Customer Reviews

The End of It

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I enjoyed the writing in this novel in spurts. Sometimes the places and situations Lt. Freeman shares has a poetic ring to it while at other times it seems to bog down in repetitious sarcasms about war. The parts with soldier Bowen preaching christrian doctrine also seemed to bog down the story.

The book reads more as a world war II memoir than a novel. The descriptions of Italy with it's mountainous landscape and villages are very realistic and picturesque. Overall not a bad read, but I was expecting more of a war story and less of a artillery lieutenant's relationship with his men and their big guns. The opening paragraphs describing the troopship full of young green soldiers shipping out from New York harbor and being greeted by the violent hurling of the Mid-Atlantic sea is captivating.

What this book does do well, besides giving an ugly snapshot of war and it's corpses, is to show the difference in the native soldier fighting for his country's freedom versus an invading or occupying army fighting for profits. In war all soldiers are killing for a cause, but there are some who kill with the thought of protecting their families from evil.
(1961 Horizon Press edition)

3.5 stars

pg.54 from both sides of the line artillery fire kept the war going - chewing roads, eating villages, biting men in half

pg.131 one thousand guns.(One of these guns can deafen a man, two of them can drive him insane)

pg.200 at first you do not know how to kill, but you learn. (18 year old italian girl partisan/rebel)