Reluctant Odyssey [Paperback]

Edith Pargeter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1990

This is the second book in Edith Pargeter's trilogy of World War II fiction, and is set in the desert of North Africa and harsh tropics of Southeast Asia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 295 pages
• Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (April 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747233365
• ISBN-13: 978-0747233367
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,088,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Moving Story of Battle and Patriotism Revisited in WWII, March 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Reluctant Odyssey (Paperback)

In this second book of her war trilogy, Edith Pargeter reveals a side of WWII that is rarely covered and mostly forgotten, the infantry campaigns in North Africa and Southeast Asia. A young enlisted man from the English Midlands who barely survived Dunkirk finds himself fighting amidst the beauty and isolation of the desert in North Africa and then in the tropical hell that was the Southeast Asia campaign. He learns to challenge his own simple-hearted patriotism, the provincialism and racism of his own nation, as well as conventional notions of bravery and comeraderie. Fans of the Cadfael tales, written by Pargeter as Ellis Peters, will scarecely recognize the blunt, almost journalistic realism of this novel, but the story teller is as magnificent as ever. The characters are vivid and passionate, the wartime environments brutal and compelling.