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I just finished reading Now the Hell Will Start by Brendan Koerner. This is the story of a black GI during World War II named Herman Perry who was shipped off to Burma to build the boondoggle Ledo Road under deplorable conditions, only to shoot and kill an unarmed white officer, flee into the jungle, start a family with the chief’s daughter of a local headhunting tribe, only to eventually be recaptured and eventually executed by the U.S. military.
I thought this was a good book. It was definitely well-researched and certainly a compelling story. But sometimes I found myself getting a little bored, as Koerner went into detail about the history of the Ledo Road and some other mini-tangents. I recognize that it’s important to give background, but it seemed like overkill in some places.
I do feel that I learned a lot about a side of World War II that isn’t often brought to light. I hadn’t realized that the number of blacks who served during the war, and the conditions they worked under were deplorable in Burma. And it must have been a bitter pill to swallow to be expected to serve in the military and fight for a country that viewed them as second class citizens.
However, in some places in the book, it seemed to me that Perry is portrayed as almost martyr-like which seems unfair to his victim. The officer didn’t sound like the nicest guy around, but he was unarmed when he was shot. I mean, why not track down the slain officer’s family and see how their lives were also affected by this series of tragic events just to get their side of the story too?
Anyhow, still reading For the Love of Animals. I’m currently reading about how animals were often tried like humans in courts as recently as the 18th century. The author cites a number of cases involving uh, intimate fraternization between animals and humans. In some cases the punishment was death (for the person and the animal)! (And yet apparently people still did it - Whoah Nelly!) There were of course cases where people were wrongly accused, reminiscent of the witch hunt days, so it’s hard to say how many of these cases were legit. Anyhow, it’s all quite disturbing!
I’ve started another book called Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles. It’s about this old guy stuck in an airport, writing an angry letter to the airline as he’s about to miss his daughter’s wedding – then he starts reminiscing about his life – the mistakes he’s made, the joyful moments, etc. It’s actually quite witty and it’s really short too so I’m going to whip through this baby.
Well, I haven’t made a ton of progress on For the Love of Animals, but it’s not because it isn’t a quality book. Right now, it’s a little tough for me to take in large doses because the author, Kathryn Shevelow is setting up how the animal protection movement began back a few hundred years ago in England. So she goes into detail about how animals were treated back then. And it’s not pretty. Take the ’sport’ of cock tossing. This involved tying a bird to a rope and staking the rope, then throwing rocks at the bird until it was dead. Hmm, sounds like oodles of fun! So like I said, I read this book in small doses for now.
In the interim, I’ve started another book called Now the Hell Will Start: One Soldier’s Flight From the Greatest Manhunt of World War II by Brendan Koerner. I know, I know, I’m all about the happy books…
So this book is the true story of a black GI during World War II who endures the injustice of serving America in the army while being treated as a second class citizen, and then ends up killing an unarmed white officer during his grueling tour in Burma. He disappears into the jungle and ends up living amongst a tribe of headhunters and marrying the chief’s daughter (really!) Then he gets caught. This has been a good read – I have about 100 more pages to go. Although I’d hesitate to call it the greatest manhunt of World War II – I mean…really? What about the uh, Nazis? Or the Japanese? Just a thought….
So I’m still working on “Waiting” and frankly I’m still not lovin’ it. Which is really affecting my ability to get the damn thing READ. Yet I persevere, solely for the sake of the blizzard. In the meantime, I’ve started my ‘wildcard’ book: For the Love of Animals: The Rise of the Animal Protection Movement by Kathryn Shevelow. I haven’t gotten too far but I fear that tears may be shed as I delve into this one. Actually, I fear that tears may be shed if I don’t hurry up and finish Waiting also.
In other developments, I received my copy of Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins from Bookmooch (gasp, only 146 copies available!!) This is a novelization of the Biblical book of revelation, and the first book in a series popular amongst the Christian folk of this country. The person I mooched it from kindly offered to send additional books from the series – I politely declined. This will fulfil the ‘controversial’ book requirement for the blizzard. Once I finish it, I’ll let you know my take on why it’s so controversial.
I’m really quite curious to find out how it ends. I mean, do all of us non-believers really burn in the eternal fires of hell? Get out o’ here! And how do Catholics and Mormons fit into this whole deal? Not to mention the Hindus and the Buddhists and Tom Cruise? And how much does that little Jesus fish on your car help your chances of eternal salvation? Because that might be a sacrifice I’m willing to make….
