Summer reading

Hot summer days make for excellent times to read in a Pawley's Island hammock in the deep shade of our maples. Or, when it gets too blasted hot and still outside, under a ceiling fan (closest thing we have to AC). Recently I've gotten into several nonfiction books:

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E. B. Sledge. On Memorial Day I posted reactions to Sledge's compelling account of his service as a Marine in WWII. I was inspired to learn more about the war in the Pacific and to read With the Old Breed after watching HBO's excellent miniseries, The Pacific that was based, in part, on With the Old Breed and on Robert Leckie's A Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific. Leckie's book will be a future read for me.








Loaned to to me by my brother-in-law, I just finished reading a fish tale, Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish, by G. Bruce Knecht. Ever heard of the Patagonian toothfish? Perhaps you know it better as an offering on your favorite restaurant's menu - Chilean Sea Bass. Much of the story takes place in the treacherous waters of the Southern Ocean as Australia's Southern Supporter tracked poachers suspected of illegal fishing near Heard Island. But Hooked is a global fish story of how a little known fish was rebranded and became a runaway hit at trendy American restaurants. It is the story of pirates who feel they've done nothing wrong, of rich importers who go to great and often illegal pains to deceive regulators, and of lawyers who use every courtroom trick to make sure the pirates are back at sea using hi-tech means to take in huge hauls of fish. Ultimately though, Hooked is the story of how man's greed and technology has lead to the commercial collapse of many of the world's great fisheries.

On the fiction side, I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.
While I found it a bit slow at the start, the pace of this thriller quickly picked up and it was tough to put down until all the twists and turns of this thriller were exposed. If you find a murder mystery, financial intrigue, an offbeat love story, and a dysfunctional family intertwined in a sprawling novel to be of interest, you will enjoy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a fun read.

During the heat of yesterday afternoon, I started Larsson's The Girl Who Played with Fire. I'm not that far into it, but like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the author is taking some time setting the stage and introducing the characters. I'm still uncertain where this story is heading but am looking forward to getting back into the lives of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist later today.

Remembrance

Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day as a way to remember those who died in service to the United States of America. While there are various stories about the origins of Memorial Day, it appears that it was first officially observed on May 30, 1868 when flowers were placed on the graves at Arlington National Cemetery. Today, many Americans seem to have forgotten the original meaning of Memorial Day and see it more as the beginning of summer when swimming pools open, BBQ grills are flaring, and NASCAR is roaring.

While veterans groups and many cities and towns have parades and other events to honor our nation's war dead, in my opinion many of those events also glorify war itself. And while it is quite true that war can bring out the very best in individuals - bravery, courage, compassion, teamwork, loyalty - as Eugene Sledge writes in his incredible memoir, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa - 

War is brutish, inglorious, and a terrible waste.  Combat leaves an indelible mark on those who are forced to endure it.

With the Old Breed provided much of the background for HBO's production of The Pacific, a miniseries that followed the stories of Sledge, Robert Leckie, John Basilone and other Marines from Guadalcanal, through the bitter fighting in the little remembered Battle of Peleliu, across the bloody sands of Iwo Jima, through Okinawa's horrors. As (some of) the men return home they find themselves in a strange place within America, within their families, and within themselves.

I was reminded of my childhood questions to my own father, a WWII Army veteran who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was among the first U.S. troops to meet the Russian troops advancing from the east. Questions that disclosed my own childish glorification of war. Questions that he refused to answer then by deflecting them to lighter moments of the Army life. Questions that will remain forever unanswered.

This Memorial Day, let us honor those who understood, "if the country is good enough to live in, it's good enough to fight for." But, let's not use Memorial Day to glorify war itself. Rather we should keep in mind the words of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman who said, "War is Hell." History books may talk of winners and losers, but in war there are only varying degrees of losers. Memorial Day should, in the words of Herman Wouk, author of War and Remembrance, remind us all that -

The beginning of the end of war lies in remembrance.