[IAN]∎ Descargar Gratis The Rising Tide A Novel of World War II Jeff Shaara Books

The Rising Tide A Novel of World War II Jeff Shaara Books

Download As PDF : The Rising Tide A Novel of World War II Jeff Shaara Books

The Rising Tide A Novel of World War II Jeff Shaara Books

Guilty pleasure? Well, the pleasure is more of the thank-goodness-it's-actually-readable persuasion. The reality is, I am a WWII buff, I've read innumerable histories, and one day I found myself wishing I could read a fictional presentation of D-Day and its aftermath. I am a fan of Michael Shaara's Killer Angels (I've reviewed it here) but haven't found his son's work nearly as compelling based on various free samples. Steel Wave started out better than those, so I ordered the entire book and finished it last night.

This is a satisfying read for those who like a book to last a while. If I wanted to pay $5-10 for Kindle books I could read in a day, I'd be either a millionaire or completely insane, since I tend to read quickly. Steel Wave is a dense, chewy nugget of a book that will keep well in your mental refrigerator. Shaara gives the reader his/her money's worth.

The format is fairly simple. Chapters that take place in the minds of fictional characters alternate with those from the POV of Eisenhower, Rommel, Patton, and Bradley, among others. Sgt. Jesse Adams, the leading non-real person, is well-drawn, a thoughtful, clear-thinking individual whose surface toughness conceals an ... inner toughness. This isn't Steven Spielberg's D-Day. Picture the word "wuss" encircled with a slash across it, and you'll have some idea of the perspective here. Adams is a consistent presence across the book, and I was always glad to get back to him.

Glad, because as characters in a narrative the historical figures are less skillfully presented. Shaara does not render Winston Churchill well at all. I realize he is writing for a mass audience with scantier vocabularies and less delight in wordplay than the great man himself, but honestly, this is a very thin gruel. Churchill probably never referred to anything as "a crock" -- that's contemporary usage. Shaara has him make exclamations like, "Dammit! Tell me again it's going to work! Tell me!" and "Scares hell out of me, Ike. What's that damned Nazi cooked up?" I can imagine John Wayne saying those things, but Sir Winston? Uh, no. He was a Prime Minister who said and did many outrageous things, but employing strings of terse pedestrian monosyllables was not one of them.

Additionally, Churchill was never quite the boozer that Shaara (and many others) have tried to show him to be.

The author does better with Eisenhower, whose bland personality lends itself better to the tenor of this book. Ike's inner turmoil is believable as portrayed here. His irritation with Montgomery, who is as close to a villain as anyone gets on the Allied side of the novel, is consistent with Stephen Ambrose's authoritative version. Shaara's best portrait, though, is that of George S. Patton, with dialogue like, "I like people to shut the hell up when I walk into a room. I like raising the blood pressure of stodgy old farts." Yeah, that sounds like Patton, all right.

Shaara's Rommel deserves special mention. The picture we see is Erwin Rommel the "good" German, the reluctant warrior who placed his men over his own career, who cared nothing for Hitler and his frothing, drug-fueled madness, who was devoted to his wife and son and who chomped down on a poison capsule rather than expose them to ignominy and disgrace. There are some to say that Rommel refused to execute Jewish POWs despite Hitler's demands, and that he was never a Holocaust-booster. I don't know if this is true -- there are schools of thought on the subject -- but it is true that Rommel embraced Nazism early and loudly, and that he was not a participant in the failed assassination of 1944, although he was actively recruited by the plotters (for an outstanding literary novel on that subject, read Paul West's The Very Rich Hours of the Count Von Stauffenberg). Rommel's complexity as a human being is without question; the Rommel we see here embodies the "in another world, we could have been friends" philosophy that has been kicked around since the man's death. Some will buy it, some will not, and others, like me, will remain hopeful but skeptical.

Perhaps the book's greatest weakness, and this is completely subjective, is the author's penchant -- although he may see it as a necessity -- for pages and pages of exposition laboriously explaining which division went where, what rivers were crossed, and other details large and small about D-Day and the weeks that follow, all of which are available to the reader from any number of sources. Younger people, which is to say anyone who graduated from high school after the PC police took over the history textbooks, may not have this information, and will need it to follow the story. On the other hand, you can see World at War on Youtube, along with gazillion other documentaries, and thus obviate the need for Shaara's rehash. Frankly, I skipped much of this turgid retelling.

There is also a strange prudishness operating here. Damn, hell, bitch and bastard pop up frequently; any stronger language is either only hinted at ("f------" this or that) or omitted altogether. Don't look for sex, or even romance; all the women, and there are pitifully few of them, are offstage. This is a tough-guy war book your Aunt Agatha might read without a blush (were she so inclined). There's little or no cultural context, i.e. references to music, movies, cars, clothes, all the non-war things that make this period so fascinating. One could argue that those have no place in a battlefield book -- but could you write about Vietnam without sex, drugs, and rock and roll? The Greatest Generation (and I dislike that phrase) cared just as much for pop ephemera as any other humans. Some of these guys must have been thinking about jitterbugging even as they lobbed grenades.

What works in this book are the battle scenes, the tension before and the shock that follows. What satisfies is the growth of some fictional characters, in particular Unger, the scrawny, underaged kid from Iowa who Jesse Adams sees as most likely to cave under pressure and who (wholly predictable, but so what) turns into a coolheaded killer. Fiction, even genre fiction, can illuminate a historical event in ways documentaries and nonfiction cannot, with some notable exceptions. If you are interested in D-Day but, like me, yearn for some quotation marks mixed up with the history, you will warm to Steel Wave.


Tags : Amazon.com: The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II (9780345461414): Jeff Shaara: Books,Jeff Shaara,The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II,Ballantine Books,034546141X,Historical - General,War & Military,Historical fiction.,World War, 1939-1945;Italy;Sicily;Fiction.,World War, 1939-1945;North Africa;Fiction.,AMERICAN HISTORICAL FICTION,FICTION Action & Adventure,FICTION Historical General,FICTION War & Military,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Fiction-War & Military,GENERAL,General Adult,Italy,North Africa,SHAARA, JEFF - PROSE & CRITICISM,Sicily,United States,World War, 1939-1945,historical fiction;wwii;fiction;history;north africa;war;military;rommel;historical;patton;american history;sicily;italy;europe;montgomery;eisenhower;historical novels;historical novel;saga;historical fiction books;historic fiction;drama;genre fiction;literary historical fiction;historical books;historical book;historical fiction novels;historical fiction novel;historical fiction book;historical fiction saga;historical fiction sagas;historical saga;historical sagas;historical drama;novels;sagas,FICTION Action & Adventure,FICTION Historical General,FICTION War & Military,Fiction - Historical,American Historical Fiction,Italy,North Africa,Sicily,World War, 1939-1945,Fiction

The Rising Tide A Novel of World War II Jeff Shaara Books Reviews

I love historical novels, the setting in real events of interest (of course, why would they use uninteresting events?) expanding on the story lines with fictional characters.

What this does I'd put you into the story, It becomes a first person narrative rather than a somewhat distant third person telling of the tale. Here, Jeff Shaara uses a fictional tank crewmen and paratroopers to give you an eye view account of the war in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. And he does it so well, you become invested in he characters and their personalities, at least the American participants. With the exception of General Alexander, briefly, there is little detail of Churchill and Montgomery, two well known characters in any case.

Still, he makes Eisenhower and Patton come alive, their personalities, struggled, and thoughts. I truly enjoy Shaara's books.

I also have a vested interest, my father was in an Engineering battalion in WW2 and fought all these campaigns, I remember him mentioning the Kassereine pass, so I am trying to discover what he went through, what, made him as he was when I knew him. Almost 30 years gone, it is my only chance.
"The Steel Wave" by Jeff Shaara is the second novel (following "The Rising Tide") in Shaara's planned Second World War historical fiction trilogy. The theme of this novel is the planning and execution of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Northern France. In this piece Shaara uses his now-familiar technique of examining the time period in question from the perspective of historical figures -- some eminent indeed, such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, others less exhalted, i.e. a sergeant of paratroopers. In this novel the approach works superbly, because this novel passes the first critical test--it is one extremely engaging read. The novel moves along at a brisk pace, never loses the reader's interest, and has the ring of realism about it.

The other notable trait of this novel is that once again, Mr. Shaara appears to have done his homework. Shaara's insights into the problems faced by General Eisenhower, the various political leaders, and the men in the field, go well beyond the superficial. Here, the reader truly appreciates the risks and uncertainties that faced the planners and fighters of Operation Overlord. Shaara takes us into the infighting, indecisions, and ultimate risks with which the Allied generals had to contend. My sense is that here, Shaara is fairly evenhanded, although *very minor spoiler* partisans of British General Montgomery will probably not be pleased. And of course, Shaara does a creditable job showing us the invasion from the perspective of the incredibly brave men who actually undertook Operation Overlord and made it a success.

Overall, this is excellent historical fiction about a great subject, that is very well told. Highly recommended.
This is the first Jeff Shaara book I’ve read. It’s a long book and the beginning is a bit of a slog. We see and expect action-packed, fast-paced movies and TV, but this is a book. War planning is hard work and the interactions of the military personnel from the many countries who joined the ally coalition made the story. The action in North Africa showed the difficulties of the soldiers at a time when the best weapon we had was the tank, not the high-tech weaponry of today. As the war moves north into Sicily with the paratroopers, Shaara brings the reader into the battle and there are many tense moments when things go wrong. Then we see the ingenuity of the men in the field and how they learn to work together. Interesting read and brought WWII to life in a good and different way.
Guilty pleasure? Well, the pleasure is more of the thank-goodness-it's-actually-readable persuasion. The reality is, I am a WWII buff, I've read innumerable histories, and one day I found myself wishing I could read a fictional presentation of D-Day and its aftermath. I am a fan of Michael Shaara's Killer Angels (I've reviewed it here) but haven't found his son's work nearly as compelling based on various free samples. Steel Wave started out better than those, so I ordered the entire book and finished it last night.

This is a satisfying read for those who like a book to last a while. If I wanted to pay $5-10 for books I could read in a day, I'd be either a millionaire or completely insane, since I tend to read quickly. Steel Wave is a dense, chewy nugget of a book that will keep well in your mental refrigerator. Shaara gives the reader his/her money's worth.

The format is fairly simple. Chapters that take place in the minds of fictional characters alternate with those from the POV of Eisenhower, Rommel, Patton, and Bradley, among others. Sgt. Jesse Adams, the leading non-real person, is well-drawn, a thoughtful, clear-thinking individual whose surface toughness conceals an ... inner toughness. This isn't Steven Spielberg's D-Day. Picture the word "wuss" encircled with a slash across it, and you'll have some idea of the perspective here. Adams is a consistent presence across the book, and I was always glad to get back to him.

Glad, because as characters in a narrative the historical figures are less skillfully presented. Shaara does not render Winston Churchill well at all. I realize he is writing for a mass audience with scantier vocabularies and less delight in wordplay than the great man himself, but honestly, this is a very thin gruel. Churchill probably never referred to anything as "a crock" -- that's contemporary usage. Shaara has him make exclamations like, "Dammit! Tell me again it's going to work! Tell me!" and "Scares hell out of me, Ike. What's that damned Nazi cooked up?" I can imagine John Wayne saying those things, but Sir Winston? Uh, no. He was a Prime Minister who said and did many outrageous things, but employing strings of terse pedestrian monosyllables was not one of them.

Additionally, Churchill was never quite the boozer that Shaara (and many others) have tried to show him to be.

The author does better with Eisenhower, whose bland personality lends itself better to the tenor of this book. Ike's inner turmoil is believable as portrayed here. His irritation with Montgomery, who is as close to a villain as anyone gets on the Allied side of the novel, is consistent with Stephen Ambrose's authoritative version. Shaara's best portrait, though, is that of George S. Patton, with dialogue like, "I like people to shut the hell up when I walk into a room. I like raising the blood pressure of stodgy old farts." Yeah, that sounds like Patton, all right.

Shaara's Rommel deserves special mention. The picture we see is Erwin Rommel the "good" German, the reluctant warrior who placed his men over his own career, who cared nothing for Hitler and his frothing, drug-fueled madness, who was devoted to his wife and son and who chomped down on a poison capsule rather than expose them to ignominy and disgrace. There are some to say that Rommel refused to execute Jewish POWs despite Hitler's demands, and that he was never a Holocaust-booster. I don't know if this is true -- there are schools of thought on the subject -- but it is true that Rommel embraced Nazism early and loudly, and that he was not a participant in the failed assassination of 1944, although he was actively recruited by the plotters (for an outstanding literary novel on that subject, read Paul West's The Very Rich Hours of the Count Von Stauffenberg). Rommel's complexity as a human being is without question; the Rommel we see here embodies the "in another world, we could have been friends" philosophy that has been kicked around since the man's death. Some will buy it, some will not, and others, like me, will remain hopeful but skeptical.

Perhaps the book's greatest weakness, and this is completely subjective, is the author's penchant -- although he may see it as a necessity -- for pages and pages of exposition laboriously explaining which division went where, what rivers were crossed, and other details large and small about D-Day and the weeks that follow, all of which are available to the reader from any number of sources. Younger people, which is to say anyone who graduated from high school after the PC police took over the history textbooks, may not have this information, and will need it to follow the story. On the other hand, you can see World at War on Youtube, along with gazillion other documentaries, and thus obviate the need for Shaara's rehash. Frankly, I skipped much of this turgid retelling.

There is also a strange prudishness operating here. Damn, hell, bitch and bastard pop up frequently; any stronger language is either only hinted at ("f------" this or that) or omitted altogether. Don't look for sex, or even romance; all the women, and there are pitifully few of them, are offstage. This is a tough-guy war book your Aunt Agatha might read without a blush (were she so inclined). There's little or no cultural context, i.e. references to music, movies, cars, clothes, all the non-war things that make this period so fascinating. One could argue that those have no place in a battlefield book -- but could you write about Vietnam without sex, drugs, and rock and roll? The Greatest Generation (and I dislike that phrase) cared just as much for pop ephemera as any other humans. Some of these guys must have been thinking about jitterbugging even as they lobbed grenades.

What works in this book are the battle scenes, the tension before and the shock that follows. What satisfies is the growth of some fictional characters, in particular Unger, the scrawny, underaged kid from Iowa who Jesse Adams sees as most likely to cave under pressure and who (wholly predictable, but so what) turns into a coolheaded killer. Fiction, even genre fiction, can illuminate a historical event in ways documentaries and nonfiction cannot, with some notable exceptions. If you are interested in D-Day but, like me, yearn for some quotation marks mixed up with the history, you will warm to Steel Wave.