Best WWII novels

[Kurben]

Yes I am. Thank you sir. Would a mod be kind enough to move my post to the WWII movie thread and forgive my idiocy once again? It looks like Ms. Mod caught it but I didn't get back to her in time. Say sorry Kurben.

Nothing to be sorry about. Just one of the many little mishaps that together is life. Dont i know it......

 

[mjs9153]

Thanks for the tip! Uris is actually one i have managed, i dont know how, to avoid. I have heard about him of course but never taking the plunge. These suggestions was just what i need. (any relative to Stanley Uris???)

Stan was probably a relative!He had a precise nature as I suspect Mr Uris did too.. I really hope you like the novels,after reading one I was hooked and read several more..though there are probably some I missed.He covers the backdrop of what is going on so well,and then personalizes his characters,good stuff..

 

[skimom2]

How could I forget Atonement? I loved that one.
Can we do books that are a combo of pre-, wartime, and post-war? If so, I highly recommend A God in Ruins (Atkinson)

WWI novels (and immediately post war):
All Quiet on the Western Front
Mothering Sunday

 

[Arcadevere]

OK, a very little.... It is about americans fighting and trying to drive out japanese forces in the southpacific so the americans can advance in the Philippines. Set on a fictional island. Contains flashbacks of the individual soldiers lives before so we understand them better.

I see, maybe i'll be familiar to some scene as a Filipino. Will definitely but the book when i return to thebookstore

 

[Kurben]

How could I forget Atonement? I loved that one.
Can we do books that are a combo of pre-, wartime, and post-war? If so, I highly recommend A God in Ruins (Atkinson)

WWI novels (and immediately post war):
All Quiet on the Western Front
Mothering Sunday

WWI novels.... Hmmm...... For some reason i find to find them more difficult. Fall Of Giants by Ken Follett, The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek. what more? I liked Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres. Does that one count? About the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. And i do like Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves. I know Pat Barker has written on the subject but havent read him.

 

[doowopgirl]

Yeah, that one really floored me. Read it by chance but it is one of the best WWII novels i've read. Haven't seen the movie.

The film is worth seeing. Do try some of her other novels.

 

[mjs9153]

WWI novels.... Hmmm...... For some reason i find to find them more difficult. Fall Of Giants by Ken Follett, The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek. what more? I liked Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres. Does that one count? About the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. And i do like Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves. I know Pat Barker has written on the subject but havent read him.

Suggest "To the Last Man" by Jeff Shaara for WW1..traces the tales of a marine,the Red Baron,and the leader of the American Allied Forces,General "Black Jack" Pershing..very good read..

 

[skimom2]

I can't believe I forgot The Secret of Santa Vittorio (Robert Crichton)! This is a sly little book-not a lot of people have heard of it. I hadn't until a friend who owned a used book store recommended it. I've since had three copies, loaned them, and have never gotten a single one of them back! It's about a little Italian village and the big secret they have from the Nazis. GREAT book!

 

[Kurben]

I can't believe I forgot The Secret of Santa Vittorio (Robert Crichton)! This is a sly little book-not a lot of people have heard of it. I hadn't until a friend who owned a used book store recommended it. I've since had three copies, loaned them, and have never gotten a single one of them back! It's about a little Italian village and the big secret they have from the Nazis. GREAT book!

Never heard about that one. Thanks for the tip, Skimom!!

 

[fljoe0]

Slaughterhouse Five

 

[Kurben]

How could i forget? The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna, the great Finnish author about the continuation war between Finland and the Sovjet Union. Great novel.

 

[fljoe0]

just thought of another that I like

A Midnight Clear - William Wharton

 

[Checkman]

The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw
Sword of Honor by Evelyn Waugh
Soldiers of '44 by William P. McGivern

 

[muskrat]

Tattoo, Earl Thompson.

 

[RichardX]

WWII fiction tends to be awful in my experience. It typically takes very little historical research (Germans = bad) to write one and the author probably believes there is a large audience of WWII buffs to buy it. So it doesn't have to be very good to sell. They tend to be wildly unrealistic with one good guy practically winning the war single handed. I tend to prefer WWII movies to novels. You can have Nazis on the moon or as zombies (Dead Snow) or Clint Eastwood winning the war and be entertained in the movies in a way that is lacking in novels.

 

[Kurben]

WWII fiction tends to be awful in my experience. It typically takes very little historical research (Germans = bad) to write one and the author probably believes there is a large audience of WWII buffs to buy it. So it doesn't have to be very good to sell. They tend to be wildly unrealistic with one good guy practically winning the war single handed. I tend to prefer WWII movies to novels. You can have Nazis on the moon or as zombies (Dead Snow) or Clint Eastwood winning the war and be entertained in the movies in a way that is lacking in novels.

Those undoubtedly exists and thats just the reason i asked for good ones. For those exist too and are a pleasure to read. What i dont quite get is why a book must be realistic to be entertaining but a movie mustn't- Both are fictions. There are limits of course but i think the movies cross that line much more often than books. Mostly i find that the WWII novels are reasonably realistic aside from such storytelling devices as, (as in Winds of War), that a member of a certain family is present at practically every arena on many continents. Unprobable. But the actions that happens are not unrealistic. Of course there are the pure adventure WWII novels a la MacLean and others. Not very realistic at times but entertaining. But i find that the more , i really hate this word, "Literary" authors usually have done their research reasonably well.

 

[mjs9153]

Those undoubtedly exists and thats just the reason i asked for good ones. For those exist too and are a pleasure to read. What i dont quite get is why a book must be realistic to be entertaining but a movie mustn't- Both are fictions. There are limits of course but i think the movies cross that line much more often than books. Mostly i find that the WWII novels are reasonably realistic aside from such storytelling devices as, (as in Winds of War), that a member of a certain family is present at practically every arena on many continents. Unprobable. But the actions that happens are not unrealistic. Of course there are the pure adventure WWII novels a la MacLean and others. Not very realistic at times but entertaining. But i find that the more , i really hate this word, "Literary" authors usually have done their research reasonably well.

That is why I suggested Leon Uris,Kurben,he was a seventeen year old when he went into the USMC and served from 1942 to 1944,believe he eventually was removed from the service after being very sick with malaria..if you google his name,you can read about him..but I still think his original book,Battle Cry,is one of the best ww2 novels..

 

[Kurben]

That is why I suggested Leon Uris,Kurben,he was a seventeen year old when he went into the USMC and served from 1942 to 1944,believe he eventually was removed from the service after being very sick with malaria..if you google his name,you can read about him..but I still think his original book,Battle Cry,is one of the best ww2 novels..

I found Battle Cry for a few dollars at a second hand shop recently- So i bought it on your recommendation. It is in my TBR pile now.

 

[RichardX]

"The Kindly Ones" by Jonathan Littell is an interesting one although on the long side. Not for the casual reader though. I haven't read "Look Who's Back" (and maybe it is not technically a WWII book) but it seems to be generating a lot of interest.

 

[mjs9153]

I found Battle Cry for a few dollars at a second hand shop recently- So i bought it on your recommendation. It is in my TBR pile now.

I am glad you found a copy on the cheap Kurben! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did,and if so the others that Mr Uris penned..