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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A poetic and pungent battlefield memoir, February 3, 2005
"Suddenly We Didn't Want to Die: Memoirs of a World War I Marine," by Elton E. Mackin, has an introduction and annotations by George B. Clark and a foreword by Lieutenant General Victor H. Krulak, USMC (Ret.). Clark's introduction notes that Mackin was born in New York State in 1898 and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1917. This book evokes the combat experiences of Marines in Europe during WW1.
I found this book quite stunning. The sections often read like prose poems or very short stories. Mackin is graphic in describing wartime violence and suffering, but his writing is also at times quite beautiful. The narrative opens with the Marines preparing to advance upon German-held Belleau Wood. Mackin follows in particular the career of "Slim," a Marine who becomes a runner (battlefield messenger).
Mackin covers a number of subjects: encounters with German troops, relations with civilians, relations between "old-timers" and green replacement troops, and the dangers of the runners' job. The book contains many interesting technical details about war in that era: weapons, fortifications, poison gas, etc.
The narrator's voice is often ironic, satiric, sarcastic, and even bitter. But his voice is also humane--he sees moments of kindness and tenderness in the midst of the hell of war. At one point the author cites Walt Whitman. Like Whitman, Mackin is irreverent yet compassionate, with an eye for detail and a knack for rendering humanity in both its tragedy and beauty. This is a valuable addition to the canon of United States war literature.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A vivid and eloquent book, October 15, 1999
By A Customer
Elton E. Mackin only had a high-school education but he wrote with a natural ability. Here is war. He dosen't glamorize it, he dosen't attempt to glorify it and he dosen't use his memoir as a soapbox. He dosen't judge or condem those who were in command. This is an account of a rifleman. He served at the very bottom and experience war at it's most basic and cruel. Next to the fear and horror of combat Mackin gives equal time to the everyday exsistence of a soldier or Marine. The lack of sleep, the poor food which there was never enough of, the boredom, all the physical discomforts of serving in the field during a war. A superb book. Of interest to both WW1 buffs and the general reader.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
67th Company, 1st Bn, 5th Marine Regiment, 2nd Division., October 21, 1997
By A Customer
The American combat experience in World War I, brief and now out of living memory, mostly lacks the literary exposure of the British Great War writers, and produced nothing like the avalanche of memoirs of World War II. This has been something of an historical injustice to the "doughboy" , the American "grunt" of World War I. Dirty, hungry, poorly equipped and supplied, suffering as much from the elements as the enemy, the American civilian-soldier persevered, fought, and won, rather to the surprise of Allies and enemy alike.
Mackin, recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross, and two Silver Stars, tells the story well, in a compelling narrative which will stand with Sledge's "With the Old Breed" as monuments to the American soldier in general, and the American Marine in particular.
(The numerical rating above is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does nor employ numerical ratings.)
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