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79 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Should Be Required Reading For All Returning War Vets!, June 19, 2008
This review is from: Easy Company Soldier: The Legendary Battles of a Sergeant from World War II's "Band of Brothers" (Hardcover)
Don Malarkey offers yet another heart-felt memoir from those brave Band of Brothers, Easy Company, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment. Malarkey writes deep from the heart on every page of this gripping account of his life. From humble beginnings growing up in Astoria, Washington to attending the University of Oregon, Malarkey beautifully describes the people, places, and occurrences that had the most influence on his life. Like the memoirs of Winters, Guarnere and Heffron, the bulk of the book's pages are devoted the exploits of Easy Company. Malarkey does not stray far from the chronological events of Stephen Ambrose's book and HBO mini-series; however, he delves deeper into his own emotions and philosophical questions than his predecessors. Rather than explaining events, Malarkey paints a human face on the people who participated in them. As Malarkey clearly explains in the book's final pages, the attention brought upon him and his Easy Company comrades by both the book and film coupled with a string of Easy Company reunions, has been tremendously therapeutic in overcoming over four decades of suppressed post traumatic stress and survivor's guilt. This memoir tells more than just the story of Don Malarkey's life; writing it undoubtedly helped Don Malarkey understand the meaning of his own life, an undertaking better than any high-priced therapist could offer.
Most of us probably know Don Malarkey by the character portrayed by actor Scott Grimes in the popular HBO mini-series. Images of the carefree mischievous red-haired Irish kid from Washington State, who foolishly risked his own life to retrieve a German Lugar, and efforts to keep a stolen motorcycle with side-car hidden from the much hated Captain Sobel, immediately come to mind. These events were true. Yet Malarkey takes his readers into the turbulent emotions of a young man who, on the surface enjoyed English literature, recited poetry from memory, yet inwardly was forever changed by his experiences in combat. The film only scratched the surface of Don Malarkey; the book takes us to the inner depths.
The awkward scene where Grimes goes to pick up his uniforms from the British laundress, and silently pays for all the bundles belonging to his dead comrades killed in Normandy, is what this book is all about. Malarkey took the deaths of all his fellow Easy Company men hard, but none harder that the death of his closest friend, Warren "Skip" Muck. After Skip's death, Malarkey exchanged letters with Skip's fiance promising to visit her after the war, but couldn't bring himself to keep that promise. When she showed up at an Easy Company reunion in the mid-1990s, Malarkey embraced her and allowed fifty years worth of tears to flow.
The film showed Malarkey fidgeting with his coveted Lugar in the frozen woods outside Bastogne, but could not adequately convey that Malarkey was a hare's frozen breath from committing suicide. His undying belief that "a Malarkey never gives up" kept him from putting the pistol to his head and pulling the trigger. "Never give up," clearly provides the underlining message of the book. Another reason Malarkey did not take his own life that night at Bastogne was the memory of a promise he had made to his aging grandmother (who died in her sleep the night of June 6, 1944), that he would return home unharmed. Physically, Malarkey kept his promise to her, yet mentally and emotionally, he carried wounds that would plague him for decades.
Malarkey offers a most important fundamental message: no matter what trials and tribulations life throws at you, never give up! He also underscores the downside of World War II's silent "greatest generation:" keeping the memory of traumatic experiences bottled up inside of you will be your undoing. For those expecting just another Easy Company vet's perspective on events portrayed in the book and movie, this memoir will not disappoint. But Malarkey's underlying message on coping with the memories of war and getting on with your life is the true gift in this beautifully written autobiography. This should be required reading for any returning war veteran!
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38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A profound story of one soldier's war and remembrance, May 13, 2008
This review is from: Easy Company Soldier: The Legendary Battles of a Sergeant from World War II's "Band of Brothers" (Hardcover)
Any reader will be richly rewarded, regardless of whether they have read Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers" or seen the mini-series, by this well told story of an American life.
Don Malarkey's autobiography poignantly tells how the legacy of the first World War, the devastating impact of the Great Depression on his father and his family, and other events molded his character and provided the drive and discipline that took a young man from a small town at the mouth of the Columbia River to become a decorated war hero.
It is a tale of honor, courage and loyalty to his comrades, love challenged by the isolation of war and the toll of battle and its scars, invisible yet no less haunting.
Co-author, longtime Oregon newspaper columnist and author Bob Welch, does a fine job of crafting Malarkey's journey through war and remembrance. A remarkable cache of Malarkey's wartime letters to his family and a girlfriend he left behind, discovered during the writing of the book and quoted extensively, take the reader to the frontlines with Easy Company.
Malarkey's love of his home state Oregon is an ever present theme conveyed through vivid description providing the reader with a shared sense of place with the author. The reader will gain an insight and understanding of the mindset of a young soldier, far away from his home and family, and the motivations and drive to survive to return to the people and place he loves best.
As a member of Easy Company, experiencing the highest number of days on the front line in the company, Malarkey tells not only the battlefield events in fine detail, and there are many, but also the war as seen through the eyes of a compassionate comrade. He revels in his deep bonds with those Easy Company members whose heroism was not included in previous books. The loss of best friend Skip Muck looms large.
As one of Malarkey's own heroes, Winston Churchill said "...never, never, never, never give up"; the reader will readily understand that Malarkey never did. This book will serve as an inspiration to many. After reading it, I realized that no challenge I will probably ever face be as great or horrific as those encountered by Easy Company in battle or Don Malarkey in life.
When you open this book, be prepared for a long read; I found it impossible to put down until the final page.
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Band of Brothers memoir you've always wanted to read., June 19, 2008
This review is from: Easy Company Soldier: The Legendary Battles of a Sergeant from World War II's "Band of Brothers" (Hardcover)
I've been a fan of Band of Brothers since it aired, and by extension, a fan of E/506 for about that long. The guys of Easy 506th have been writing a lot of books lately, and I have them all, and love them all, to a greater or lesser extent. But this one beats them all. "Malark" lays it all out, shows all his cards, keeps nothing back, makes himself tell all the things his comrades still try to shield in silence or jargon or laughs. He's opinionated, sometimes shocking, and his observation is surpassed only by his examination of his own self.
If you're looking for just a war memoir, too, you're only going to read half this book. This is a life memoir, and some of the best parts are at the beginning, when he and writer Bob Welch bring to life Astoria, Oregon, and life in the Depression; and the postwar period, when after the ticker-tape and champagne of victory faded, too many young men wondered who they were and what they would do with the horrible memories they kept, and too many young women wondered what happened to the sweethearts they had promised themselves to. The imagery and landscape of the Northwest recur over and over again, throughout the book, even as Malarkey bares his family history and the things you'd think a person would never say. The climax of the book is as emotional as anything I've ever read.
Of all the books written by and about Easy Company, 506th, 101st Abn., this is the one that deserves, and should win, the widest audience. Thanks, Don; you're the one, and you're still here.
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