Sunday, February 05, 2023

World War II Fiction: A Partial List

My father, born in 1930, was an avid reader of fiction about World War II. Too young to participate in the war himself, I suppose this was his way of experiencing it vicariously. 

Many of the titles listed below were stored in boxes in our attic during my childhood. The rest are books I picked up here and there as an adult.  They provided me with many hours of exciting reading. 
  • The Caine Mutiny (Wouk) - one of my all-time favorites of any genre
  • Once An Eagle (Myrer)
  • Battle Cry (Uris) - I've lost track of how many times I've read it
  • The Winds of War (Wouk; a trilogy)
  • Catch-22 (Heller)
  • The Young Lions (Shaw) 
  • From Here to Eternity (Jones)
  • The Naked and the Dead (Mailer)
  • Von Ryan's Express (Westheimer)
  • King Rat (Clavell)
  • The Cruel Sea (Monserrat)
  • Landfall (Shute)
  • The Chequer Board (Shute)
  • The Good Shepherd (Forrester)
  • Tales of the South Pacific (Michener)
  • The Big War (Myrer) - I may re-read this one; I scarcely recall anything about it.
  • Don't Go Near the Water (Brinkley) - a humorous treatment
  • Where Eagles Dare (Maclean) 
  • Eye of the Needle (Follett)
  • Jackdaws (Follett)
In several cases (Wouk, Uris, Shaw, Follett) the books listed above set me on a longer-term effort to read the author's other work that has been quite rewarding. Many of these novels became films. But don't judge these books by the movies.


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