komet2020's reviews
1711 reviews

Of all the Elizabeth Jane Howard novels I've had the pleasure of reading over the past couple of decades, The Long View, though employing an intriguing literary device via showing the anatomy of a marriage between Conrad and Antonia Fleming from 1950 to 1926, I found tiresome in some instances.   Notwithstanding that, I liked being able to experience the ways the Flemings related to each other across the various temporal shifts in the novel.

Here is a concise, photographic history of the Siebel Fh 104/Si 204, a prewar, twin-engined aircraft that went on to fulfill a variety of roles for the Luftwaffe during the Second World War (e.g. in the training of bomber crews and night-fighter pilots) and for several foreign countries in the early postwar years (e.g. Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, and the Soviet Union). 

WINGMAN is the author's story of his wartime experiences as a fighter pilot with the 334th Fighter Squadron of the Fourth Fighter Group, the United States Army Air Force's (USAAF) top scoring fighter group in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) during World War II.

Speer, who had graduated from flight school in October 1943 as a newly minted fighter pilot, shares with the reader his experiences in New York with his wife, a fellow pilot and his spouse shortly before both men were shipped overseas. Speer also conveys to the reader a very palpable sense of what life on an operational airbase was like for a fighter pilot in wartime, from the mission briefing, being driven out to the runway where the pilot's fighter plane stood ready for action with its crew nearby with whom the pilot formed a special bond (for it was the crew chief and the skilled personnel under his charge who ensured the reliability of the aircraft for combat), and on to flying missions deep into Germany. These missions entailed bomber escort and taking the war to the enemy by attacking ground targets and taking on enemy fighters wherever they were found, be it aloft or on the ground.

Speer's time with the Fourth Fighter Group would last a little more than a month. He was shot down on his 17th mission on May 29, 1944 by flak and would be a POW for the next 11 months. Up to the time Speer was forced to crash land his P-51 Mustang fighter in Germany, he had been credited with shooting down 1 enemy fighter and destroying 5 other enemy aircraft on the ground. Much of Speer's POW experiences are detailed in this book as well.

Wingman fully encapsulates one pilot's experiences, both in the air and as a prisoner of war in Germany who endured many hardships and managed to make an incredible escape to Allied lines shortly before V-E Day. 

I was prompted to buy this book, You Don't Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War from watching a TV interview its author (Elizabeth Becker, herself a journalist who had covered the war in Cambodia during the early 1970s) gave to the CSPAN BOOK TV program.

I cannot praise this book enough. It does a fine job of highlighting the wartime experiences in Vietnam and Cambodia of 3 exceptional, talented, smart, and resourceful women who worked hard, often against the at times disdainful, sexist and contemptuous attitudes of many of their male colleagues , to perform outstanding work --- both on the front lines, streets, and alleyways of Vietnam and Cambodia --- as war correspondents.

Catherine Leroy was a petite Frenchwoman who arrived in South Vietnam in 1966 (during the early phase of the American involvement in the Vietnam War), where she managed to ingratiate herself with the U.S. military establishment --- and the coterie of journalists and news services covering the war --- as a photographer, often accompanying paratroopers and soldiers into combat. Several of Leroy's photographs are featured in this book, and they are some of the best war photographs I've ever seen, conveying the tragedy and misery of war on soldiers and civilians alike.

Frances FitzGerald hailed from an affluent, privileged background in New York society, was a graduate from Radcliffe College (Class of 1962) who made her way to South Vietnam in January 1966, intent on writing a few articles from there about the war. With the help of several influential people she knew in Vietnam, FitzGerald took it upon herself to gain an understanding of the Vietnam conflict that she felt wasn't being reflected in the press. She would go on to spend a considerable amount of time in Vietnam before returning later in the decade to the U.S., where she would begin work on one of the first books to provide a nuanced, comprehensive look at the U.S. involvement in Vietnam that also examined the culture and history of Vietnam as well: Fire in the Lake, which became a critically acclaimed, best-seller in 1972 and won several top literary awards.

Kate Webb, a university graduate from Australia in her early 20s with scant journalistic experience, made her way to Vietnam in the mid-1960s. She knew no-one there and had few resources she could call upon. But Kate Webb had grit, determination, and through the final withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Vietnam in April 1975, would establish a sterling reputation as one of the most astute, resourceful, and courageous journalists working first, from Saigon, where she received her baptism of fire covering the Tet Offensive first-hand, to the widening, horrific conflict in Cambodia.

I was very much taken in by the stories of these three women who "challenged the rules imposed on them by the military, ignored the belittlement of their male peers, and ultimately altered the craft of war reportage for generations."

Anyone with an interest in Vietnam and war reportage should read this book. Indeed, You Don't Belong Here should be required reading in any college or university syllabus covering the Vietnam War. I cannot praise it enough. 

A GILDED LADY takes place in the U.S. during the period 1900-1901, mainly in Washington DC. This is a time in which the country has emerged from the Spanish-American War as a victorious, newly established world power with overseas possessions.

The novel has 2 main characters. Caroline Delacroix is a young, spirited, intelligent woman (in her late 20s) hailing from a well-to-do family (who made its wealth in the spice trade) from Virginia, working as a secretary to the First Lady, Ida McKinley, whose frail health (she was periodically prone to epileptic seizures) and temperament could make her a difficult person to deal with. Then there is Nathaniel Trask, a special agent in the Treasury Department's Counterfeit Division who takes special pride in his work and has a reputation for solving the most challenging cases involving fraud. Unlike Caroline, Trask grew up poor in Chicago and could be best described as a self-made man who suffered a profound family tragedy that has steeled his heart against any romantic attachments. That is, until, his assignment in the White House, where he was put in charge of President McKinley's Secret Service security detail (an assignment he did not want). There he became acquainted with Caroline.

So it was that over the following year, by degrees, both Nathaniel and Caroline (whose respective roles in the White House often put them in close proximity to each other) became very much attracted to one another. This was a time in which the threat of anarchy among some radical elements in the country (as well as in Europe) drove Nathaniel to develop a comprehensive system for ensuring the security of both President McKinley and his wife. Caroline, for her part, is concerned about the welfare of her beloved twin brother Luke, who is imprisoned in Cuba on charges of treason. (At the time, Cuba, having achieved its independence from Spain with U.S. assistance, was a U.S. protectorate, a status it would hold until 1902 when it achieved full sovereign status following the withdrawal of U.S. military forces.) Luke comes across as a Rhett Butler type -- i.e. a lovable, smart, highly clever sort who is not above bending the rules a bit. He's languishing in prison and Caroline is unsparing in her efforts (along with her older brother Gray Delacroix) to try and secure his release.

There is also a national tragedy that takes place, leaving Nathaniel shattered and in need of someone to help him find himself. This is when Caroline's support proves to have a healing effect on Nathaniel's spirit.

I very much enjoyed reading this novel which was well-crafted and stirred my emotions. For anyone with an interest in stories set in the Gilded Age with compelling drama, A GILDED LADY is a winner and comes highly recommended. 

RED TAIL CAPTURED, RED TAIL FREE is the wartime memoir of Alexander Jefferson (1921-2022) who, during World War II, had served as a fighter pilot with the 301st Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF).    Jefferson was among those elite group of airmen as known as the Tuskegee Airmen.  

Jefferson shares with the reader his experiences of growing up in Detroit (where he graduated from high school in 1938) and his subsequent life in Atlanta, where he earned an undergraduate degree in 1942 from Clark College in Chemistry and Biology, with a minor in Physics and Mathematics.    Then prior to pursuing graduate study at Howard University in Washington DC, Jefferson had enlisted in the USAAF, intent on becoming a pilot in spite of the odds placed against him.    The USAAF had only reluctantly allowed African American men the previous year in its flight training program.    The prevailing sentiment in the USAAF (which mirrored the attitudes in the U.S. armed forces toward African Americans) was that "Negroes" (as African Americans were referred to at that time) did not possess the necessary intelligence and aptitude to become competent aviators, much less successful combat pilots.      Well, as Jefferson makes clear in his memoir, he overcame many obstacles placed in his path throughout the various phases of training, earned his wings upon graduating with Class 44-A in January 1944 at Tuskegee Army Air Field, and after advanced training in fighters at Selfridge Army Air Field outside of Detroit, was sent overseas to Italy where he was assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group in June 1944.   

At the time of Jefferson's arrival, the 332nd was transitioning from flying the P-47 Thunderbolt to one of the best fighter planes to see combat in World War II, the P-51 Mustang.      The P-51 was the first USAAF fighter that had the range to escort the bombers to their targets deep inside Germany and back home, as well as the ability to take on the Luftwaffe on better than equal terms.   

Jefferson would fly 18 combat missions (which entailed bomber escort, ground attack, and fighter sweep missions) before being shot down by flak on his 19th mission over Toulon, France on August 12, 1944, while attacking a German radar unit along the coast.     He would be a POW in Germany until he (along with his fellow POWs) was liberated on April 29, 1945. 

Jefferson also sheds light on his postwar life which involved serving as both a teacher and later assistant principal in the Detroit Public Schools System from 1948 to 1979, and his work as a founding member of the Detroit Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen in encouraging and supporting African American youth interested in careers in aviation and aerospace.   

What I found sobering about reading Jefferson's memoir was how restrictive the USAAF was in terms of the numbers of African Americans it allowed to become fighter pilots during World War II.    He cited how it was that just a few days prior to graduating from advanced flight training in January 1944, four of his classmates who were expecting to earn their wings, were pulled out of the flight training program by the USAAF and informed that they were not going to graduate.  According to Jefferson, "[s]ome of them had even purchased their uniforms and invited their parents and sweethearts to come to graduation.  It was a loss of their manhood, and it caused them a lot of psychological stress; in fact, some of them are still psychologically wounded because they were washed out.  I know some of these guys could fly better than I could, and they were certainly better soldiers."

This is a fantastic book which also contains some of Jefferson's own art work (most of which was done during his time as a POW) and photos of Jefferson, his family, and fellow Tuskegee airmen.  

It was a little more than a month ago that I was first made aware of Absalom Hanks Markland (1825-1888), one of the most significant unsung heroes of U.S. history during the Civil War and Reconstruction Era.   From my school days, I've long been a student of history.  But until fairly recently, Markland was a complete unknown to me.   Then I had the opportunity to see and hear the author, Candice Shy Hooper, speak about Markland at a local bookstore.    It was a very enlightening experience. 

Markland was born and grew up in Kentucky, where, as a young boy, he made the acquaintance in the Maysville Academy of "a young man from Georgetown, Ohio, named Hiram Ulysses Grant (later known as Ulysses S. Grant)."  Subsequently, Markland would go on to take on a variety of jobs "--- teacher, steamboatman, lawyer, landlord, delivery agent, [and] government clerk --- before the tragedy of the Civil War created an environment in which his many skills and his virtues of hard work, integrity, and ingenuity could be deployed on a national scale for the most valuable possible cause: saving the Union." 

Indeed, it was the coming of the Civil War through which Ulysses S. Grant and Markland were able to renew their friendship and forge a deep and abiding relationship based on mutual trust and respect.   Markland, as an employee of the U.S. Post Office Department, served as a special agent on attachment with the Union Army, in which capacity he was instrumental in the development of a modernized postal service through which the soldiers in the field could maintain regular contact with their loved ones on the home front --- and vice versa.   The book goes into considerable length to explain how this service was developed, perfected amid the stresses and strains of the war, and made into a success.   For public morale was vital, both among soldiers and communities in the North, in fortifying the national resolve to win the war and preserve the Union. 

Furthermore, services associated with the United States Postal Service (USPS) today, such as postal money orders, postcards, and a system allowing for the efficient, safe conveyance of large packages via the mail, were developed through Markland's wartime work with the Post Office Department.      What is more: it was during the Civil War that the development of numbered addresses in many cities and rural communities made it possible for mails to be delivered directly to the residences of those persons for whom they were intended.   Hitherto, mails would be delivered to a central post office in cities and rural areas, where people in those communities were expected to stop by and pick up their mail themselves.      These are changes that we live with today.

Later, Markland worked with President Grant in breaking the power of the Ku Klux Klan in the South, where it terrorized newly freed African Americans virtually at will from the mid-1860s into the 1870s, denying them their constitutional rights through intimidation, violence, and murder.   

I am so glad that I read Delivered Under Fire because it put me in the know about a truly remarkable, selfless public servant whose contributions in the Civil War helped preserve the Union and reaffirm the country's democratic values as it struggled to extend and broaden the franchise to its citizens of color. 

This is a book I recommend heartily to anyone who seeks to be inspired through the example of a person who served the nation with honor and integrity.  

C'est la Guerre: The Memoir of Capt. James McBrayer Sellers, USMC is an account, taken from a series of oral history interviews recorded during the late 1980s by the son of James McBraver Sellers with Sellers himself, who, though then in his early 90s, maintained a clear recollection of his service in France during World War I as an officer in the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The interviews were subsequently transcribed. Later, after Sellers' death in 1990 at the age of 95, his family uncovered a hitherto hidden cache of wartime letters Sellers had written, which his grandson then combined with the memoir itself. Sellers' grandson later had the finished work subject to extensive editing by 2 reputable historians before having it published.

I found the memoir to be a highly readable and rich account of the wartime (and early post-World War I era) experiences of a very remarkable man. Sellers was a graduate from the University of Chicago (where the earned the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa academic distinction) who enlisted in the USMC in June 1917 and promptly earned an officer's commission. The memoir details Sellers' training at Quantico, his arrival in France with his unit in February 1918 (where the Marines would undergo extensive combat training), and his first scrap with the Germans in the key Battle of Belleau Wood in June 1918, in which he was wounded and would not return to action until late September. Sellers would then go on to see action in the Battles for Blanc Mont Ridge and the Meuse-Argonne as a company commander. He would be cited for bravery on a number of occasions and after the Armistice, Sellers' unit was sent to Germany on occupation duty for several months before returning to the U.S. in August 1919.

C'est la Guerre also has photos of Sellers from the period of his wartime service, as well as photos of Sellers with 2 of his older brothers (both of whom served in France with the U.S. Army) and family in addition to photos of several Marines (officers and enlisted men) with whom Sellers served during the war. All in all, these photos nicely complement the memoir.

I also found that the memoir provided an interesting contrast with the wartime memoir The World War I Memoirs of Don V. Paradis, Gunnery Sergeant, USMC, which I had read in 2013. The former memoir captures the experiences of a Marine officer from Missouri (Sellers) while the latter memoir encapsulated the experience of war on the Western Front as endured by a Marine enlisted man from Detroit (Paradis). 

Sea Child is a cleverly constructed, well-written mystery centered on the efforts of Detective Gordie MacLean of Cape Breton Police Service (CBPS) and his partner Roxanne Albright to resolve the case of the death of a local lobster fisherman, whose body was found aboard his boat in waters far removed from where he was sanctioned to do his fishing. What seemed at first glance to be an accidental death turns out to be murder, which leads both detectives down dark, murky paths on a case that proves to be rich in complexity and fraught with peril. 

AMERICAN LADY is a concise biography of a remarkable woman, Susan Mary Alsop (1918-2004), a descendant of one of the Founding Fathers (John Jay), born in Europe, raised in Argentina, who later became a New York debutante, and by the time she was in her mid-20s, was married to an asthmatic U.S. diplomat (Bill Patten) and living in Paris.

Susan Mary managed to carve out a niche for herself while living in France as a hostess, someone who was well-read in history, literature, and politics, and forged many relationships with many of the powerful and influential people across France, the UK, and the U.S.

Following the death of her husband Bill in February 1960, Sarah Mary would succumb within a year to a charm offensive conducted by an exchange of letters between herself and Joseph Alsop, an old friend who was also one of America's most renowned journalists and a Washington power broker sans pareil. The two would marry in February 1961 and Susan Mary would move into Alsop's residence in Georgetown with her two young children, where she would soon earn a reputation for herself during the Kennedy Administration for hosting "dinner parties that were the epitome of political power and social arrival." Indeed, Susan Mary would remain for the rest of her life a prominent figure in Georgetown society (even after she and Alsop divorced a decade later) among much of the political and literary elite of the country. Furthermore, Susan Mary herself would go on to write a number of books and articles, and live out a full and purposeful life.

This is the kind of biography that can be read within a week. It also has various photos spanning Susan Mary Alsop's life. For anyone interested in reading a biography of a noteworthy person whose life encompassed most of the 20th century, you'll profit from reading American Lady: The Life of Susan Mary Alsop.