7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but not the typical Steinbeck, August 4, 2009
I've become a recent Steinbeck fan, specifically for his bare-bones story telling and amazing character development ability. My two personal favorites happen to be the Grapes of Wrath and The Moon is Down (a great read for a concentrated view of why Steinbeck is so well regarded!).
Being a flight enthusiast as well, I thought this would be a happy marriage between a great author and a great hobby, with a touch of 1940s nostalgia. The story starts with a very brief history of the US Air Force, its training program, and its motivation against the war machines of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Being that this book was intended as propoganda, it holds back no punches when describing the ideologies that launched us into this war, and the incredible unified patriotism combined with the army's drive and devotion that created a new branch of the military and type of war in under 2 years. In it's descriptions of the bomber crews of the Air Force, the book also does not hold back from lavishing praise on the parents of the finest soldiers in the country!
The book then follows the training and selection of each member of the crew formulaically, describing their noble and desirable characteristics (both physical and psychological), and offers the reader a glimpse at the rigorous training courses designed to get these new air-crews in the air in under 3 months. Steinbeck also calls out a particular model airman of each chapter to give the reader a human connection within the overly descriptive chapters.
I both enjoyed and thoroughly disliked this book for many of the same reasons. I greatly appreciated the look at the spirit the nation was forced to take during the 1940s. It was incredible to realize the precision and effort that went into training these men. However, this also lended itself to thoroughly redundant phrases and descriptions for each chapter, and left me feeling quite bored, waiting for the end! I also loved the few missions they flew near the end of the book, creating some clasically tense moments that I've seen in other Steinbeck novels. However, these also felt misplaced, as there was no real attachment to the characters who seemed to be thrown in at the last moment to make everything seem more personable.
I do not reccomend this book. If you're interested in WWII flights and training, this might pique your interest, but there are other first-person testimonials or similar stories out there. However, for a great WWII steinbeck read, pick up "The Moon is Down"!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great insight to the selection and training of the newly formed Army Air Force Bombadier Group, August 15, 2010
For the purpose this book was written for, it was extremely insightful. My father served in WWII as an aerial tail gunner in a bombardier group and it was extremely fascinating to get a glimpse into what he went through in terms of selection and training. The book was considered propaganda when it came out, before the term had such a negative connotation. The definition of propaganda is information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause There had been much talk about the mortality rate of a bombardier crew member and the intent of the book was to correct some of the misconception about the death rate, especially in comparison to infantry men. Steinbeck actually spent time going through the entire process of selection and observed the specific training for each of the members of the newly formed Army Air Force Bombardier Group. His hope was that the expose would help family members better understand what their son would be going through, beginning with the psychological and personality assessments that helped determine if the candidate was a good fit for a bombardier group. Steinbeck them observed the training each member would receive once they were selected. The training was intense and he wanted the family members as well as a potential candidate to have an idea of what the program would be like. This is not a novel and was not intended to be a novel. One insightful piece that Steinbeck mentioned was that even as he was writing this, things in the war were changing so rapidly that some of the information would already be outdated by the time it got to print. He still felt it was important to proceed. A very informative book and Steinbeck's writing style takes something that could have been dry reading and adds the human element.
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