Customer Reviews

Hart's War

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a company commander in the US Army and my wife recently purchased this book because she knows of my fascination with military history. I must confess, I normally read non-fiction accounts because I find them thoroughly more fascinating and compelling than any fiction can provide. However, my wife took the time and effort to get this book after I briefly mentioned seeing it advertised here on Amazon so I figured I ought to read it. I am currently in the middle of a training exercise in Louisiana in preparation for my unit's rotation to Bosnia and our peacekeeping efforts there. We have very little contact with the outside populace and are surrounded by guards, towers, wire and lights. Very eerie when reading this book. Of course, the situation we are in is by choice, but the story is much more relevant and fascinating when read inside a prison-style environment surrounded by soldiers and sweltering conditions and apportioned food and away from loved ones. I have found placing oneself in as close to the context of a book as possible brings to life more nuances from the author than would otherwise be noticed when reading in a comfortable armchair or in bed. Further, context can also reveal the nuances missed by the author. Mr. Katzenbach has not missed any. In fact he describes more touching moments of the human condition than I thought possible. There are enough wonderful synopses of this book so I would like to comment on what I felt enlightened upon. First, above and beyond anything having to do with the military or law or war, this book dealt with the human condition of American and German men in WWII as a reflection of the society they sprouted from. Namely, how we as human beings view and, more importantly, treat each other. When all is said and done, Mr. Katzenbach reminds us of a time not very long away and not very far away of prejudice, segregation, and misguided hatred. I guess this seems more poignant to me as I am headed to a region of the world that has seen more than its share of such inhumanity. Mr. Katzenbach does a wonderful job in not fully resolving these problems. To have done so would be a disservice to our actual societal conditions and weaken his story. Bravo! Second, this book is a fantastic story of relationships. It captures the essential personal and interpersonal spirit of each and every character. Most fiction focuses on one or two antagonists or protagonists or simply glosses over everyone else. A good story is about personalities, not technology, not the law, not the military...personalities. Again Mr. Katzenbach, Bravo! Finally, this is in the end a fictional story and is bleimished with having to manufacture phrases and situations and will make a great movie. If the right actors and director are selected I will look forward to watching it, if not...well, Mr. Katzenbach what a wonderful read!

At first look, the basic plot of HART'S WAR is nothing extraordinary. A black man is framed by a racist populace for the murder of an ostensibly popular white man. And, of course, a novice lawyer, with zero experience in capital murder cases, is assigned as defense counsel for the trial. Ho-hum. The premise is so threadbare that I normally wouldn't have read beyond the jacket. But, hang on a minute ...

In this multi-faceted thriller by John Katzenbach, the place is Stalag Luft 13, a Luftwaffe prison camp for allied flyers shot down in WWII. The accused, Lincoln Scott, is a fictional black pilot of the real-life, famed 332nd Fighter Group (the Tuskegee Airmen), who was downed while heroically defending a crippled B-17 bomber. He's the only Negro prisoner in the camp, and a aloof loner by choice because, you understand, he distrusts whites. The victim, Trader Vic, is a respected bomber pilot from Mississippi that had become the stalag's expert trader in forbidden goods. Lt. Tommy Hart, the navigator of a downed B-25, stands for the defense. Tommy, who left law school to join the Army Air Corps, has essentially finished his law studies while as a POW by reading every legal text he can lay his hands on. The Senior American Officer, Col. MacNamara, and the camp commandant, Luftwaffe Oberst Von Reiter, only want to get Scott's court-martial wrapped up quickly without undue embarrassment to either the Americans or the Germans.

This novel unfolds on many levels. It is, of course, a courtroom drama. But it's also a war drama, a detective drama, a prison drama, and an escape drama. Young Hart is clearly the reluctant, white-hatted good guy, but the moral and ethical issues revealed as he squares off against the rest of the camp remain elusively gray. Who, for instance, is the most evil, black-hatted bad guy? Even the battle-maimed and bitter camp adjutant, Hauptmann Visser, is a man possessing a certain honor, and doing his duty as he perceives it. And, when the identity and motive of the real killer are uncovered, would you, the reader, condemn and convict? This is a question that Tommy himself must ultimately answer as his personality is hammered to maturity in the forge of "growing up".

I liked this book very much, finishing it over a 4-day business trip to DC. I especially liked the irony presented by the 84 hats, an "in-your-face" consequence thrust into Tommy's consciousness, the unforeseen result of a decision he, essentially a non-violent person, had to make to survive.

John Katzenbach's latest is a bit of a departure. Set in a POW camp during WWII, it combines incredible drama with timeless lessons about race, duty, and honor. The characters are unforgettable, this is a classic in the vein of To Kill a Mockingbird. The best book I've read in a while.

At a POW camp for Allied airmen, a prisoner is murdered. Suspicion immediately falls on Lincoln Scott, the only black man in the camp and a target for the dead man's racism. Bomber navigator and law student Tommy Hart is ordered to defend Scott in what is clearly going to be little more than a polite form of lynching. But as Hart begins his investigations, he soon realises that nothing in the camp is what it seems...

This is a superb twist on the legal-thriller genre, the twist being of course that all the protagonists are captives. By confining himself to such a restricted world, Katzenbach must rely on storytelling ability - there's no chance for sex scenes, chase scenes, or various other stock distractions. He succeeds admirably; it's been a while since I read a story with such good pacing and tension. (Conversely, the Stalag environment means that other typical genre things such as characters creeping round in the dead of night to find evidence make a lot more sense).

What lifts Hart's War further above the genre are the characters and the tensions between them: while the basic theme is concerned with racism, little else could be considered black-and-white. Most intriguing are the Germans, who may be The Enemy but aren't necessarily the "bad guys". There are several sides playing off each other, and much of the intrigue (and entertainment) comes from trying to decide who gains from what. Topping it all off are some honest musings on heroism and courage.

While the plot is often spellbinding, the book disappoints through the lack of character development and a stunning number of anachronisms and inaccuracies. To cite just a few, the character of Trader Vic is supposedly named after "the famed restauranteur". In fact, Victor Bergeron, the real Trader Vic, had only renamed his Oakland California restaurant, Hinky Dinks, Trader Vic's in 1937, and was hardly famous outside of the Oakland area in 1943. Willy Messerschmitt would have been dismayed to find his fighter planes referred to as "Messerschmidts" thoughout the book. When Hart decides to elist, he "heads towards the T" in Boston,although the usage at the time was the MTA. Guns have the wrong calibers or spellings or both. In the end, these errors are a constant distraction, and undermine the authenticity of the world of Stalag Luft 13.

This is certainly Katzenbach's best. He provides us with a highly original setting for a legal thriller and he certainly delivers on the courtroom drama.

This alone should be enough for a good and enjoyable read. The book is, however, much more. It is exciting in creating the atmosphere of a camp of officers in the war with all its desparation, petty fights and daily boredom amidst a very explosive and for the inmates generally dangerous environment.

Than God, Katzenbach does not go for a black and white description of the Allies and the Germans; there are very bad characters among the inmates and there is some good old European ethics left in some of the Germans . It is quite clear that some of those (Fritz e.g.) faced a "prisonors dilemma" as often as the real inmates.

In this Katzenbach provides us not only with an exciting thriller but also makes us pause and reflect on human behavior in this most adverse of circumstances; a POW camp.

I can't wait to see the movie.

Some books try to have "something for everybody", to be "all things to all people". You get the drift, I think. After all, this book is a murder mystery, a coutroom drama, a war story, a prison escape story, a treatise on American race relations at the midpoint of the last century, a study in aging, a commentary on friendship... By all standards it shouldn't work; it's just too ambitious, and--one might suspect--too contrived, maybe too much a movie script marketed to a mass reading audience before going to Hollywood for production into its screen version. And yet, it seems to work! In spite of myself I enjoyed this book. Sure,there's formula; yeah, there are sterotypes (as a Canadian I can certainly say that of at least one of the main characters); for certain, some of the plot is a little too convenient. But in spite of all that the book ultimately entraps you in its web and carries you along, willing or unwilling. I came to care for the characters and their plight. I thought the final chapter a very moving summation of the depth of appreciation that can sometimes be expressed for help voluntarily rendered at a dire time, no strings attached. In the final analysis, it's just a really good story and a pretty good book as well!

* Every bit as gripping as this year's other novels set in WW2, but the setting of a POW camp sets Hart's War apart from more traditional war novels like The Triumph & the Glory or War of the Rats. Katzenbach has given us a fine novel and I thank him, his talents are very evident to anyone who loves historical fiction.

I have read everything John Katzenback has written and I think this is his greatest achievement. (I also had the pleasure of meeting him at a writer's seminar where he led a workshop.) He is a talented writer, with an insight of human nature, with all its flaws and glories. I highly recommend this novel, and as others have stated, I, too, had tears in my eyes at the ending.

Hart's War grabs you from the opening page. The writing is exceptional...you feel like you are in the prisoner of war camp living every minute. The plot brings home the merits of a working justice system and the depth and damage of racial hatred. THis is an incredibly moving book...I've passed it on to friends and family, and their lives have stopped when they started reading.