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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Timeless Classic,
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This review is from: Cohassett Beach Chronicles: World War II in the Pacific Northwest (Hardcover)
Cohassett Beach Chronicles looks inside the daily lives of people living out World War II on the South Beach, that is, Westport and Grayland, Washington. Written as a series of weekly articles for the Aberdeen Daily World newspaper, author Kathy Hogan describes life spelled out through interaction with the locals, many of whom gave up their beach homes to house the expanding military presence. She describes life with gas and food rationing, shared and bartered bounty of home gardens and the sea. She describes the inanity of military rules and order that won't allow troops to eat as the locals do from the bountiful clam, crab, and salmon catch; surviving instead on detested C-rations from cans imported from other areas. This is a must read for anyone with an interest in Westport and Grayland, or World War II history buffs.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderfully nostalgic slice of the old Northwest,
By
This review is from: Cohassett Beach Chronicles: World War II in the Pacific Northwest (Paperback)
Remarkable for almost entirely ignoring the ongoing war, focusing instead almost exclusively on local doings (from Westport to Grayland). Her gently self-deprecating accounts of her various Victory Garden fiascos are alone worth the price of the book. I spent my childhood in Aberdeen in the '50s (from 5 to 13) and may even have met Kathy Hogan (her face, in the one picture in the book that shows it, is hauntingly familiar).
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mostly gems in this kitchen sink,
By A Customer
This review is from: Cohassett Beach Chronicles: World War II in the Pacific Northwest (Hardcover)
If you are a Grays Harborite of past or present and have an interest in World War II, this is definitely a book for you. The book also has some fascinating revelations about the curious interactions that occur when military culture collides with civilian culture. Though happily there was no foreign occupation as such, our Pacific beaches were taken over by the gentle and the wild - a crazy assortment of young men from all across the U.S.A. As the author poignantly observes, many were indulging in what simple pleasures remained before going off to war and possible oblivion.Kathy Hogan was an extraordinarily talented woman and her gift for writing as revealed in "The Kitchen Critic" suggests she could have done great things. She balances a city-bred sophistication with a storytelling talent honed by a keen ear for dialog and an eagle eye for local color which, for those who know the Harbor, is basic gray. (But what a splendid gray it is!) Cohassett Beach Chronicles is truly an endearing collection of homefront yarns, whether about rationing, billeting troops or topics as perennial as weather and wildlife. But despite her intellect and breeding, Hogan was not a woman ahead of her time. She is at her best when writing about the funny folks in the neighborhood and their uniformed guests. She can be forgiven for her mumblings about Eleanor Roosevelt's activism (which echo many of the criticisms towards Hillary Clinton), but it is embarrassing to read her racist ramblings about Japanese and Japanese-Americans. She shows us the pervasiveness of hatred and ignorance of Japan at that time, even among those citizens you'd think would have known better. Granted, few readers of the Grays Harbor Post who had boys fighting in the South Pacific could be bothered with the notion that Japan has a highly developed civilization, but it is a fact and a plain fact at that. Only writers with true pluck would have acknowledged it in those days. The editors provide the reader with a marginal chronology for each month of the war. Occasionally Hogan's racism is parroted even here, though I want to think this is more a sin of carelessness than design. For example, the entry for November 1942 reads: "U.S. air force bombs Japs daily on Aleutian Kiska." Many will agree that "Jap" these days is a racial epithet regardless of how conveniently short it might be. "Japanese" is the term to use now. I am an ex-Harborite and have been living in Japan for almost 20 years now. There is a great deal of affection for things American here and I have spent the happiest years of life in this country. The war is long over. In this borderless age the thoughtless use of "Jap" is more inappropriate than ever. My other beef with this book is that photos don't have captions (and photo acknowledgements at the back of the book aren't all that helpful). Yes, some of the pictures are pretty obvious and require no explanation. And yes, a picture may be worth a thousand words. But Hogan wrote for a newspaper, after all. When have newspaper photos not had captions? But these are minor complaints. Despite the one problem with the chronologies, the editors did well by providing them. A useful glossary is also included which tells the book's reader what few of Hogan's original newspaper readers needed to have explained - such as who Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink was (an opera singer who was "a mountain of a woman," says the glossary). The fine illustrations by Lucy Hart render the essence of Grays Harbor flora and fauna and put a lump in this expatriate's throat. All in all, this is a fun read - and an essential addition to the library of anyone interested in the history of the Pacific Northwest, particularly where that history coincides with one long and bloody nightmare that consumed the world six short decades ago.
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