Customer Reviews

Point of No Return

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For far too long, Martha Gellhorn's single claim to fame has been as "one of Hemingway's wives." Thanks to a recent article in The New Yorker, I have had the joy of "rediscovering"a wonderful author and journalist in her own right.

Point of No Return is a riveting, often graphic, war novel centered around a young Jewish American protagonist,Jacob Levy and his experiences during the closing months of WWII. The novel follows Jacob's battalion through France, Luxembourg, and finally Germany. During the liberation of Luxembourg, Jacob meets a young local woman and they try, as best they can, to have a relationship despite the language barrier and the constant problems caused by the war itself.

The climax of the book occurs when Jacob discovers,via a god awful tour of the recently liberated Dachau, the realities of the Holocaust firsthand. He is so overcome with horror and fury that he takes his own personal revenge, despite the fact the war has ended. The remainder of the book deals with the aftermath of his actions and how he comes to terms with them.

Perhaps most moving of all is Gellhorn's "Afterword" which discusses why she wrote the novel and the full significance of its title.

Gellhorn later stated she wrote "Point of no Return" to rid herself of memories of Dachau. She was able to complete this story of a WW II Jewish GI with the help of Max Perkins and Charles Scribner . She published it at time (1947) when antisemitism was the hot topic (Think "Gentlemen's Agreement" and "Crossfire") & it was mildly successful. But after the first printing "Point of No Return" was more or less forgotten until it was re-published in the late 1980s.

So, is it any good? Well, not really. There isn't much of a story, and the novel continues another 30 pages after its real ending. The real problem, however, are the characters. None of them come to life or seem believable. This is particularly true of Jacob Levy, the lead character. He doesn't seem Jewish or much of anything, and his murder of several German civilians after the war, comes out of nowhere.

The various descriptions of army life and Dachau are well done however.