I wanted to know your opinion on it, or anyone who was alive during that time who has read it. I am a Millennial borne to a Silent Generation father who has since passed. I offered him the book and he tried a little, then it sat next to his armchair for half a decade.
My father was said to have the memory of an elephant. He was small, so he was a point man. He went into foxholes first. He let me in on some tragic moments later in his life but never talked about emotion. I guess I just want an earpiece to connect with him on that hill of memories he died with untapped.
More generally, how has war affected your families? My paternal grandfather was in WWII in the Bataan March. But he was a horrible excuse of a man and the wartime experience didn’t make that happen; he was rotten from the start. My dad was his oldest. Many of my uncles were able to get out of the draft due to college and being young, except one on my mother’s side.
A little over a week ago, I picked up my first Hemingway novel—The Sun Also Rises. Well, the prose of it all just floored me! I fell in love with its sparseness, yet richly textured scenes. Hemingway reminds me a lot of Tim O'Brien in that way. Are there any authors that you can think of that you've read that have a similar style of writing in vain of Hemingway or O'Brien? I'd love any recommendations to that effect.
