Customer Reviews

The Spectator: A World War II Bomber Pilot's Journal of the Artist as Warrior

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I am grateful for Mr. Zellmer's detailed memoir of his life as a bomber pilot in the South Pacific. Although my own father served in the Army Air Corps fighting the Japanese, he never shared his frightening experiences with our family. This books allows the reader an opportunity to know the sights, the beauty, the fears, the excitement and the boredom of war in tropical lands. In addition to allowing us inside the cockpit during his first flights and later his bombing missions, Zellmer gives the reader a front row seat into the world he came from, the on stage world of Martha Graham's Dance Company. It's apparent that the author spent long years researching the era, as well as putting together his combat experience from letters written home to family and friends. I found this both a compelling and an informative read.

Most WWII stories are told with a "gung-ho" American point of view. And although David Zellmer never expresses a problem with U.S. policy, his point of view is so far removed from the general collective, that it becomes inspiring and mind-blowingly real, because of his ability to bring the reader into his young, cynical, and advanced observation of the war machine. He performes his duty without question. But he expresses a distaste for the loss of civilians, and maintains his commitment to his job with a powerfull artists eye. He notices things that anaverage WWII soldier would never dream of. As you read and become involved in this 26 year old's life, you start to forget what the war was about yourself. Ultimately, his visions do not try to downplay the moral and national justifications of the war, but rather let you in on the workings of a mind, sometimes self-absorbed, with the best intentions at heart. His absolute love of the art of flying combined with all of his other observations will stay with the reader forever.