Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 stars" and he caught and held my attention for the better part of an hour
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2014
I first learned of Paul Fussell when I heard an interview with him on the University of Illinois radio station in the fall of 1989. He had just released "Wartime, Behavior and Understanding in the Second World War," and he caught and held my attention for the better part of an hour. I marked this book as one I wanted to read and obtained a copy a couple of months later. Once I started reading, I could not put it down. Fussell was erudite, observant, and always suffused with a keen sense of the ironic. (I realize this is not a review of "Wartime," but I will add an unsolicited recommendation for it without reservation...read it, by all means!).
I picked up "The Great War and Modern Memory" with the expectation that it would be another tour de force. It was not nearly as satisfying as Wartime, however; the subject material was much narrower in this work (limited to literature, particularly poetry, produced by members of the British officer corps) than in "Wartime" (which included wartime propaganda, popular song, advertising, bawdy humor, military buffoonery, and behavioral compensation in the face of shortage and sacrifice). "The Great War and Modern Memory" was worth the time invested in reading it...it was well-written, incisive, and informative...but unfortunately "Wartime" had primed my expectations and whetted my appetite for more than this book delivered.