Customer Reviews

No One Thinks of Greenland: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was in Narsarsuaq in 2001 on a hunting trip. I was curious about the old US military airfield where we landed because my father in law had landed there as a crewmember in a B-17 on the way to England during WWII. The remains of the old US military buildings can still be seen. While on my trip, however, I heard from local people about the US military hospital located in Narsarsuaq for Korean War wounded. I was surprised to say the least. Then I later discovered Mr. Griesemer's excellent book. It not only accurately describes Greenland but it also accurately describes many of the aspects of army life (been there, done that, too). I would recommend this book highly as a good read!

I am writing a book about the sinking of the Army Troopship Dorchester by a U-Boat on February 3, 1943, just south of Greenland. The Dorchester was headed for the Army Command base at Narsarsuaq, called BW 1, in southwestern Greenland, and the 227 survivors were taken to the 188th Station Hospital at the base. This is the hospital referred to by the name Qangattarsa in Mr. Griesmener's excellent novel. Mr. Griesemer told me that the novel grew out of a single paragraph he had read in a 1990 book by another author. I obtained the other book, contacted the author, and learned that the paragraph in question in that book, which describes his adventures through the North, was based on a story he heard some years during a conversation with "two drunken Danes."

The hospital at Narsarsuaq was closed after the war, but its buildings survived, and the hospital was reactivated in the early 1950s, as the Cold War heated up and small U.S. garrisons protected the Radar stations in the north, the DEW Line, and the airfield at Narsarsuaq, through which planes continued to fly between the U.S and Europe. More than 10,000 planes had passed through during WW II, when the hospital had grown to 200 beds of its authorized 250. The U.S involvement in Greenland in the 1950s was much smaller and only 5 - 10 doctors, nurses, dentists and others staffed the hospital until it closed in the late 1950s.

I have done extensive research in the National Archives. I have had conversations with men and women who were stationed at the base in the 1950s, and most importantly with professional men and women who worked at the hospital. Uniformly, they have been surprised when they hear how their operation is being described.
I have not found any objective evidence of the existence of the situation described in Griesemer's novel. His wonderful imagination supplied details that filled out the basic story.

The Chief Military Archivist at the National Archives has been asked about the story several times over the years and has found nothing in the record, classified or not,to even suggest it may be true. In truth, badly burned or wounded men from Korea were treated at the Army's FitzSimons Rehabiliation Hospital in Denver. Historical fiction is fun and Griesemer is a fine novelist. His novel stimulates thinking about what might have happened, but it should not be confused with history.

I read this book after falling in love with the the author's later novel "Signal & Noise". I had enjoyed the epic sweep of the writer's narrative and themes. I guess I am a sucker for those novels that meld tales of scientific discovery and endeavour with the highly charged emotional lives of fictional characters...and particularly the excitement where the two threads collide and crackle in recognition of each other.

This book is very different from "Signal & Noise". I had expected "olde worlde" and I got "other worldly", feeling as though I was reading about some kind of freak show, which I sense is the intention. Tales of the drunken and depressive debauchery of the US military under the maddening influence of the neverending Greenland night and the northern lights were a little too unsettling for me.

However, I have given the book four stars as it is largely beautifully written and has a terrific pace. A short, snappy read that keeps you asking questions about what will happen next, but which is a bit short on comfort factor.

I particularly liked the character detail in the main figure, Rudy, who has been in trouble with the law for breaking into people's homes but never stolen a thing. Descriptions of him sitting in alien living rooms just to absorb the secure family atmosphere he never had border on the heartbreaking.

I am actually writing this review as the world needs more and more of John Griesemer. In answer to the question "but am I disappointed?" the answer has to be "just a little". But that lies in the weight of my expectation.

"Signal and Noise" and "No One Thinks of Greenland" are poles apart but both enriching in their own unigue way.

A fabulous writer. Next!

An amazing first novel that draws obvious comparisons to Catch-22 and M*A*S*H, but this novel stands on its own merits. Based on the actual existence of a secret military hospital in Greenland during the Korean War, the author takes advantage of the otherworldliness of the arctic landscape to emphasize the loneliness and desolation of men and women stationed far from home. The fact that everyone has to experience six months of darkness ("stark raving dark") after six months of sunshine adds to the character's emotional instability and feelings of temporal dislocation. This is a funny, poignant novel with romance, mystery and the underlying theme of how people deal with their mistakes in life

Quite simply a wonderful read. Part conventional love story, part Catch-22 and Dr. Strangelove, all with a good dose of MASH thrown in. Memorable characters abound and military incompetence runs rampant. By the time I was finished I had to ask myself what the genuine horror really was. This is one I shall recommend wholeheartedly to my library patrons. Booksellers, this should make a great hand-sell!

This first novel was a nifty, tightly written book that was both entertaining and revealing. What happens to the human soul in the cold, in harsh conditions, in the dark? How people snap, fall apart, and find each other... those are the themes of this book. The author has weaved a tale of love and of finding one's self. The only thing I'd complain about was that it flew by so quickly, leaving many aspects of the 'Stark Raving Dark' and the love story unexplored. Its always just out of reach, always elusive. A very good book, I look forward to Griesemer's next book.

Only a few of us will ever visit Greenland for business or pleasure. None of us will be assigned to the secret military hospital at Qanattarsa like Corporal Rudy Spruance, the main protagonist of this beyond the pale tale. But a trip to the frigid island through the magic of this intriguing little novel might be an evening well spent. The author's descriptions of the landscape are foreboding-lonely, other worldly, and bizarre-and offer a tantalizing setting for the outlandish story which the author unfolds.

Anyone who has served much time in the military can recall confreres unconventional enough to become characters in a novel. John Griesemer's are a bit more curious than most. But not by much. I spent some years writing a memoir of my infantry company during World War II and some of my real life colleagues emerged, in memory, only slightly less incredible than Griesemer's fictional inhabitants of Qanattarsa. Their perverse behavior melds well with the locale and plot in which they are placed. That and the mystery surrounding the weird hospital, nay hospice, in full view of icebergs under the midnight sun and goblins roaming in round-the-clock darkness as winter seeps in kept me reading.

The only weakness is the love story. I found it a little contrived and the love scenes less than passionately luscious. But Greenland is not a tropical paradise. After an hour or two at Qanattarsa you will most likely wonder how anyone could make love to another anywhere near that depraved ward of the barely living and award Corporal Rudy and his Sergeant Irene a blue ribbon for trying.

A well developed story. The feelings of military people and the oddities that happen were well defined. The strangeness of all especially the officers was fact when people are grouped in God forsaken assignments. I enjoyed it well with slices of Mash, Catch 22 and military life as all that served know it. It actually turned into a slight love story but acceptable in the over all. I give it four stars as some of the drugs and things did not happen until later in the sixties in the military. I would reccomend this book to all as it is a well written story.

If you liked "Johnny Got His Gun" by Trumbo you'll be less depressed reading this interesting tale. The book is based on a real former military hospital in Narssarsuaq, whose ruins I walked through in the mid-70s. But that was a WWII facility, and not really the Korean War unit of this book. (Search Narssarsuaq on the Net for more insight). Truth aside, this amusing tale does in fact invoke M*A*S*H and Catch-22, and will be especially enjoyed by servicemen/women who have served in some of Uncle Sam's godawful remote outposts.

If there was an option for 3.5 stars, this book would receive that many. I believe this is the author's first book, and it is a first book worth reading if you have a fair amount of time on your hands. The main character is friendly, and I like him, though his supposed past meshes poorly with his actions in the novel. I enjoy the love story, though I am a little confused about what makes his woman love him. Many things seem to happen to the main character without any particular justification. Once we accept that he is for some reason "chosen" and simply enjoy the unusual tale, it is a good read. If you enjoy the slightly unusual, the author does not lack in developing an original plot line.