When readers think of war novels, Tolstoy's classic, War And Peace often comes to mind. I believe Herman Wouk's, War And Remembrance, is destined to become an all time classic as well. An amazing novel on so many fronts ! ( )

I am very glad that I read (listened to) this sequel to The Winds of War but it didn't quite pack the same punch. I suspect that part of the problem is it is soooo long; even though my attention only flagged once (when the list of people in the Midway battle was given), it was a bit wearing.

Kevin Pariseau was terrific and I am happy that I chose to experience these books in audiobook format. ( )

I started this huge saga as my holiday reading for the South Africa trip, I finished it two months later after isolating for a week with Covid.

It is huge. It is harrowing. It is painstakingly well researched, every unbelievable thing I went and fact checked checked out.

It is the story of World War II, and any attempt to review it becomes in some ways a review of the War. I believe it is impossible for the human mind to fully comprehend the horrors of WWII, but this epic novel tries its best to bring them to life.

Which makes it an exhausting and depressing read.

It's a little contrived and far fetched in places. Wouk needs a viewpoint character, and so Victor Henry must be at every important event of the war that Wouk wishes to write about. It feels excusable, he needs a device to tell his tale. I was not naturally inclined to like Pug Henry, he is a Navel Officer of the old school, a man who finds it hard to express emotion, a distant father, who walks away from his marriage as soon as he can see an honourable route to do so.

It is also easy to dislike Aaron Jastrow. Weak, naive, hiding in his research and his library and his luxuries while the world goes to hell around him. So many times did I want to shake Natalie and say 'just leave him and get out of there!' But he is an educated man of honour, and he does the best he can in the darkest of places, right up until the end.

They are the poles the book hangs between, and are they both in their own way shadows of the author? He is a born Jewish author, he led a secular life for a bit and returned to his faith. He served in the US Navy in the Pacific Theatre in WWII.

So many other stories are drawn between these two men. The most burning for me is Byron and Natalie. Byron, the second child, always in the shade of his golden brother, never able to please his father, fighting in the terrifying dark world of submarines. Natalie, a sophisticated American Jew, who finds herself in the end in the horrors of Auschwitz. What could be a simple love story is dark and complex. And the book ends on a hanging note. Will she return to the easy life of the Henrys in the states, or find her own path with other survivors in the new state of Israel?

The book pulls its punches. It talks so frankly of so many horrible things, but the golden core of sympathetic characters do make it through. Perhaps it is the only way we can keep going after learning of such things. The artificial sprinkling of a little hope is not a very great weakness. ( )

Here in 2022, I can't recall any details about this one. ( )

Here's what I wrote after reading in 1987: "So good that DBA is reading! A story of a civilization at war. Through the naval, American Henry family, story is total of the years proceeding and during WWII. Pug Henry, informal embassary for Franklin Roosevelt is memorable as is his daughter-in-law and her uncle. They, Natalie and Aaron Jastrow, become trapped American Jews in Europe. In the depths of their experience, they gain understanding of their Jewishness. (Write-up also covers Winds of War)." ( )