The Iconoclast Goes to Sea: Dilemma in Blues [Paperback]

Jack DeBar Smith (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0805943129 | ISBN-13: 978-0805943122 | Publication Date: October 1, 1998

WW II enlisted man from boot camp through 7 navy ech schools, some hilarious experiences, serious actions and written from rediscovered hand written notes while at sea on the USS Antietam & history. Please see my website for more explicit background and information all laid out and easy to see. Thank you. Jack DeBar

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...A colorful and humorous biography shares one man's experiences...while serving his country in the U.S. Navy during World War II." -- Publisher

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Dorrance Pub Co (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805943129
• ISBN-13: 978-0805943122
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,646,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sweet recollection of a young sailor at the start of WWII, March 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Iconoclast Goes to Sea: Dilemma in Blues (Paperback)

You will like reading "The Iconoclast Goes to Sea." Enjoy a trip down memory lane from your own military experiences. Charge up the WWII memory banks of military service you may have personally had in Korea, Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, Panama, the Caribbean, and more. This book will jog your memory into relating the better parts of your contribution serving our country. Definitely worth a read!

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, October 16, 2008

By 

Cosmoetica "cosmoeticadotcom" (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Iconoclast Goes to Sea: Dilemma in Blues (Paperback)

This is raw, but good writing, yet in a workshop it would be bowdlerized and genericized. But, all good writing is individuated, and relays a sense of the experience described. Is this a particularly deep moment? No. But, look how the bluntly phrased cliché is neutered by the next sentence's claim of the barbers. You simply do not get that sort of juxtaposition in most published contemporary writing. And this is a skill learnt by a raconteur, of course, with an iconoclastic streak, that cannot be taught in a classroom. You can either pick it up or not. Then, the mini-tale, itself, is a brilliantly sardonic one. True or not, it smells of the era, and this sort of writing fills the whole book. At times, Smith does layer on a bit too much guff and `milieu', but overall it works to enhance the reading experience. Compared to the memoirs put out by young white loser suburbanites like Elizabeth Wurtzel, Dave Eggers, Brad Land, James Frey, or Augusten Burroughs, The Iconoclast Goes To Sea, offers both depth and real style; often in bad jokes and self-conscious asides (such as calling people who run things erudites). But it sure beats the self-flagellating and sheer boredom of the above mentioned bad writers.
The book's actual narrative ends on page 98, but the rest of the book has appendices which detail some of the aircraft the Antietam carried, photos, a history of the big vessel and its two predecessor vessels with the same name, as well as honoring the ship's mascot dog named Zero. The book's epilogue is where Smith details his first days aboard the Antietam, and the ship's service during World War Two, in the final fourteen pages. That the final tenth of the book is where most any other writer would have started his tale is a tribute to an intuitive mind's knowledge of what was really unique about his experiences- that which he experienced, not that the history books say is important.
The book ends with these words:

Perhaps some of you will now dig into your memories and recall your own experiences of military service. It was a tremendous time of both physical and mental stress which so many of us will never forget. This swabbie prays that it will never be repeated. `Be prepared' is more than just a good old Boy Scout motto.


As I read that ending I wondered if, in fifty years or so, there will be another such book written by a serviceman now in Iraq or Afghanistan, who will be thinking the same thing, and wondering why we were not prepared on 9/11/01, with so much warning. Nonetheless, for anyone in an interest in another small piece of history, from a generation that will not be around much longer, I urge you to visit Smith's websites, and perhaps buy his book. Is it a great piece of literature? No. But it is a very good read, in that same way that fables and myths are good reads, and that's far more than anyone can honestly say about the vast majority of crap that gets published and feted these days. Stay proud, swabbie!