I'm very glad I took the chance and reread. I'm also very glad I listened to about half of this on an audiobook narrated by James Franco. Before Franco, I couldn't get the right "voice" going in my head. My narrator was too smart-alecky. Franco's narrator is resigned/depressed, not a smart alec. Franco is right.
The plot of the book--jumping in time with absurd elements--fits perfectly with the theme of the book -- that war (and perhaps life) is absurd. That's what I remembered. What I didn't remember was how moving many sections of the book are. The Dresden scenes . . . the scenes of loneliness and failure to connect even with close relations, children and spouses. The simple facts are also moving -- more dead in Dresden than in Hiroshima. A pointless attack. Certain things irritated me, particularly the "so it goes," refrain, but there's so much to admire.
Death train to prison camp. . . Out of prison camp to Dresden . . .
Edgar Derby, later executed for stealing a teapot, in letter to his wife: "We are leaving for Dresden. Don't worry. It will never be bombed. It is an open city." Dresden as a miracle city, still beautiful and functioning, amidst the horror of WWII. Compared to Oz. . . . Innocent girls in shower room . . . after the bombing, a moonscape "absolutely everybody in the city was supposed to be dead . . . and that anybody that moved in it represented a flaw in the design. There were to be no moon men at all."
Americans taken to an inn. Innkeeper brings them to stable: "Good night, Americans," he said in German. "Sleep well." . . . Page 237--Truman's explanation to Americans about the A-bomb. Remarkable document . . .
"Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise . . . No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their better."
"there in the hospital, Billy was having an adventure very common among people without power in time of war: He was trying to prove to a willfully deaf and blind enemy that he was interesting to hear and see."
Now, back to Siberia for Part IV
The plot of the book--jumping in time with absurd elements--fits perfectly with the theme of the book -- that war (and perhaps life) is absurd. That's what I remembered. What I didn't remember was how moving many sections of the book are. The Dresden scenes . . . the scenes of loneliness and failure to connect even with close relations, children and spouses. The simple facts are also moving -- more dead in Dresden than in Hiroshima. A pointless attack. Certain things irritated me, particularly the "so it goes," refrain, but there's so much to admire.
Death train to prison camp. . . Out of prison camp to Dresden . . .
Edgar Derby, later executed for stealing a teapot, in letter to his wife: "We are leaving for Dresden. Don't worry. It will never be bombed. It is an open city." Dresden as a miracle city, still beautiful and functioning, amidst the horror of WWII. Compared to Oz. . . . Innocent girls in shower room . . . after the bombing, a moonscape "absolutely everybody in the city was supposed to be dead . . . and that anybody that moved in it represented a flaw in the design. There were to be no moon men at all."
Americans taken to an inn. Innkeeper brings them to stable: "Good night, Americans," he said in German. "Sleep well." . . . Page 237--Truman's explanation to Americans about the A-bomb. Remarkable document . . .
"Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise . . . No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their better."
"there in the hospital, Billy was having an adventure very common among people without power in time of war: He was trying to prove to a willfully deaf and blind enemy that he was interesting to hear and see."
Now, back to Siberia for Part IV
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