The best war memoir ever

Manchester fought as a marine in the Pacific in WWII, and he returned there to visit and to drive out the demons of black memory in 1978. His memoir of the trip and of the gruesome horrific events of the 1940's island warfare is the best war memoir I have read in 50 years of reading. The oral presentation in this audiobook is equally well done. The listener begins to think that the speaker himself experienced what Manchester wrote about. Surperlative, simply superlative.

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Essential

What did you like best about this story?

William Manchester sounds to be the source of much of today's ambivalent confusion about war, and is writing a fact filled, yet soppy emotional memoir / history of compelling stuff. Writing in 1978 or thereabouts, he illustrates perfectly a Me Generation dream sequence which is absent the conviction of necessity. Manchester writes as if, and clearly you can hear it in his articulation, the war was a great revelation to him and thus to everyone. In this regard he displays a kind of shocked naiveté, as if the two World Wars were something just invented for his father and himself, custom-made to drive him to madness. So he deals with repressed memories, and the shock of being amidst the random chaos and violence, and the amazement of how empty such places were after the war.

Manchester plays the role of the callow youth experiencing war, trying to deal with cowardice and bravado, and how neither of these simple expressions of manhood seem to have much to do with who dies and who survives the brutalities of the Pacific theater. A sergeant trying to lead men, who develops through sheer luck, an ability to survive the horrors of jungle warfare on extremely remote inhospitable islands.

The book serves as my first look into the complexities and the battles of the Pacific. Ask me yesterday and I might have said, Iwo Jima, Midway and Pearl, but now my understanding has been extended a great deal. Recognizing how close the Japanese came to Australia was a great revelation of the book, as well as the parallel drives northward of McArthur and Nimitz. The change in tactics by the Japanese and their all-consuming drive for victory as Dai Nippon has given me a new appreciation for why they were so hated by the Chinese. The devotion of many Pacific island natives to the Americans was something you never hear about, nor the primitive manner in which they lived and how Dai Nippon forced them into labor. The Solomons, the Marianas.

It may be because he also wrote extensively about McArthur and Churchill that his own experience as recounted in this book seems to define so well many of the anti-war sentiments of the a man who clearly absorbed the import of the counterculture in American life. He ends the book describing the traditional values of the America he grew up in as if they were long gone and never to return. He so concludes that he fought for the equivalent of an instinct for his fellow soldiers, all of whom possessed a logic in defense of things that no longer exist in the modern world, which only goes to demonstrate how mashed up in the illusory narrative he became, all the while railing against its ignorance through the book. It is this tension between the personal in the context of

Manchester is nothing if not an intelligent and articulate master of languages and betrays the kind of respect for it that makes all of his descriptions of dialect and war era terminology quite a treasure. Terms erased by polite and cowardly conventions spell truths that defy historical revisionism stand out everywhere in Manchester's writing. In reading this book you are submerged in a way of speaking American English that has all dried up into today's yuppy-speak. It's useful just to read the book aloud to experience something genuine. Manchester thus is at war with Hollywood and American ahistorical ignorance as well as with his former self.

This book is an absolute necessity.

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At least one in a hundred

Of the more than 100 books I have listened to at Audible, months later, this one sticks out in my mind. I have read all of Manchester's books. He is a fine historian but this autobiographical telling of one Marine's experience in the Pacific war is exciting, insightful and above all honest. It is not a romanticized view of war. This is an extraordinary piece of writing with a lot to be learned from it about the experience of courage, fear, and friendship.

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Powerful and Honest

Would you listen to Goodbye, Darkness again? Why?

Yes. Mr. Manchester shares his own experience, and accurately reveals the the history of several Pacific campaigns. He does so with literary skills few before him have. I have read many books on the Pacific campaign, and rarely was the veteran also a renowned author. Mr. Manchester's command of the language makes the history even more powerful. Although no author can give full life to any battle, Mr. Manchester comes as close as any I have read. In addition, his description of death is unabashed and brutal, but accurate.

What did you like best about this story?

The history and his literary skills. It draws you in and grips you.

Which character – as performed by Barrett Whitener – was your favorite?

The author's own experiences

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes

Any additional comments?

Some audible critics found it venturing too afar from the battlefield. In other words, delving too deeply into the author's own experiences before and after the war. Guilty as charged. If someone wants only the battle, only the simple facts, then I doubt they have any experience as a soldier, or want the whole story. War and soldering by definition is such a human experience, or inhumane experience, that to divorce the two is impossible. If the story can be told with honesty, with honest reflection and self-reflection, not to mention incredible literary skills, so much better for the reader. I'm sorry I had not read this years before.

5 people found this helpful

Moving and haunting

I'm a relative novice to the history of the pacific war in WWII and I purchased this book for 2 reasons: I wanted a basic overview from a soldier's point of view and I've read one of Mr. Manchester's other books and liked it. It's excellent on many fronts and several scenes and images will stick with me forever. From a historical perspective, it's probably a bit light. The overview of the war is in broad strokes but it works for this book. He frequently and fluidly moves from broad historical overview to his specific experiences although I did occasionally lose track of his specific experiences and those he was recounting from his fellow marines. The audiobook reader is overall good.

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Manchester is a great writer.

The author is almost always worth reading or listening to. This book is no exception. He really is passionate here as it is biographical.

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book girl

started a bit slow but WoW. So intimate and personal. How did anyone survive WWII in the South Pacific? True heros, true men. Truly a wonder, truly tragic. Most excellent narration.

2 people found this helpful

Battle narrations great..personal detours not

The first person accounts of some of the Pacific battles is riveting for someone whose read many histories of that campaign. I was impatient with the author's diversions into some personal history. A bit of background, ok...but his family tree to distraction and other personal stories had me tuning out.

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A Stunner

William Manchester is a brilliant writer who just happened to have been there in the thick of it, the war in the Pacific. I usually have a hard time understanding descriptions of battles, but this is clear, devastating writing which puts you right there.

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Why they were called the greatest generation

I’m the son of a father who fought in the pacific. Like the author he fought in 3 major battles. I am also a veteran of 30 years military service. I never completely knew my father. He was a proud man who spent so much of his life trying to hide his demons. He never really got over his PTSD but learned to manage it. This book brought back memories of my father. Those men were truly the best of the BEST. I hope there heroics will continue to live on. Unfortunately as with all things time has a way forgetting. This was such a good book. Definitely not sugarcoated and yes we had to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As general MacArthur said we would lose a million men if we had to attack main land Japan. Because we did, quite frankly, many of us are alive today along with our children and grandchildren.

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