Customer Reviews

The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War

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Like so many in my generation, the author, like the rest of us, really had no clue as to what made her father tick. These men, and women, of the "Greatest Generation" were a different breed. I had to blink twice when the author described her father, his attitudes, work ethic, treatment of his family and on and on. She could have well been describing my own father.

The author, after her father's death, discovers a box of letters written to his wife (the author's mother) during the war. Her father fought in the Pacific, taking part in some of its most brutal of battles. Amongst the letters, in an envelope, was a Japanese Flag, a "souvenir flag" which her father had sent home. The flag was of the type carried by many Japanese soldiers, which was a sort of good luck piece. The story is basically Ms. Steinman's search for the family of the soldier whose body it was taken from and a story of Ms. Steinman's search for her father, i.e. who really was her father, and how had the war changed him?

Now I will be honest, there were parts of the book that disturbed me. I am not all that certain if the author ever did have a clue as to what made her father the man he was and how the war truly affected him. The author never actually says it, but after reading her description of her father, which gave us some idea of the kind of man he was, there is really no doubt where he got the flag, and how he got it. He did not seem the type of man who would simply pick up a flag off any old dead body and keep it. While this falls into the realm of speculation, I think it probably would have been better if the author had faced reality. Be that as it may, the author did quite a good job with her research and I certainly admire her objectives.

The book is well written, easy to read, and quite informative. Like another reviewer here, I have the feeling the author actually found out more about herself than she did of her father, and that is actually a very good thing. I do recommend this one highly. You certainly will be richer for having read it.

D. Blankenship

A very good emotional book about World War II. Steinman's father served in the Tropic Lightning Division of the U.S. Army fighting in northern Luzon (P.I.). Even though her father is not a casualty, he suffers the rest of his life from the effects of the war. He is hard and somewhat bitter. After his passing, Louise finds the souvenir of the war---a personal flag from a Japanese soldier. She examines the brutality of the war from both the American and Japanese perspective (Hiroshima, Nanking, P. I, Bataan). She finds the family of the soldier and returns the flag. She finds that the Japanese soldier has a human face after all.
This is a good emotional read of the effects of war, even if the war was the good war.

Louise Steinman weaves war, family and an unsolved mystery into a fine story about how a daughter trys to uncover the meaning of the deep, inconsolable silence her father brings home from one the worst battles of World War II: MacArthur's famous "return" to Luzon, the Philippines.

She retraces history with the help of more than 700 letters her father wrote to her mother during his time away, and with her friends, family and a handful of old infantry vets she is able to puzzle together what was the most momentous time in her father's life. Her journey forges a new understanding of her father and, most importantly, her relationship to him, even many years after his death.

The story tantalizes with descriptions of jungle warfare, imperialism and young men in the throes of battle, especially from the vantage point of Japan, where like their American counterparts, families were torn asunder by the conflict. They too carry the remnants of pain and sorrow sixty years later. Here, at least, Steinman could have spent more time illustrating the cultural differences-and similarities-that propel leaders and their societies to sacrifice their young men for nationalistic fervor.

In the end, the tale reveals just as much about the author as it does about her father. The care, grace and sensitivity with which she tells her story reflects the same qualities her father had, then lost, then struggled to regain after he returned home from 165 consecutive days of brutal warfare.

-Christopher Thomas Scott

I couldn't put this book down. As a veteran of the Viet Nam era, I don't like stories of war that glorify nationalism. This book artfully humanizes the overly simplistic categorization of "good" and "evil." This book should be required reading for every high school student, especially of history or political science. If you have a son or daughter, you owe it to them to buy this book for their education that isn't taught in school. It is a graduation present that could help them change the world.

Powerful, but written with delicacy and grace; a universal theme, revealed through the specifics of one family's life. I was in tears--happily so--three times by the time I got through the first eighteen pages, and jokingly said to myself, "This book should not be sold unless it is accompanied by a trained mental health professional." But the feelings are cleansing, and we are returned over and over to the depth of our humanness, and we can be grateful to the author for being willing to make this journey into her father's heart.

Louise Steinman has hit it out of the park with this wonderful, moving memoir about her father, Norman Steinman, his war experiences, and the way those experiences shaped his life--and his relationships with his family. It is also about Ms. Steinman's own odyssey in experiencing her father's war, through reading hundreds of her father's war-time letters discovered after her parents' deaths, talking to other Pacific War veterans, and visiting long-forgotten battlefields in the Philippines. Ms. Steinman eventually makes a special journey to Japan to visit the family of a long-dead Japanese soldier. It involves a simple errand: she needs to give something back...

Ms. Steinman shows that the scars of war run deep and the impacts are felt through succeeding generations. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Mrs. Steinman wrote an enthralling exposé about the ethics of war and the ethics of the anti war movement of the 1960's changed her life. Her book is great from beginning to end, a great combination of plot and war history. I strongly recommend it.

A page turner, I could hardly put it down. Moving and poignant. Through reading about "the war" of the author's father, I learned a lot about my own father and "his war". He too faught with the 25th Division at Balete Pass in 1945, earning a combat intantryman badge and purple heart. He has rarely spoke of his experience and after reading this book, I better understand why. The Souvenir is a must read for anyone whose father fought in "The Pacific War". Thank you Ms. Steinman, The Souvenir is truly a gift.

I have just finished reading Ms. Steinman's THE SOUVENIR, and through her skill and persuasion, her souvenir has now become "my" souvenir too. I find myself thinking about her journey as a daughter as well as the unspeakable journeys our fathers, brothers, and sons (now daughters too) have made in times of war.

Louise Steinman's book The Souvenir was absolutly amazing. I fell in love with it within the first few pages. At first i thought it would just be about the letters her father wrote home, but as the book progressed it became very intense reading :) She created tales about what her father might have done during his combat in Luzon. Lousie also added in a lot of history towards the Luzon/Philippines campaign which I found wonderful. The ending was very well written, very creative. As a World War II Collector of my Grandfathers "Vet Bring Backs" (Arisaka Japanese Rifle, etc. ) I reallllllyyyyyyyyy Enjoyed this book. I recommend anyone who is into World War II to read this book. A+ Lousie Steinman!