Customer Reviews

Gone To Soldiers

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is a sweeping history of World War II, told from the perspective of several different characters, all but one Jewish. We see the war from many views, from the inside of a concentration camp, through a journal, letters and firsthand accounts. Each character (and there are 10 total) gives something new and interesting to the overall story and the history is built from memory and perspective rather than from a lecture or a history book.

Piercy brings you into the minds and hearts of each person as you live inside of their world, chapter by chapter. It's incredibly well written and entertaining as well as providing a lot of important history

Gone to Soldiers is one of the more brilliant books I have ever read. The characters very complex and multidimensional and I connected with each of them. This book really made me realize a lot about the emotional turmoil connected with World War II. I have read many Holocaust books, but this touched me even deeper than those did. This book is so different than any book I have read for many many reasons. Many authors have tried intertwining stories, but none have accomplished it as well as Marge Piercy has in this book. Each character is distinct and amazing, yet they all fit perfectly in the grand scheme of this book. I have also never read a book in which characters feel what they feel in this book. Murray and Bernice were so unique and felt such unique things, I was blown away. By the way, this book isn't just for adults...I am 15 and I love it. It is rather hair raising, so I wouldn't recommend it for most children, but all adults should read this book. Especially you and your family and friends.

In my opinion, this is one of Piercy's best novels to date. In a similar vein to City of Darkness City of Light, Piercy explores a period of history viewed from several different angles, each illuminating a different aspect of the history. This allows her themes to come through the novel gently, without appearing heavy-handed or overly biased.

The novel is set during World War II, with the plot set in different parts of the US France and Britain (the intention was that it would also have a section based in Russia).

Being a Marge Piercy novel, you know it's going to be packed with believable, well-developed characters, with many of the key characters women. She follows these characters through the novel, as they become more aware of themselves, the situations around them and their role in history.

Definately one of my favorite books.

But I don't think Marge Piercy set out to be Tolstoy. Apparently the book has historical inaccuracies, and I wouldn't characterize it as classic literature, but I don't think that's the point. It's still one of the best books I've ever read (and re-read several times). The characters are unforgettable and involve you deeply in the stories, which are deftly woven and interwoven. The details may be inaccurate but I haven't experienced anything else (in any medium or genre) that so forcefully brought home what it must have been like to live in fear of the Nazis, to have to choose between collaboration and resistance, and face death on a daily basis. The transformation of one of the central characters from a naive, silly, ignorant teenager to a tough resistance heroine is for me the most brilliantly done and compelling storyline.

I'm not a huge Marge Piercy fan, as all her books I've read (4) have serious flaws, but this is undoubtedly her greatest achievement. I do strongly recommend this to just about any reader.

Never has a book stayed in my memory for so long. With 6 different people,each in a different part of the world, the reader is given a view of what war was like from the human aspect, how where u lived at the time and who you were, could affect your life in so many different ways. Each character, is interwoven with one another, tho thousands of miles and vastly different wartime experiences seperate them. This is the book that history teachers should have us read, so we can understand, and feel, and cry. It is not just the horrors, but the everyday life of people trying to deal with the changes war brings to all.

I read this book for the first time when I was 13(11 years ago) and since then I have read it at least twice a year. The cover has long since fallen apart and the book has divided itself into four parts, but i will never get enough of it. The story (stories) become part of you, and you will think of the characters constantly. Every time I read it I smile, cry and feel like going back into time... I'm not one for hyperbole, so believe me when I say that this book is fantastic, one of the greatest novels ever written in this century. If I had been living in the States and not in France I would have done my Masters thesis on it.

This book never really leaves you. The copy I read was passed on to me from a friend...there was no cover, the pages were loosened and all was held together with a large rubber band. That was evidence of how many times it had changed hands. I read it and passed it on. It may still be circulating somewhere. I now own a signed first of this book.

The book is set in WWII and is expansively told from the point of view of different characters...both those on the homefront and those on the front line. From time to time, their lives intertwine, although not always directly.

If you love historical fiction, WWII, or simply a page burning novel, you will love this book. Read it...caress it...pass it on...and, if you happen across the one with the rubber band, handle it lovingly.

This is a truly great book. It is the first Marge Piercy book I've read, and I enjoyed it/learned from it/was sad that it had to end. The kind of book during which you welcome insomnia so that you have an excuse to read it in the middle of the night. I particularly liked the interweaving of the lives of the characters. I'm not a historian, so I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the book (which seemed to frustrate other reviewers), but I did not read the book to learn about WWII history, and I believe I got a pretty good sense of the period of history from the book.

I've never been so enthralled by a book before. The characters came alive with the acurate details of WWII. It did take a couple of chapters to get into it - a little difficult to keep track of who was who - but give it 40 to 50 pages and you'll be hooked as well. This is one of the few books that I was sad to see end.

Like others here, I've reread this book so many times I've lost count. The characters are richly imagined, the plots gripping, and the historical context satisfying. Certainly, some characters are more vividly drawn and "real" than others - the Jewish-French resistance fighter will always stay with me, while the American artist/spy is a little less gripping- but it's a great cross-section.

I would especially recommend this as a gift to a teenager to get them interested in history. Did the trick for me.