The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II
by Jeff Shaara
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Book Reviews of The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II
Book Review: Page-turning story of the allied liberations of North Africa and Sicily
Summary: 5 Stars
Jeff Shaara delivers another historic fiction masterpiece in "The Rising Tide". In his preface to the book, he writes "What could I possibly add that hasn't already been written about so many times before? ... My goal is to find a few voices, and to tell their story through their eyes, to put you the same room with some of the most important and fascinating characters in our history." He continues "My goal here is to offer you a good story. I hope you find it so." After completing this book, I feel that he certainly succeeded.
The book begins with a quick introduction to the strategic environment leading to the rise of the nationalist socialist (Nazi) regime in Germany. Along with the rise of the Nazi party comes the political ambition of expanding Germany's borders and restoring prestige lost at the conclusion of World War I. With the strategic stage set, Shaara provides a brief biographical sketch of two main characters - Dwight Eisenhower and Erwin Rommel. From here, the reader departs on the fictionalized conversations of the people who set forth in motion the allies first counterthrust to the Wehrmacht juggernaut.
Shaara is the master of weaving the tactical, operational, and strategic viewpoints of the same events. He begins the story by relating the experiences of a British tank crew facing the onslaught of the Afrikakorps Panzers. Contrasting this perspective, he provides the reader with the conversations on strategy between General Rommel and his staff.
You share the thrill of the Afrikakorps Soldaten as they shred the predictable defenses of the British in Libya. You feel the anguish as Winston Churchill relieves the British Commander Auchinlech and replaces him with the flamboyant Bernard Montgomery. Montgomery relieves Auchinlech in time to prepare the British defenses at the Egyptian town of El Alamein. The flow of story travels with British army as they chase the Desert Fox across Libya.
The American characters are introduced as Shaara discusses the Allied planning to bring the battle to the Germans. Shaara accurately portrays the debates between British and American strategists between opening the "second" front in France, or in North Africa. With the debate settled, the next order of business was the selection of the command structure for the invasion of North Africa. Again, Shaara captures the nuances of the decisions to appoint an American as the overall commander with British officers as the component commanders.
No book on the American operations in North Africa would be complete without a discussion on the generals who made the operation a success. Readers gain an appreciation for the meteoric rise of stars like Omar Bradley, George Patton and Jim Gavin, to the firing of Fredendall who was responsible for the American debacle at Kasserine.
Shaara's story supports Clausewitzian adage of "warfare is a continuation of politics by other means." Shaara introduces the reader to Robert Murphy, the American State Department diplomat who worked behind the scenes to neuter the possibility of Vichy French resistance to the American invasions.
After the German surrender in Tunisia, the book continues with Operation Husky, the liberation of Sicily. While telling the story of the race to Messina, readers are introduced to the infamous Patton slapping incident. With Sicily secured, the invasion of Italy proper can begin. At this point, Eisenhower and a large portion of the American forces move to England in preparation for the invasion of France.
Shaara's story of these historic events is absolutely spell-binding. He masterfully wove the stories of men like Sgt Jesse Adams, a paratrooper from the 82d Airborne, with the tales of the key decision makers who put him in harm's way. Shaara also showed no preference for the side of the conflict. His fictional conversations were factually accurate and told the stories both the Axis and Allied warriors. This book will be a page-turner for the World War II history fan!
Book Review: Historical Fiction at its Best!
Summary: 5 Stars
Admittedly, I'm not familiar with Jeff Shaara's work outside of the movie "Gods & Generals," the sequel to the movie ("Gettysburg") inspired by his father's own historical fiction, "The Killer Angels." While I was not as impressed with the movie's take on history, I was led to the conclusion that aside from the title, much of the book is left out of the film. That being the case, and since I am an avid WWII history buff, I decided to give "The Rising Tide" a chance. How very glad I am that I did!
If you're looking for spoilers, you might consider reading another review, as I do not like to ruin anything for anyone. However, if you know your WWII history, especially in those early years of US ground operations in North Africa and Sicily, then you likely already know many of the outcomes, subplots and personalities. Instead, let me address the book itself, rather than the content.
What I most enjoyed was the fair portrayal given to both the Allied forces and the German army. In particular, we follow the careers of Eisenhower, Patton, Rommel and Kesselring through the North Africa and Sicily campaigns. Instead of merely villifying the Germans as all Nazi collaborators, we see a more sympathetic figure, full of brilliance and energy, but also flaws and setbacks. The same can be said of the Allied forces. Rather than merely glorify their wonderous deeds, we also explore the human aspects of the men in charge, their own shortcomings, fears, worries and personal struggles. It humanizes these icons in a way that is attainable to any reader, puts them on a level almost equal to our own.
What I next liked was the in-depth struggles of the soliders in the field. Instead of the omniscient voice constantly dictating the action on the battlegrounds, we see the side of the army from the lowest level, a private with a tank, and a sergeant with a 'stick' of paratroopers. In both cases, the war is brought home to a human level, to our own experiences and history. We identify with these men, and we share in their anxieties, fears, joys and confusion. The surreal nature of the conflict is only broadened by these more intimate experiences, and we can plunge ourselves deeper into the history because of it.
Bear in mind, the third-person-omniscient is present, and at times, we are handed the inner thoughts of generals and enlisted men. Sometimes, the action is moved forward, with a recapping of the interlude given to us by the narrator. Still, the pace is quick, the action is enveloping, the language is not too cerebral, but it also is not dumbed down for simplicity's sake. On the whole, this work by Jeff Shaara is very readable, hard to put down, and engrossing for any fan of historical fiction, WWII, war stories in general, or even the occasional generic fiction lover. It is a work of fiction, this much is true, but its sources are real-life persona, men who had fought in the sands and rocks. I do not believe the fiction goes much further than to supply the actual conversations that we know took place, just perhaps not the actual words. The battles, the people, though, are drawn straight from the pages of history.
I cannot recommend this book enough. If you are turned off by war stories, or if WWII is not your fancy, then you might not get as much enjoyment out of it as someone else who is a fan. I would still recommend it, though, as history is always worth revisiting, especially if it demonstrates the best and worst aspects of human nature. (We could always use a little reminder of what should and should not be repeated throughout our lives). If you are a WWII buff, though, I suggest you add this first book of a planned triology to your collection right away!
Book Review: World War II - A Detailed Personal History
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow! This book absolutely bowled me over! I was looking for a book on World War II told in (highly accurate) historical fiction style, and this is exactly what Shaara delivers. I own several other Shaara books, his World War I novel Gone For Soldiers, his Civil War trilogy Gods and Generals, and I absolutely am enthralled with his writing style since he places the reader in the heat of the battle, and deep inside the heads of his major characters. Shaara masterfully does the same with this first book of his World War II trilogy (the other two books are The Steel Wave: A Novel of World War II, No Less Than Victory: A Novel of World War II. Mr. Shaara writes from the perspective of several key individuals, in this book, from Dwight Eisenhower, Gen. George Patton, Field Marshall Irwin Rommel, and from the eyes of several soldiers. It is riveting reading! It is as though you are living in the moment, experiencing the battles (and stategy) first-hand. Shaara gets into the heads of his major characters, describing in fascinating detail how they work through their thoughts and feelings. When he describes a strategy meeting in Eisenhower's headquarters, it is as though the reader is in the same room, but able to read the deepest thoughts of each character. What is even more impressive, Shaara is so true to the actual personalities of his characters. Ever wondered what Eisenhower and Patton thought? History tells us what they did (their actions), but what thinking processes led them to their decisions and actions? Shaara has an uncanny ability to describe what his characters are thinking! Since they are actual historical characters, he could not take any poetic license in this area. This is what bowled me over; the research and volumes of reading Shaara had to go through to "know" these characters is simply astounding. My hat is off to Mr. Shaara. What results is a gripping narrative that not only educates the reader, but is thoroughly engaging as well. I literally did not want to put this book down!
The novel starts in North Africa and ends in Italy, and everything in-between is marvelously detailed, exciting reading. If you want to understand World War II better, yet not get bogged down in a dry "history" text, this is a great place to start. I have started the sequel to this book, "The Steel Wave", and it is as good, if not better than this volume. If you like this book, you will to want to read all three. I intend to give my trilogy to my sons to read. Hopefully they will never have to experience a war first-hand, but through Shaara's trilogy, they can better realize and appreciate what their grandfather (he's 89 years old now) went through to ensure the defeat of Hitler's Third Reich.
Highly recommended with NO reservations!
konedog
Book Review: Excellent Historical Fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
Jeff Shaara has successfully taken over the mantle begun by his father Michael Shaara, author of 'The Killer Angels who died too young. His work has improved over the years and this first book of his WWII trilogy is an outstanding beginning to what is not really fiction and not really non-fiction. Jeff Shaara takes us from North Africa to Italy in this book using real and imaginary characters. Along the way, he manages to explain details that would be boring in most informational WWII books. This book and the ones to follow would make, I think, a perfect reading companion to more historical works. I suggest that you read this particular book along with the excellent Rick Atkinson's 'An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy' and Rick Atkinson's 'The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944'
Some negative commentators here have nick picked minor errors, some of which were not even in the text. I include here a comment I attached to another comment simply so that my rating here will actually count.....
'You wrote this comment from a paraphrased 2 star commentary posted elsewhere: 'Another reviewer mentioned the removal of Jewish American POWS, by black trench-coated Gestapo agents, in Tunisia, in May. Never happened, and this was the final straw for me.'
Are you sure? Shaara's account on p354-355 was that POW's were taken, beaten and returned to camp. Logan realizes that they all had Jewish surnames. This gives the character Logan some insight into his German captors. Barely surviving, watching German guards ignore and starve POWs, Logan wonders why they are being treated so badly. The incident with Jewish-Americans makes Logan realize that it can indeed be worse. Saved from certain execution by a German major as American troops approach the camp, Logan pumps some rounds into the dead major's body. The liberating soldiers are disturbed by this but they understand. This is Jeff Shaara's point in these pages. POW camps were no 'Hogan's Heroes' fantasy. Ask any one who lived through it.
And I hope you also realize that incidents of Jewish-American soldiers removed from POW camps have been well documented throughout the war. For example, Jewish-American aviators were ordered segregated at Stalag Luft I in 1944 presumably to become part of the final solution. Fortunately, the camp was liberated by the Russians before that could happen. And in 1944, 80 Jewish-American POW's from the Battle of the Bulge were sent to the Berga concentration camp along with 270 other non-Jewish American POWs. 70 died. These were not isolated incidents. There are many other documented incidents of POW abuse.'
Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 1 Stars
As a reader of historical fiction and a WWII buff I really wanted to like this book. I have plowed through about two-thirds of it and just given up, as much as I wanted to like it I just can't take the time to go on.
For me, this book fails on several levels. Shaara tries to tell the "big picture" and "small picture" stories by switching points of view between historical and fictional protagonists, but the brief vingnettes with the fictional characters left me unable to know or care much about them.
The historical characters are poorly rendererd cardbord cutouts. I realized part way through that the dialogue attributed to each man is indistinguishable in vocabulary, diction, and tone from each other. There is no sense of Eisenhower's optimism, Patton's fire, Rommel's leadership or Marshall's gravitas. All of them, in the book, speak in contemporay (and I mean currrent contemporary) slang. I realize that general officers sometimes address each other by first name in private, but I don't believe ANYONE ever addressed Marshall as "George"...and Marshall addressed Eisenhower as "Eisenhower" and never as "Ike" as Shaara has him doing.
By the way, there is an author's warning about the language in the book. It's limited to everybody saying "damnned" a whole damnned lot - from George Marshall (who seldom, if ever, used any sort of profanity) to George Patton (who was famous for his foul tounge, and was a much more creative cusser then using one mild expletive continuously).
The research seems to be correct in the large but superficial. The author refers to equpment (armored trucks) that did not exist in the U.S. Army inventory in 1942, and there are numerous small factual errors - for example American tanks are referred to as "more compact" then German ones - when in fact the high profile of US armor was a disadvantage compared to German armor.
In short, if you know anything about WWII history already, you will not enjoy the book because of the inaccurate characterization of historical figures that you already know and numerous niggling factual errors. If you aren't knowlegeable about WWII history, you will get tired of the cookie-cutter characters and won't care much about the fictional ones.
The story of a green U.S. Army facing the veteran German army and losing it's first battle (Kasserine Pass) and then recovering to win victory after victory over the nazis is a great one. It deserves better than this novel. Your time and money would be better spent with history - like Stephen Ambrose, Cornelius Ryan or Charles B. Macdonald to name a few.