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evamadera1 's review for:
I was quite surprised when I pulled up the book on goodreads to write a review and found that I had already read the book back barely a year and a half ago. Either that means that the book was remarkably unremarkable or I'm reading books too quickly now to generate a lasting impression or a combination of both. I honestly have no recollection of reading this book and it's not like some that I discover that I've read five or six years ago.
That being said, I am pleased to see that my opinion of the book did not really change. I noticed a couple different things this time around than before and my thought the time spent on what happened to the "villains" did not occur while reading the second time.
When I approached the book this time, I was excited to read it. I had just recently watched the movie via Amazon Prime (through a free trial add-on streaming service) and couldn't wait to delve back into that world. I ended up being a little let down. Something that I did not pay attention to the first time around really bothered me during this reading. As soon as I read Edsel's comment in the introduction that he had fictionalized some dialogue but kept it as close to what it likely was at the time, I became wary. This is a work of history, not historical fiction. Each time dialogue occurred throughout the book, in my mind, it lowered the quality of the historiography. Another thing that I did not note in my previous review was the difficulty to get into the narrative because of the frequent step backs in time to go over the back story of countless new characters. I know that many men were involved but it is possible to write a history such as this without trying to get the reader involved in the life story of every monuments men and a few "villians" from the German side. Once again it felt like Edsel was trying to fictionalize the story or at least create a narrative from which a movie could be made. Lastly, at one point Edsel included, in italics, the supposed thoughts of one of the Monuments Men. That bothered me immensely. That technique belongs to the world of authors of fictions not historiographers.
I finished this book wary to pick up the companion piece, Saving Italy. Spoiler alert: Edsel avoided the above mistakes and wrote a much better book.
That being said, I am pleased to see that my opinion of the book did not really change. I noticed a couple different things this time around than before and my thought the time spent on what happened to the "villains" did not occur while reading the second time.
When I approached the book this time, I was excited to read it. I had just recently watched the movie via Amazon Prime (through a free trial add-on streaming service) and couldn't wait to delve back into that world. I ended up being a little let down. Something that I did not pay attention to the first time around really bothered me during this reading. As soon as I read Edsel's comment in the introduction that he had fictionalized some dialogue but kept it as close to what it likely was at the time, I became wary. This is a work of history, not historical fiction. Each time dialogue occurred throughout the book, in my mind, it lowered the quality of the historiography. Another thing that I did not note in my previous review was the difficulty to get into the narrative because of the frequent step backs in time to go over the back story of countless new characters. I know that many men were involved but it is possible to write a history such as this without trying to get the reader involved in the life story of every monuments men and a few "villians" from the German side. Once again it felt like Edsel was trying to fictionalize the story or at least create a narrative from which a movie could be made. Lastly, at one point Edsel included, in italics, the supposed thoughts of one of the Monuments Men. That bothered me immensely. That technique belongs to the world of authors of fictions not historiographers.
I finished this book wary to pick up the companion piece, Saving Italy. Spoiler alert: Edsel avoided the above mistakes and wrote a much better book.