he saw the fisherman approaching, a small square of paper crumpled in his hands. The fisherman looked worried. Like Nagle, he had lived on the ocean, and he also knew when a man's life was about to change.
In the whispers of approaching autumn, Brielle's rouge is blown away and what remains is the real Brielle, the locals' Brielle. This small seashore town on the central New Jersey coast is the place where the boat captains and fishermen live, where convenience store owners stay open to serve neighbors, where fifth graders can repair scallop dredges. This is where the hangers-on and wannabes and also-rans and once-greats keep believing in the sea. In Brielle, when the customers leave, the town's lines show, and they are the kind grooved by the thin dif
Customer Reviews:
You Feel Like You Are There.......2007-10-05
Others have gone into detail about this book, and it is true. This book combines a mystery worthy of a Sherlock Holmes novel with the details of technical diving and written in such a gripping manner that it could be a work of pop fiction (not in a negative way, just that it flows so well and put together so well that it could have been made up, if that makes sense.)
And the author does a great job of not leaving you "hanging" with an abrupt ending.
Highly recommended and has set the bar for other books in this genre.
J ohn Sutphen MD, ex navy diver /submarine medical officer .......2007-09-21
Tantallizing and heart pounding tale based on incredibly researched information about u boats and diving with an accurate, simple description of practical diving, diving medicine and physiology.
Compulsion to know the answer........2007-09-13
A fascinating saga about 2 deep sea divers and their 6 year odyssey to uncover the identity of a sunken German U boat. A captivating story, and you'll learn a lot about deep sea diving.
Deep Thrills.......2007-09-05
An absorbing account of the discovery and identification by veteran divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler of a sunken Nazi U-boat 100 miles off the coast of New Jersey. Kurson skillfully weaves together several threads into a very readable narrative, including the evolution of Chatterton and Kohler's rivalry-turned-friendship, the technical hazards of exploring a mangled wreck in 230 feet of water, and the duo's maddening, seven-year long ordeal to obtain positive evidence -- both on the wreck and in official but flawed US and German naval records -- of the boat's identity. As the tale draws to a close, Kurson also draws a moving portrait of the U-boat's crew, who went to sea in the final days of the war and knew that they likely would not return alive.
I started diving when the final pieces of this mystery were falling into place, and can remember following the story of New Jersey's mystery U-boat in the papers. However, none of those articles was anywhere as involving as Kurson's account, which I devoured in four days. Sure, there's some overheated prose here and there ("in a shipwreck, where every danger is first cousin to every other, a diver's desparation makes an open house of his bad situation."), but that's a minor strike against this otherwise excellent and comprehensive work.
Rare Intimate Journey To The Shadows.......2007-08-28
Sometimes the flaws make a thing so much more than perfection could ever achieve. The imperfections in this literary account of the exploration of a WWII submarine discovered in 1991 off the Coast of New Jersey are well documented. Those imperfections didn't bother me.
I was facinated by the detailed account of the personalities of the divers in "Shadow." Its easy to identify a future SCUBA diver - someone who is comfortable putting their face under water. Even better, because it will sometimes trump the 'face' test, is whether a person's curiosity is so intense that they are able to project their consciousness entirely onto something outside of themselves to the virtual exclusion of other thoughts. Divers want to investigate, explore, see something extraordinary, find out whats under that rock, go someplace very few people have been, find something unique, etc. The experience is so strong, you may forget to be worried about all the risks.
My enjoyment of "Shadow" was absolutely enhanced by my experience as a diver who is both Nitrox and advanced open water certified. I have never gone deeper than 110 ft - The U-boat 85, off of Nags Head, North Carolina, which is 20ft shallower than the recreational diving limit of 130 ft. So far, I've never wanted to see anything deeper, but I suspect I'll pass. Surface light begins to diminish rapidly. It usually gets alot colder.
At the depths routinely visitied by the divers in this book, 230 ft., nitrogen narcosis is an inevitability, and helium mixes carry their own risks. Water pressure increases to seven times what it is at the surface. Just when you need all your mental faculties and judgement, you can be assured they will be impared to an extent that cannot be anticipated from dive to dive. Even more frightening is that getting to the surface to resolve any problems that may arise (my mask came off once at 80 ft), must now include a life-saving decompression stop. When you head for the surface with less than 30 minutes of air for your stop, you're in trouble.
Diving can put you face to face with three realities that I don't sense as readily on land: 1.) the incredible spiritual beauty of the natural world, 2.) how alone we really are (I've never felt more alone than those very few times I've dived without a buddy), 3.) Death is always hiding within convenient reach.
The insatiable curiosity of the two lead characters, Chatterton and Kohler, also drives them above the water, as they travel to Europe to learn as much as they can about the submarine and its crew. There was no 'gold' involved, just an incredible mystery to solve.
"Shadow" was one of those books I read in one sitting (I missed dinner). I would compare it to Krakauer's works in power and drama, if not as well written. But again, in a way the rough nature of the text enhanced the story, as if I was sitting across the table from the author.
NOTE TO FELLOW DIVERS: After reading this book I have found my goal for my diving trips next summer - get my "Rescue Diver" certification.
NOTE TO THOSE PEOPLE trying to get young men (ages 9-15) into reading - I know of two young men who hated to read until they picked up this book. Not that they love reading now, but the 'no trespassing' sign is now down in front of the library.
Book Description
For the men of the Army Air Corps in early World War II, the chance of surviving the obligatory twenty-five missions without death, injury, or imprisonment was one in three. In this groundbreaking book, Rob Morris has sought out remarkable but little-known stories of the air war from the men who lived and fought it.
Based on hundreds of interviews with American veterans and their families, Untold Valor illuminates the courage of airmen whose exploits have until now remained untold. Read about Jewish aviators’ experiences as POWs in German camps. Learn about American airmen who were imprisoned, even killed, by the neutral Swiss and about two Air Corps enlisted men who changed U.S. policy toward liberated concentration camp survivors. Also discover the unusual story of Luftwaffe commander Herman Goering’s nephew, who flew B-17 missions against Germany. While some of the stories cover major events, most are about incidents and individuals misrepresented or overlooked by history books. Yet their efforts were vital, their lives forever changed.
Detailed and moving, Untold Valor is certain to interest the serious air historian and the casual reader alike. With a foreword by the editor of B–17s Over Berlin.
Customer Reviews:
WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR GRANDAD?.......2007-07-17
Rob Morris has brought together accounts of service men during World War II which would probably never be known had he not talked to the very ones who went through this costly war. With these vets dying at a rate of 1000 to 2000 per day, the title to this review will not be able to be asked in the near future. This book tells about the everyday living and dying these heroes did to give us the freedom we too often take for granted. I have been a WWII history buff for as long as I can remember, but this book brings out accounts of World War II I have never heard of.
Thanks Ron for bringing these truths out.
A fantastic read, which I will be glad to add to my library.
Garry Grier
A Valuable Addition to WWII Literature.......2007-07-03
Untold Valor is the very aptly-chosen title of the marvelous book by author Rob Morris. After years of research, Morris has told some of the most hidden stories of WWII. The stories, unfamiliar to many who seek WWII reading material, reflect the sacrifice, suffering, triumph and yes, valor of the subjects. Morris's painstaking and thorough research ensures that the stories are accurate as they reveal previously-unknown facets of the WWII experience.
Far beyond the traditional wartime stories, Morris focuses on the untold experience of the Jewish POW, for instance, carrying the added burden of fear of reprisals from an anti-Semitic dictator. He tells of brave crews who survived the chilling and notorious Schweinfurt raid losing so many of their Blood 100th comrades. And Morris sought out and discovered a most unlikely and unexpected B-17 pilot following his movements throughout the war.
The author has brought to light the issue of the Swiss internees who found that neutral Switzerland was not the safe haven and refugee they had expected it to be. The reader is taken into the heart of Switzerland with ex-internee, Dan Culler, as he endures one of the most harrowing confinements in a non-enemy country, only to lose the support of his own country at the war's end. In some instances, Morris ventures to take a hard look and give in-depth analysis of the strategic bombing policy during the war succinctly pointing out its flaws and the circumstances that caused the curtailment of bombing raids on oil refineries.
Few ever asked what happened to the displaced persons rescued from Hitler's death camps. Many, turning a blind eye to them, failed to recognize their pitiful plight. Morris hits hard on the subject and through the medium of story telling gives an informative account and narrative on this seldom-researched area.
Follow the story of the lesser-known "Hell's Angels, the B-17 that for so long was relegated to the shadows of the more famous Memphis Belle, and vicariously share the trek of an American POW on an Austrian road who by chance witnessed the horror that befell an Hungarian Jew forced laborer. Decades later that chance meeting would result in one of the most famous WWII images--a picture drawn by the American, which would grace Holocaust Museums and synagogues around the world.
Only through meticulous research and the strong desire to ferret out the lesser-known stories and heroes of WWII can one achieve what Morris has achieved with this book. One moment the reader is commiserating with the interned crews in Sweden and Switzerland, and the next moment that reader is flying through the flak-riddled skies on a bombing run aside a dedicated ball turret gunner.
Morris's book is a classic that will keep a reader spell bound as it pays tribute to the carefully-chosen heroes he introduces as he tells their unforgettable stories. In the re-telling, he salutes all our WWII heroes.
Marilyn Walton
Author of Rhapsody in Junk--A Daughter's Return to Germany to Finish Her Father's Story
Least we forget.......2006-12-24
Flying at 26,000', walking on flack, goggles fogging, the IP, the run, turn to rtb. The flack, the fighters, the hits, exploding planes. Bail out. Capture. Rob Morris tells it all from the interviews of survivors of the brutal days as POW's.
These stories are only a few that could be told but Rob to got to the heart of them. A Jewish crew member flying on a mission over Schweifurt, Gus Mencow was with the group that lost 228 B-17's. On and on as only Rob could pull it together.
A fantastic collection of stories of valor.
Thanks Rob for a memorable book.
Least we forget.
U. S. Bomber Crews Remembered!.......2006-08-11
It's sad to see the ranks of our WWII veterans steadily dwindling away. With them die so many unique memories of now-faraway battles and ordinary men accomplishing extraordinary feats.
That's why it's heartening to come across books like Rob Morris' UNTOLD VALOR. Fascinated by WWII air battles, Morris did just what was needed to save memories of those times, tracking down and interviewing countless veterans who flew in 8th and 15th AF bombers over Europe.
Morris covers a wide variety of American experiences in the air war over Europe, relating stories of Jewish airmen at war, the 'Memphis Belle' vs. 'Hell's Angels' B-17 controversy, 8th AF internees in Switzerland, the story of Hermann Goering's nephew who flew B-17s in the 8th AF, and so on.
It's an interesting collection of stories and a nice tribute to those vets who flew with the 8th and 15th Air Forces.
Average customer rating:
- Th Surgeon and the Shepard
|
The Surgeon and the Shepherd: Two Resistance Heroes in Vichy France
Martha (Meg) G Ostrum
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
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Team of Rivals
ASIN: 0803235739 |
Book Description
Of the thousands of people who escaped through the Pyrenees during World War II, at least one hundred owe their lives to a daring scheme that Belgian Charles Schepens masterminded in Mendive, a remote Basque village near the French-Spanish border. The story of this near-miraculous resistance effort, an epic undertaking carried out in plain view of the Nazis, is recounted in full for the first time in The Surgeon and the Shepherd, an incredible, true tale of wartime heroism.
In 1942, in coordination with the Belgian resistance, Schepens stage-managed a highly secret information and evacuation service through the counterfeit operation of a back-country lumbering enterprise. This book traces Schepens’s gradual transformation from an apolitical young ophthalmologist into double agent “Jacques Pérot,” and his emergence in the postwar period as a modern folk hero to the residents of Mendive. Woven into the account are the stories of a remarkable international cast of characters, most notably the Basque shepherd Jean Sarochar, regarded as a local misfit, with whom Schepens formed his most unlikely partnership and an enduring friendship.
Part biography, part spy tale, part cultural study, The Surgeon and the Shepherd is based on more than ten years of oral history research. The saga of a Belgian “first resister” who, by posing as a collaborator, successfully duped both the Germans and the local French Basque population, it offers a powerful and illuminating picture of moral and physical courage.
Customer Reviews:
Th Surgeon and the Shepard.......2006-11-06
The interaction of the local French working with a brave person combined to make this story of individual bravery inspiring. The unoccupied area of France during the first part of the Second World War provided opportunity for some to resist against Nazi oppression. It took those who were willing to take risks for the benefit of others that provides the satisfaction of the read.
Average customer rating:
- Great Book!!
- Terrific book
- Fantastic book to read aloud
- The Code Talker Review
- A Good Book All Around!
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Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two
Joseph Bruchac
Manufacturer: Puffin
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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
ASIN: 0142405965 |
Book Description
The United States is at war, and sixteen-year-old Ned Begay wants to join the cause—especially when he hears that Navajos are being specifically recruited by the Marine Corps. So he claims he's old enough to enlist, breezes his way through boot camp, and suddenly finds himself involved in a top-secret task, one that's exclusively performed by Navajos. He has become a code talker. Now Ned must brave some of the heaviest fighting of the war, and with his native Navajo language as code, send crucial messages back and forth to aid in the conflict against Japan. His experiences in the Pacific—from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima and beyond—will leave him forever changed.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book!!.......2007-10-10
This is a great book. Not much else to say. 5 stars!! especially if you are into fictional stories based on real historical events!
Terrific book.......2007-09-28
Bruchac has created a terrific historic novel that has enough action for young male adults and enough history and research to appeal to an adult audience. Bruchac does a wonderful job of giving a sense of the complexities of growing up on a Navajo reservation in the first half of the book. The irony of a nation trying to wipe out the Navajo language but using it as a crucial means of communication during 20th century wars should not be lost on the reader while reading the second half of the book. Bruchac's narrator tells this tale in an even-keeled, even-tempered manner. The reader is allowed to gain his own sense of injustice our nation has inflicted upon its Native American population. Bruchac's description of the progression of America's involvement in World War II's Pacific campaign is well laid-out and dramatically presented. Highly recommended.
Fantastic book to read aloud.......2007-09-25
We read this book aloud while on a driving vacation through Navajo country in New Mexico and Arizona. My children (girl 10, boy 8 and girl 5) were completely enthralled with both the story and the insight into the Navajo people. Although a work of fiction, the book reads very convincingly as a memoir. The author succeeds admirably in relating the cultural challenges faced by patriotic Native Americans serving in the military as well a giving a non-romanticized portrayal of the realities faced by the soldiers who waged battle in the Pacific. We particularly appreciated the lighter moments -- one tale of boot-camp swimming "lessons" had the kids screaming with laughter. A great read pure and simple, but also one with good lessons to be learned.
The Code Talker Review.......2007-04-06
This book is a great part of history that makes you want to read more and more after every chapter. It teaches you about the Navajo marines of World War 2. Two words; spontaneous and action packed. I loved it when it was talking about the Kamikaze airplanes, atomic bomb, and the Pearl Harbor attack. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.
A Good Book All Around!.......2007-03-08
I suggest reading this book if you are interested in the Navajo Code Talkers. I would rate it as 4 out of 5. The book has somewhat of a language conflict, because of the different languages spoken. To completely understand the book, you will want to read it twice.
The book tells of a Navajo who was forced to learn English as a young child. He was assigned an English name and was never aloud to speak Navajo. As he aged and went through High School the Japanese were starting a war with the United States. Because the Japanese would intercept all of the Americans messages there was no way to communicate. The U.S. started to recruit Navajo's because of the language they spoke: Navajo.
The author tells us of his journey through WWII and his heroic story of courage and bravery while fighting to communicate with the "Main land". As the story progresses the author meets new friends and finds buddies from home. He describes war very thoroughly. He also describes the loss of a friend and how devastating it can be, especially during war.
There is a long introduction to the book (about 70 pages) in which reads very slowly. After you get past the beginning it is a page turner. I have recommended this book to my whole class because of the authors stunning ability to compel thoughts and emotions during war and hard times.
This is a short read with lots of interesting facts that have never been aloud to be spoken. The book would be considered Historical-Fiction because of its small amount of fictional content. I liked this book a lot and think that you would too. If you like anything to do with history, I would suggest that you read this book.
Book Description
THE JUNGLE IS NEUTRAL makes The Bridge Over the River Kwai look like a tussle in a schoolyard.
F. SPENCER CHAPMAN, the book's unflappable author, narrates with typical British aplomb an amazing tale of four years spent as a guerrilla in the jungle, haranguing the Japanese in occupied Malaysia.
Traveling sometimes by bicycle and motorcycle, rarely by truck, and mainly in dugouts, on foot, and often on his belly through the jungle muck, Chapman recruits sympathetic Chinese, Malays, Tamils, and Sakai tribesman into an irregular corps of jungle fighters. Their mission: to harass the Japanese in any way possible. In riveting scenes, they blow up bridges, cut communication lines, and affix plasticine to troop-filled trucks idling by the road. They build mines by stuffing bamboo with gelignite. They throw grenades and disappear into the jungle, their faces darkened with carbon, their tommy guns wrapped in tape so as not to reflect the moonlight.
And when he is not battling the Japanese, or escaping from their prisons, he is fighting the jungle's incessant rain, wild tigers, unfriendly tribesmen, leeches, and undergrowth so thick it can take four hours to walk a mile.
It is a war story without rival.
Customer Reviews:
Good introduction to insurgent warfare.......2007-06-06
This book could have been an excellent five star book had it kept up the action at the pace from page 1 to page 100. Those pages should be given to every western military college and used as a briefing on insurgent warfare. In a two week period the author of this book and two fellow soldiers blew up eight Japanese locomotive trains, numerous trucks, and miles of rail road tracks. This commando team killed well over 500 Japanese Army soldiers and - perhaps - were much more effective against the IJA than the weak and ill led Allied armies that surrendered to Japan in early 1942. The trouble with this book is he author becomes a training instructor for the communists and other non-regular soldiers fighting the IJA (Imperial Japanese Army). So, the book becomes more involved with the day-to-day running of camp life from about page 130 until page 330. So, from mid 1942 until early 1945 this excellent soldier tells about training insurgents, living in a camp, putting up with illness, and there is lots of writing on eating.
So, yes, I read this book. Is it worth it? Yes, he gives good leadership advise on conducting small unit leadership in a jungle type enviorment. The centralized location and ramdom attacks on enemy targets allows a very small group of soldiers to do massive damage to IJA operations. The bits on camp life and cooking get a little long. I'm not making this part up; on every three pages he will give a long description on a meal.
Past page 330 the book gets wildly interesting again. Liberator bombers are used as long range supply drop transports and they are seen operating all over the SE Asia area. The author makes contact and starts living the normal life of a soldier. He admits that he missed the main parts of the war. While he initially helped hinder IJA in 1942 and trained insurgents in late '42 to early '45 it was the other allied soldiers who fought and won from Burma to Stalingrad. The author admits that he sort of wishes that he had been part of that action.
But this is a fair war book and I'll give it a nice 3 star rating. It give insight into jungle operations and how to conduct insurgent actions.
I hope you enjoy this good book.
Interesting read.......2007-01-19
I had read a review on the "The Jungle is Neutral" over 30 years ago and finally found the opportunity to purchase and read the book. Book is written mostly as a chronicle of what happened to the author in what is now Malaysia during the Japanese occupation of WWII. It is an interesting read of that trying time and the author's nerve and tenacity (as well as a lot of luck) needed to survive in the "wild." Book is well-written but is often too interested in minutiae. Still, I enjoyed the read and the information conveyed.
Tom
Outstanding.......2007-01-01
This book could easily be overlooked as an outdated World War 2 yarn.
For years "The Jungle is Neutral" was regarded as the Bible of jungle warfare training.
For the 21st Century reader, it is an amazing,uplifting tale of the human spirit overcoming overwhelming odds.
A must read for the professional soldier.
Some amazing parts.......2006-02-22
Some of the descriptions of survival & evasion in the jungle were incredible. The first half of the book had my interest more & then I think it tailed off in the second half. Worth reading.
A very good book.......2004-01-12
The Malaysia theater of WWII has often been neglected, especially after the capitulation of the commonwealth at Singapore. This book was written by one the the operatives the Brits sent in to hassle the Japanese forces behind their lines. It is an interesting story that leads to many adventures and insite into a complex number of peoples fighting the Japanese.
Book Description
During the first phase of World War II, the German forces advancing on all fronts, the Ju87 Stuka had been an essential element in the Luftwaffe's armory attack. However, from mid-1943 as the War drug on, the Stuka began incurring heavy losses. Dunkirk, Warsaw, Rotterdam, and other early victories became distant memories as severe reversals came about in the East. Wherever possible and often against overwhelming resources, the Stukas supported the retreating German armies by conducting not just precision dive-bombing missions, but low-level ground attack operations against enemy transport targets, gun positions, and ships. This second and concluding volume in this series examines the role of the Stuka during these years of retreat. Aspects of the Stuka's role, which the book recounts, includes the attacks against the Malta convoys, the retreat in North Africa, the war over the Arctic, the Russian campaign including the battle for Stalingrad, and the collapse of the Eastern front. This volume contains an impressive selection of historic photos, color artworks, and first-hand accounts from those who flew the aircraft.
Customer Reviews:
Stuka Volume Two: Luftwaffee Ju87 Dive-Bomber Units 1942-1945.......2007-09-02
An outstanding resource for remarkable photographs and color illustrations of this famous plane. The authors have done an outstanding job reviewing the wartime use of this plane and finally its end in May 1945.
The Stuka at War, Part 1!.......2007-08-20
Peter C. Smith is THE author when it comes to the history of dive bombing. In this 'Luftwaffe Colours' volume, he examines the development and early combat career of the most famous - and probably the deadliest - dive-bomber to fly in World War II, the ungainly Junkers 87 Stuka.
Smith's book initially surveys the pre-war development of dive bombing in Germany which culminated in the introduction of the Ju 87. Swiftly proving its effectiveness once war broke out, the Stuka gave sterling service in supporting the various Blitkzreig campaigns from 1939 to 1941 and proved a champion ship-killer as well. The Ju 87 however was no invincible wonder weapon and suffered serious losses in the Battle of Britain.
Stuka missions and personalities are well-covered in this volume, the first of two. The book benefits from a number of first-hand accounts of the Stuka in action and also provides eight side-bars detailing influential or well-known Stuka pilots like Schwartzkopff, Dinort, Mahlke, Hozzel, etc.
The book includes over 160 color and black & white photographs of aircrew, aircraft and targets being attacked along with 15 color side-views by Tom Tullis.
All in all, Smith's book is an authoritative, well-illustrated introduction to this most deadly of dive-bombers. Highly recommended.
Ju-87 Stuka Units 1942-1945.......2007-05-21
I have been impressed with Classic Publications since their first efforts on this subject. Their Battle of Britain series kept me busy for some time. Luftwaffe colors are enigmatic at best and this subject is a monumental task to want to take on. Bang for buck this series of books simply can not be beat. I think that Classic Publications could not have picked a better champion for this subject than Peter C. Smith. His study of dive-bombers and the Stuka in particular are legendary in the world of Luftwaffe history.
While working with the always amazing Tom Tullis to help illustrate Peter's color conclusions, constantly gives the reader vivid and significant weight to the book. Peter Smith relied on first person accounts of the aircraft from ground crew and pilots to reconstruct a compressive story of this famous aircraft.
Starting off in 1942 and the Dora series of the vendible Sturzkampfflugzeug and running through to 1945 and the Gustav and specialized versions of this subject, the author makes reading this book a pleasure. More never published photos show up continuing to stun the educated late war Luftwaffe historian in me. I am always amazed at what comes out of the file cabinets of these guys and Mr. Smith doesn't disappoint.
Done in the standard Luftwaffe Colors series more familiar to us as the Jagdwaffe publications, Stuka Volume Two is printed on high quality paper with fantastic color transfer and very clear black and white photos. Although almost all the photos are in black and white, the color profiles sprinkled throughout the text compliment the page and augment the information present.
The ability to gleam out colors from black and white photos using many resources crossed into very educated conclusions is getting better and better. In the beginning of the book Mr. Smith tells you what everyone should keep in mind. It is still guess work. Unless you were there and cared what shade of RLM 76 the bottom of your plane was painted, you probably do not have a definitive proof of the subject.
Guys like Jerry Crandall, Eddie Creek, Brett Green and others at the top of their game will be the first to tell you that nothing is certain. Things change, opinions oscillate and theories are crushed all the time. Facts change and research yields new information all the time. And this is coming from the experts in the field.
I really enjoy these series of books and highly recommend them to anyone trying to become educated in the art of Luftwaffe color schemes. The Stuka has held a particular fascination with me for sometime. It is what I call "Cool Ugly" and is the granddaddy of aircraft like the A-10 Thunderbolt II. (Another "Cool Ugly" airplane). The book can be found for less than 30 dollars a pop, this book is worth every cent.
Book Description
The Luftwaffe’s maritime role ranged from anti-shipping operations and Uboat liaison and transport duties across great expanses of open ocean, to coastal reconnaissance and short-range patrols. Among the aircraft types featured in the two volumes which make up this series are: the Arado Ar 196A, Dornier Do 24, Blohm und Voss BV 138, Heinkel He 115, Ju 88, four-engined Fw 200 Condors and He 177s and the Do 217s used by KG 30/40/100. This volume also include studies of some of the more interesting weaponry used by German bomber units operating in such a role, such as the Rheinstahl PC 1400 X ‘Fritz X’ radio-guided bomb and the Henschel 293 rocket-driven remotely-controlled ‘stand-off’ missile used against destroyers in the Mediterranean. Alongside the photographic content, much of which is previously unpublished, and color artworks, the books also include first-hand reminiscences from Luftwaffe pilots of the era.
Customer Reviews:
Luftwaffe Ship Killers in Action, Pt. 2!.......2007-04-11
Chris Goss wraps up his two-volume history of Luftwaffe anti-shipping units with this wonderfully illustrated history that covers events from 1942 to war's end. Like the first volume, this book is great value for the price, offering coverage of the varied units and airmen that sought to cripple Allied shipping in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters.
The timeframe covered in this volume would witness many initial successes by Luftwaffe anti-shipping units followed by defeat after defeat. In 1942 crews equipped with Junkers 88s, Heinkel 111s and Focke Wulf 200s savaged Allied convoys, especially those headed for Russia. Churchill even labeled the FW 200 the "Scourge of the Atlantic." Yet, in large part, those convoys lacked adequate escorts and the individual merchantmen were poorly armed with AAA weaponry. When more escorts were provided, especially escort carriers, the Luftwaffe's dive- and torpedo-bombers suffered ever increasing losses in the far north and the Med as well.
Goss does a fine job of charting the rise and fall of the Luftwaffe's ship killers, covering both major battles and behind-the-scenes organizational and technical developments. His narrative includes many first-person German and British accounts of convoy attacks and aerial battles.
The text is illustrated with over 180 color and black & white photographs, maps and diagrams. FW 200 afficiandos will especially appreciate the large number of Condor photos. Tim Brown contributes 13 nicely done color profiles of Heinkel 111s, 115s, 177s along with Condors and Ju 88s.
The role Luftwaffe anti-shipping units played in World War II has largely been ignored. Chris Goss' book is a well written summary of those airmen and aircraft who once posed a significant danger to Allied merchantmen and warships alike.
A Lot I've Never Seen Before.......2007-02-07
The activities of the German U-Boats during World War II are well known. While not as great a threat, the activities of the Luftwaffe in attacking shipping in the Med and in the Atlantic has been one of the ignored subjects of the war.
Chris Goss's series of two books with Volume 1 (Pages 1-96) covering 1939 to 1941 and Volume 2 (Pages 97-190)covering 1942 until the end of the war changes this picture. These are largely photograph books, covering the equipment and some of the men involved.
I had heard of the use of the FW-200 Condor in this role, and had also heard that it had had a lot of problems when forced into military usage. On page 122 there's a picture of a Condor broken in half by a hard landing. On page 135 there is a picture and a description of the extra fuel tanks carried inside the fuselage where the chance of fire had to be great in case of an attack. There are lots of Condor pictures here.
At the back of the book are a few pages on the special glide bombs and air launched torpedoes used by the Germans. These as well I've never seen before.
All in all, a welcome addition to the literature.
Book Description
Dominating the seas during World War II, the US aircraft carrier played a crucial role in every major naval combat of the war.
Development of the Essex class began in 1941, and was the largest class of carrier ever built. During the Pacific War it formed the backbone of any fighting force and became renowned for its mighty 'Sunday Punch' - the impressive offensive power of 36 fighter planes, 36 dive bombers, and 18 torpedo planes.
The Independence class was a lighter and faster carrier, built after Pearl Harbor, to bring more ships into action as quickly as possible. Alongside the Essex class their crews saw a dramatic change in tactical deployment as they began to form the fast carrier task forces that were so effective in Pacific operations.
Featuring an annotated cutaway and artwork detailing both the interior and exterior features of the ships, this book explores the design, development, and deployment of both the Essex and Independence class of light carriers. This sequel to US Navy Aircraft Carriers 1922-45: Prewar classes (New Vanguard 114), provides a detailed exploration of the carriers that were at the forefront of many actions in World War II, including the climatic battles of Phillipine Sea and Leyte Gulf in 1944.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent survey.......2007-05-10
Mark Stille's US NAVY AIRCRAFT CARRIERS 1942-45 tells of the US Navy's principal weapon against Japan during the Pacific War, following forces, battles, and including artwork detailing ship interior and exterior features. From ship origins to design and construction, NAVY AIRCRAFT CARRIERS provides an excellent survey important for any collection strong in Navy weaponry.
US Navy Aircraft Carriers 1942-45: World War Two Built Ships.......2007-03-13
An adequate overview of the Essex and Independence class carriers. I was hoping for a little more depth since my father flew off of CV17 in Air Group 8. But worth the price.
Book Description
Was the role of the United States in the Second World War an essentially idealistic one, a crusading struggle to conquer the dark forces of German fascism and Japanese militarism? Was it an unequivocally "good" war?
Historian Jacques Pauwels questions this orthodox view of America's participation in World War Two. In his view, the United States was not the disinterested champion of democracy in the face of dictatorship: its role in the war was determined, rather, by the interests of its corporations and of its social, economic and political elites. His analysis explicitly addresses many of the myths that have since been fostered about the U.S. decision to enter the war alongside the Soviet Union, the U.K. and Canada, and against Nazi Germany.
The Myth of the Good War offers a fresh and provocative look at the role of the USA in World War Two. It spent four months on the nonfiction bestseller lists in Europe in 2000, and has since been translated into German, Spanish and French.
Customer Reviews:
a fine book.......2007-05-12
A fine book; little (or nothing) that is not already known; but it does a very good job of assembling together relevant events and interpretation which effectively disproves the myth of American beneficence and unselfishness in its policies leading up to, during, and just after World War II.
Recommended.......2007-04-21
This book does a good job of bringing to the surface and exposing plainly that which even a novice on WWII history already knows about the role of Americas corporate giants in driving American policy before, during and after the war.
It is well written and will give the novice buff a new perspective on the war - though it is easy to fall into the Anti-American trap that the title of this book projects, the author does a reasonably good job of presenting himself as more than a typical Chomsky-worshipping leftist revisionist. Praise to the author for his insightful work.
Unique.......2005-04-03
This is a leftist bent on the United States' role in World War II. The US's true motives, believes Pauwels, a Belgian-Canadian who teaches European history, were motivated by protecting and extending American economic interests overseas in competition with the fascist powers and even with our allies, mostly Britain. The Western nations were actually quite cozy with Hitler in the beginning and were attempting to push him towards war with the hated Soviet Union, which the Western elites feared because of its anti-capitalist stance and pro-working class rhetoric (of course Stalin was hardly pro-human, but I digress). Then everything fell apart and...well, read the book. The author says he is not anti-American but by the book's end he makes his opinion clear: that America makes up new enemies to maintain its superpower status and control of the world's oil, natural resources etc, and that the war on terrorism is just an excuse to that end, an example of "perpetual war for perpetual peace".
This is certainly a unique take on WWII history, and many of the author's claims are well-founded and interesting; but it's worth noting that virtually all of his sources come from left-leaning or even neo-Marxist/"anarchist" perspectives: Chomsky, Michael Parenti, Gabriel Kolko, and only a few from "mainstream" sources like the late Stephen Ambrose. American superpatriots will be incensed with this work, and it does indeed say that Stalin was a smart and shrewd politician and Truman was rather "simplistic", etc. He gives a class analysis of America and also Germany, exposes American business leaders' sympathy for Hitler, believes the Dresden bombing of Germany and atomic bomb strikes of Japan were to bully the Soviet Union, and sees the Marshall Plan as a way of pulling Western Europe into the "Free World" capitalist orbit as opposed to the Soviet-led Communist sphere. Pauwels seems to be irked by many moves taken by the US and Britain, i.e. by subverting communist parties with ties to Stalin in France and Italy, believing these actions are "undemocratic" and the same as Stalin's annexation of Eastern Europe. Personally I'd rather live in a democratic capitalist country than a totalitarian socialist one, so I fail to see the problem there. However, Pauwels' views towards Third World oppression by First World powers are more understandable, as many were indeed quite destructive. Ultimately Americans with an open mind will find this book challenging to much of what they learned in school, while hardcore radicals may not find it critical enough of "American imperialism". Some World War II veterans may find it insulting. But worth reading, whatever your political beliefs may be.
Books:
- Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting the Cold War in a Hot Zone
- Civil War Generalship: The Art of Command
- Civil War Navies, 1855-1883 (U.S. Navy Warship Series)
- Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines, 1945-2001
- Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines, 1945-2001
- Compendium of the Confederate Armies: Tennessee
- Complete Krav Maga: The Ultimate Guide to Over 200 Self-Defense and Combative Techniques
- Crystal Soldier (Liaden Universe Novel)
- Don Troiani's Soldiers of the American Revolution
- Escaping the Giant Wave
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