What is another word for boring? I just looked it up and some of them that fit
this book are tedious, dull, mind-numbing, wearisome, uninspiring and
tiresome. Can you see how much I enjoyed
this book? I almost stopped reading it
in the middle and thought about writing in my review that I just couldn't read
on. When I reached page 100 and knew I
had 531 pages to go it felt like I was fighting an uphill battle. The thing is this book had so much potential
to become something interesting and to have a plot, but then it would falter.
The book is mostly about the behind-the-scenes of the
military during WWII. It focused on the
AFORAD army base in Ocanara, Florida and mostly centers around the general of
the base. I'm not sure what AFORAD
stands for, something about the Air Force Operations, it doesn't really
exist. The book starts out on a flight
back to Ocarana with lots of characters, almost too many to keep track of. I couldn't keep one apart from the other,
except the one woman, Lieutenant Turck.
As they come in to land they almost run into another plane that is
landing at the same time. This other plane
happens to be flown by an African-American bomber group coming to the AFORAD
base as an experiment in integration. Unfortunately one of the officers from
the original plane gets upset and hits the African-American pilot. Because of this incident a lot of racial
problems occur, but it doesn't really go anywhere and there really isn't a
resolution; it just kind of hangs there in the background. If this book centered on the racial tension
in the army (the army didn't officially discriminate against black soldiers,
but segregation was still culturally normal) it would have made for an
interesting story. Instead it was just like a teaser. The book would talk about it and then switch
gears and focus on something else.
There is also talk of a big celebration taking place on Saturday- I think it's to celebrate the general's
birthday. I should take this time to let
you know that this book happens over three days. That's right, three days . Thursday goes from page 1 to 88, Friday from
page 89 to 286 and Saturday from 287 to 631.
Those are some long days. And
those days are spent in meeting after meeting with so many different characters
you easily lose track of which officer is which and which rank is which. I think that if someone had served in the
military, especially during this time period, then they might find it
interesting to read about all the meetings they had and all the conversations
that took place. Unfortunately, I have
never served in the military or have a real knowledge of how military life is
and so I found it dull.
As the General's birthday celebration approaches there is
some more racial tension when the African-American
bomber group decides to go to the Officer's Club and they are not welcomed
in. They get arrested and they have to
figure out how to cover it all up because some of the leaders in Washington,
D.C. aren't happy. Thus follows more
meetings to figure out what to do and who was there when it happened and what their
stories are, and blah, blah, blah. Admit
it you're even bored just reading my review, aren't you.
After the celebration commences there are some guys who jump
from the planes to make a big show. A
group of officers are watching close by so they can write about it and see one
of the soldiers break both his legs when he lands. Then they notice about seven more soldiers
land in a lake. They weren't wearing life
jackets and so they are assumed to have drowned. Of course, we never find out if they were
drowned and who was responsible for the soldiers not wearing life vests because
this book is all about not having any resolution.
There was one character who I enjoyed whenever he would come
up, which was often. His name was
Captain Nathaniel Hicks. He worked in
the Public Relations Department and was all around a good guy. He lived with two other officers, one a
devoted husband and one a lady's man.
Captain Hicks was married with children and he talks about in the book
how he would never be tempted to cheat on his wife because he loved her and it
just felt wrong. Unfortunately, he
doesn't follow this and at the end of the book ends up sleeping with Lieutenant
Turck (from the airplane). I was so
disappointed. He is then called up and
ordered to go back to New York (where is wife and kids live) to work on a big
project for the General. I guess he gets
what he deserves.
All in all, I'd say stay away from this one. Of course, I'm sure at this point I don't
need to tell you that.
We could not disagree more about a novel. I consider this Cozzens' best. As an anatomy of an organisation, this set a stiff precedent; as an evocation of time and place, this epitomises Cozzens' reputation for accuracy. The remarkable thing is how little combat has to play in the narrative. This is really about how a cross sections of American thought and felt about their culture at a peculiarly relevant time. I admire The Just and the Unjust and By Love Possessed; but this is definitive.
ReplyDeleteMy general feeling is tat reviewers ought to concentrate on a book's strengths, not its weaknesses, especially in the case of prize-winners. The book won a prestigious prize, and it is helpful of reviewers to explain why.
ReplyDeleteI apologise for going on about this, especially since there is little chance of your reading it or of appreciating my comments if you do. But we disagree so thoroughly that I cannot resist telling you why.
ReplyDeleteWhat you find boring beyond description, I find compelling, and, as a rule, I have difficulty with combat novels like James Jones'. And when you say, elsewhere, that you like character novels, I think, So do I; that is why I find Guard of Honor compelling. Cozzens' pre-eminence is as a social novelist, portraying men and women in their professional lives. I am less drawn to this than I was; but it is very much part of a doctoral dissertation I wrote some years ago. Arthur Hailey popularised the form with Airport and Hotel; Cozzens is less sensational. His wartime job, incidentally, was to write information leaflets, investing both Nathaniel Hicks and James Edsell with autobiographical substance.
For me, the novel demonstrates how people struggle in the face of impossible obstacles. General Beal is not only young, he is talented and popular and deserves to succeed in this key wartime role. The complications that beset him are not of his making, but he does the best he can. This, I take it, is central to Cozzens' running theme. This is the significance of Colonel Ross' place in the novel. A magistrate by profession, he symbolises the culture's professional heartbeat and its struggle against the odds.
I have always thought Cozzens is a liberal inspite of himself. He espouses a liberal humanist tolerance, if his legal protagonists may be taken to be authorial.
You admit to not being a literary critic, but you set yourself the task of reading novels celebrated by the literary community. My view is that novels are to be understood, not judged, as they are by most newspaper reviewers. In college we would marvel at our teachers' ability to understand to the most minute details the most complicated of novels. I have always aspired to that kind of understanding, stopping short of asking myself, "Do I like this?" Understanding is my abiding objective. Thank you very much for reading this. I applaud your reading so many of the culture's prizewinners.