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A review by zzzreads
Ernie's War: The Best of Ernie Pyle's World War II Dispatches by Ernie Pyle
5.0
“One world was a beautiful dream and the other a horrible nightmare, and I was still a little bit in each of them. As I lay on the straw in the darkness they became mixed up, and I was confused and not quite sure which was which.”
The trouble with war literature is that you want to read the experiences of those who went through the conflict, but those who are engaged in war often don’t have the literary skill to articulate what they went through. You can have a so-so memoir that is written by someone who was fortunate enough to go through hell and make it out alive, or you can have a book that is written well by someone who perhaps heard it from someone else or researched it decades after the events concluded. The only exception to this rule that comes to mind is Eugene Sledge’s masterful “With the Old Breed”. What was so enthralling about “Ernie’s War” is that it broke this rule, giving readers a remarkable account of the European, Mediterranean, and Pacific theaters of the Second World War. It blew me away.
Pyle’s dispatches don’t read as dry accounts of military campaigns, but intimate portrayals of life in war. His work is astoundingly honest. There is no oorah, flag-waving, God-bless-America patriotism, except for when describing scenes that warrant it. He doesn’t pretend that the men fighting and dying around him are doing it for any reason other than to survive. I felt as though I was reading a diary or confessional, not a work of journalism. When Pyle is scared, he talks about how scared he is. When he is weary and worn down from living in the midst of death on a daily basis, he tells you that. Pyle was in the United Kingdom, North Africa, Italy, France, and Japan. After reaching his limit in France, he decides to go home. His reason for doing so is simple and poignant: “I do hate terribly to leave right now, but I have given out. I’ve been immersed in it too long. My spirit is wobbly and my mind is confused. The hurt has finally become too great”.
His job and aim was to give Americans back home an accurate portrayal of the trials that plagued those overseas. He achieved that and more. Pyle was from Indiana and had a distinct folksy prose. Some may find that to be an inappropriate juxtaposition to the content. But I loved it. My favorite example being when he describes a German general surrendering as “sourpuss”. It is likely this style is what contributed to his success and celebrity status in the States, which Pyle himself hated.
Ernie Pyle’s writing is a must-read for anyone interested in World War II. His “worm’s-eye view” of the war, focusing on individual experiences rather than the greater conflict, paints an intimate picture of what the lives of those who served were like. I read history to be transported back to a time that I don’t know. Reading Pyle’s descriptions of interactions with soldiers, the names and hometowns of whom he often gives, made the war so much more real in my mind. I’m sure that anyone else who reads it will have the same experience.
The trouble with war literature is that you want to read the experiences of those who went through the conflict, but those who are engaged in war often don’t have the literary skill to articulate what they went through. You can have a so-so memoir that is written by someone who was fortunate enough to go through hell and make it out alive, or you can have a book that is written well by someone who perhaps heard it from someone else or researched it decades after the events concluded. The only exception to this rule that comes to mind is Eugene Sledge’s masterful “With the Old Breed”. What was so enthralling about “Ernie’s War” is that it broke this rule, giving readers a remarkable account of the European, Mediterranean, and Pacific theaters of the Second World War. It blew me away.
Pyle’s dispatches don’t read as dry accounts of military campaigns, but intimate portrayals of life in war. His work is astoundingly honest. There is no oorah, flag-waving, God-bless-America patriotism, except for when describing scenes that warrant it. He doesn’t pretend that the men fighting and dying around him are doing it for any reason other than to survive. I felt as though I was reading a diary or confessional, not a work of journalism. When Pyle is scared, he talks about how scared he is. When he is weary and worn down from living in the midst of death on a daily basis, he tells you that. Pyle was in the United Kingdom, North Africa, Italy, France, and Japan. After reaching his limit in France, he decides to go home. His reason for doing so is simple and poignant: “I do hate terribly to leave right now, but I have given out. I’ve been immersed in it too long. My spirit is wobbly and my mind is confused. The hurt has finally become too great”.
His job and aim was to give Americans back home an accurate portrayal of the trials that plagued those overseas. He achieved that and more. Pyle was from Indiana and had a distinct folksy prose. Some may find that to be an inappropriate juxtaposition to the content. But I loved it. My favorite example being when he describes a German general surrendering as “sourpuss”. It is likely this style is what contributed to his success and celebrity status in the States, which Pyle himself hated.
Ernie Pyle’s writing is a must-read for anyone interested in World War II. His “worm’s-eye view” of the war, focusing on individual experiences rather than the greater conflict, paints an intimate picture of what the lives of those who served were like. I read history to be transported back to a time that I don’t know. Reading Pyle’s descriptions of interactions with soldiers, the names and hometowns of whom he often gives, made the war so much more real in my mind. I’m sure that anyone else who reads it will have the same experience.