Four Books About War: The Red Badge of Courage, A Walk In The Sun, All Quiet on the Western Front and The Bridge Over The River Kwai

There are virtually no women in these books. They are books about men and war. War changes a man’s priorities, his judgment, his morality.  War educes from men an array of manly virtues. Men at war demonstrate bravery, loyalty and heroism. They carry heavy loads and march long distances.   They defend, protect, fight, kill, sacrifice, suffer and, in many cases, die.  

Some men, like Henry Fleming in The Red Badge of Courage ask, Will I be brave enough? Will I be scared? Will I cut and run?  Others like Sergeant Porter, A Walk In The Sun, unquestioningly give their all but crack under pressure.  Still others, like some of Sergeant Porter's soldiers, handle the pressure with a cynical humor and optimism.  They wise-crack, tease and talk about home knowing as they do that their walk in the sun may be their last.

 German soldiers in All Quiet on the Western Front face the chaos head on.  This book, dark and hopeless in contrast to  A Walk In The Sun, is graphic in its depiction of death, mangled bodies, amputations, blood and pain. Paul Baumer, the young soldier protagonist in this tale, does not so much question his courage and manliness as he questions war, its purpose and his reason for being there. 

The most artful story-telling is found in The Bridge Over the River Kwai.  British POWs in WWII are forced to build a bridge as part of the Burma-Siam railway.  It's all for the “great empire,” the enemy. Colonel Nicholson will tolerate nothing short of obedience to the law and strict adherence to a gentleman’s code of honor. Colonel Nicholson never weakens and never gives less than one hundred percent. Neither do Warden, Joyce and Shears in Force 316.  Perversely for all, obedience and honor lead to disaster.  Warden, who took the “only line of conduct possible,” destroys his allies;  Nicholson, who carried out orders, saves the enemy’s bridge.  War stands reality on its head. 

The weakest of these four novels was The Red Badge of Courage which I found to move slowly without much plot.  I was never quite sure what the main character, Henry Fleming, was all about.  The other three novels, not necessarily with much more plot, were more satisfying in their message and drew me into the dilemma and plight of the men.  I have seen none of the movies associated with any of the books and I'm not eager to see any of them because I liked the books.  

Reading History #10 Fait Accompli

The first link below will take you to my most recent video which has been quite a long time in the making.  As you will see, I have finished Will Durant's eleven volume The Story of Civilization (which I variously and erroneously refer to as The History of Civilization)!   

Reading History #10 - YouTube

The next few links are to my most recent book commentaries which have also been a long time in the making.  Alas, I don't think I'll come close to reading 100 books this year, 2023, one of my goals, but I am catching up with a lot of fiction which has been sitting idly on our home library shelves.

Shelf Life: The Next Pope by Edward Pentin (amyshelflife.blogspot.com)

Shelf Life: Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver (amyshelflife.blogspot.com)

Shelf Life: Four Books About War: The Red Badge of Courage, A Walk In The Sun, All Quiet on the Western Front and The Bridge Over The River Kwai (amyshelflife.blogspot.com)

The Next Pope by Edward Pentin

 

Nineteen cardinals who might be pope are profiled in this lengthy book which is a thoroughly researched study including copious footnotes and pleasant, full-page color photos of each candidate.  These “leading candidates” as the subtitle refers to them represent four continents. 

There are three from Africa (Cardinals Napier, Sarah and Turkson), two from Asia (Cardinals Ranjith and Tagle), three from North America (Cardinals Burke, O’Malley and Ouellet) and the remaining 11 are from Europe with just over half that representation belonging to the Italians (Cardinals Bagnasco, Parolin, Piacenza, Ravasi, Scola and Zuppi).  The other European countries represented are the Czech Republic (Cardinal Duka), the Netherlands (Cardinal Eijk), Germany(Cardinal Muller), Erdo (Hungary) and Austria (Cardinal Schonbrun). 

This book offers insight into the minds of men who have devoted themselves to the Church and who operate at high levels within an ossified and unwieldy bureaucracy (if that’s not redundant).  They range from noble-born to the son of a communist truck driver.  They might be a scholarly heavyweight or an intellectual lightweight.  They may preside over dancing at the altar or they may express concern over any variation in the liturgy.  They may behave with modest decorum as regards their public position while others clearly enjoy the spotlight.  Some of the few common points among them are age---the youngest is approaching 70 and the oldest is 82--a belief in the real presence and the grave evil of abortion. 

So thoroughly did I become drawn in to the other-worldly world of these cardinals that I was compelled to put other reading aside until I had finished Mr. Pentin’s book.  What I had anticipated would be a dry, encyclopedic kind of coverage was anything but.  Edward Pentin allowed the cardinals to speak for themselves and he arranged the material by topics making it easy to jump in at any point or to easily access information about each cardinal. 

I highly recommend this book.

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What follows are some of my observations based on mere speculation and first impressions, perhaps frivolous.  I also made my own list of cardinal favorites. 

Cardinal Tagle from the Philippines comes in dead last as a promising future pope. He is dubbed the “Asian Francis” and appears to have not much in his head in the way of brains.  As disastrous as Tagle, would be Ravasi, Zuppi, Schonbrun or Parolin. Ravasi is the cardinal who arranged the Vatican costumes for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York back in 2018.  Zuppi finds his inspiration in the Sant’Egidio community.  Parolin is the Vatican Secretary of State, politician par excellence, very involved in the current China policy of the Vatican.  Cardinal Schonbrun is some version of a soft, accommodate-the-culture Catholic on most issues.  Cardinals Turkson and Napier were surprisingly undynamic. 

As for our North American cardinals, I fear none are destined for the Chair of Peter simply because they don’t speak enough languages!  Cardinal O’Malley might be described as fluent in Spanish and naturally Cardinal Ouellet would speak French. But none of our three North Americans is mentioned as having Italian among their languages or fluency in anything other than their native tongue.  Meanwhile, their brother cardinals across the pond are described as fluent in anywhere from 5 to 10 languages.  Cardinal Ranjith is said to command English, Hebrew, Sinhalese and everything in between, a total of 11 languages! 

Also, by virtue of our history, our North American cardinals do not deal with the range of problems that the other cardinals face---the legacies of communism and colonialism, proximity of Muslim countries, poverty and health epidemics such as AIDS or malaria, polygamy, the consequences of underdevelopment such as lack of transportation, potable water and so on.   Here in North America, we are confronted with neither the atheism of the Czech Republic nor (sterile, secular Canada and even the USA aside for a moment) the depth of secularism in the Netherlands where less than 5% of self-proclaimed Catholics attend mass. We increasingly feel our religious freedoms threatened, but we are not, as in Sri Lanka, a Catholic minority in a predominantly Buddhist culture. 

Most unusual were the impressions I took away of German Cardinal Muller and the American Cardinal Burke.  Both cardinals, highly moral and exceedingly competent men, are frequently interviewed on EWTN when the more traditional Catholic perspective is wanted.  They sound forth eloquently on many issues about which it’s obvious that they’ve thought deeply.  When Cardinal Burke speaks one can almost feel the intellect and faith at work. Yet, given the international character of the papacy, Cardinal Burke seems so solidly American and Midwestern that he is more logically suited to remaining on our national stage. 

Cardinal Muller is a man who appears to exist almost in the ether. His reasoned thinking and moderated tone, along with a mind that seems uncompromisingly bent on precision of thought and expression are traits present to such an extent that it’s difficult to see the Cardinal engaged in everyday problem solving or meet-the-press-moments that must be required of a political figure such as the Vicar of Rome.

Here then is my lineup.  Edward Pentin writes that Cardinal Scola was the “bookies’ favorite at the 2013 conclave” …but “not enough Italian cardinals could unite around him.” In no particular order, my lineup also includes Cardinal Scola as well as Italian Cardinals Piacenza and Bagnasco, Dutch Cardinal Eijk, Hungarian Cardinal Erdo,  African Cardinal Sarah, and Asian Cardinal Ranjith.  These cardinals impressed me as men capable of governing the bureaucratic Church as more than mere administrators or politicians by bringing their depth of mind and character to the office.     

 

Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver

This is a masculine book for those who love the legal profession. The plot is pretty straightforward. An army lieutenant is on trial for murdering the man who is alleged to have raped his wife.   The action unfolds in the remote reaches of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during the quieter, gentler 1950s.

Three quarters of the way into the novel, I finally came to the realization that this was not a murder mystery, but a narrative-disguised-as-novel about how a lawyer defends his client.  The title just as easily might have been Anatomy of a Murder Trial.

No stone is left unturned.  We read how a defense attorney gets into the head of his client, how he constructs and tests his line of argument, how he might pour over old law journals or burn the midnight oil in mock cross-examinations with a buddy, how he plays the jury, the judge and the opposing attorney.   The trial is recounted in detail right down to and including the dialogue for the swearing-in of each witness.   

Our main character is former District Attorney Paul Biegler now sole practicing attorney of his own firm. For reasons I never figured out he goes by the nickname of Polly.  Polly is a man’s man, a bachelor who loves to fish, smoke, have a drink and practice law.  He likes women, but romance in the book is a sideline. 

The language and characters are a little dated but that made the reading more fun I thought.  For example, the psychiatrist for the defense sports a crew cut. The local townspeople bring “bag lunches” to the courtroom. Maida the secretary is just that, a secretary to whom Polly occasionally delivers a put-down or a tap on the butt.  She, in turn, says things like “Not on your life, Boss” or “You’ll do it, Boss.” 

Sprinkled about are references to an “innocent choirboy,” “two altar boys in the wake of a priest” and feeling “virtuous, like a boy scout.”  Then again, Polly admits to telling a “big whopper.” Later, it’s a boxing metaphor as Polly recounts how the prosecuting attorney “looked at me keenly, like a smart boxer stung in the first round….”  Not to be outdone, our Polly returns fire and says, “…I saw that I had scored with a sneak right.”  

Robert Traver, a pseudonym for John D. Voelker was himself a State Supreme Court Justice in Michigan.  He looks vaguely like John Wayne in some of his photos. Voelker as Traver gives the reader plenty to think about.  He includes a bit of philosophizing about life’s big issues, he paints a vivid picture of the natural beauty of the Upper Peninsula as well as of rural, small-town culture and he does a good job portraying the male characters.  However, I found his depictions of women to be little more than shallow caricatures.  Except for that, and the mini-romance which I found rather unimaginatively woven in, everything else about the book made it a good read.   

Reading History Video No. 9

February Ice Storm in Texas

 

Below is my latest video chat.  Please tune in to catch up on why three months have elapsed since my last video!  

Amy shelflife reading history blog - YouTube