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A review by velocitygirl14
Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy
3.0
This was a true epic of a book in all senses of the word. It goes from Pearl Harbour to the end of the war and has a ton of characters. It was gripping, well researched and had good descriptions and lively writing.
It did grab me for the entire time I was reading it and it does deserve a good rating, but looking back, not the five stars that I gave it.
That being said, there were a few things that were plain jarring and some a bit pointless.
She has one of the characters being sexually hit on by two older men of her FAMILY and that was like "WHUT?" I get that the character's supposed to be hot or something, but really?
There were also three characters too many that could have been cut out of the book and it wouldn't have made a difference. In fact, I wish she had so that she could have written about Stalingrad or spent more time in the Pacific.
The other complaint I had was of the same sex relationships. It was literally just smashed into your face that these two people, who hadn't shown previous inclinations as the stories were being built up, all of the sudden are pretty gay. One ends up deciding to live as a man out of a work necessity and it honestly didn't sit right. I know the book was written in 1987, so maybe it was a product of its time, but daaaamn Daniel, did it feel awkward to read.
The last thing was the connection of the twins and how they could feel each other's pain. It didn't fit in such a realistic setting and made it jarring to read. The suspension of disbelief took a beating with this.
Overall, it's a great book about WW2, but it does have it's flaws.
It did grab me for the entire time I was reading it and it does deserve a good rating, but looking back, not the five stars that I gave it.
That being said, there were a few things that were plain jarring and some a bit pointless.
She has one of the characters being sexually hit on by two older men of her FAMILY and that was like "WHUT?" I get that the character's supposed to be hot or something, but really?
There were also three characters too many that could have been cut out of the book and it wouldn't have made a difference. In fact, I wish she had so that she could have written about Stalingrad or spent more time in the Pacific.
The other complaint I had was of the same sex relationships. It was literally just smashed into your face that these two people, who hadn't shown previous inclinations as the stories were being built up, all of the sudden are pretty gay. One ends up deciding to live as a man out of a work necessity and it honestly didn't sit right. I know the book was written in 1987, so maybe it was a product of its time, but daaaamn Daniel, did it feel awkward to read.
The last thing was the connection of the twins and how they could feel each other's pain. It didn't fit in such a realistic setting and made it jarring to read. The suspension of disbelief took a beating with this.
Overall, it's a great book about WW2, but it does have it's flaws.