Beyond Boring: Not even close to what it could have been
Written: Sep 18 '04 (Updated Sep 19 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: 23 Medal of Honor recipients share the experiences that led to their receiving the medal
Cons: Stories have no context, are not compelling, and do not vividly capture heroic bravery.
The Bottom Line: If you enjoy military books, you won't regret reading this book, but don't have high expectations.
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| excremento's Full Review: Beyond Glory: Medal of Honor Heroes in Their Own W... |
I'm a member of the History Book Club. Last fall, the club offered Beyond Glory and it looked like an interesting subject. I suppose I'm a bit of a "Hawk." I value the service of the armed forces and believe in supporting them.
More specifically, as far as this book is concerned, I'm interested in the highest expressions of bravery. This book seemed like a great collection of such experiences, 23 in all. Problem is, the book is not that great.
I read this book in the spring of 2004, and it was a struggle to complete it. It's just not compelling, certainly not as compelling as you would expect it to be.
Why it disappointed
1. My biggest problem with this book is that, even though the medal recipients share their stories, I had a hard time getting a feel for why they received the medal. In a general sense, I suppose the soldiers' overall experience is their "medal experience," but sometimes I was thinking, "That's all they did?"
I attribute this shortcoming to bad interviewing. Smith should have made these guys seem larger than life, but he didn't. Sure, in some situations you clearly see how the soldier performed in the face of incredible odds. But overall, the stories fall flat.
To be fair, the official citation for each medal is included in the book, but I didn't bother with those. Who wants to read boring bureaucratic language when the soldier himself is telling his story?
2. No maps, no context. Giving the reader a thorough overview of the battle in question would have helped in grasping the magnitude of what these men accomplished. It's really hard to follow the narrative without this context.
I should have written this review after I read the book last spring so that I could more accurately communicate my frustration with it. I suppose one reason I didn't like it is that I had high expectations for it, and it didn't even come close to approaching those.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
excremento
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Member: Jason Russell
Location: It's all a state of mind
Reviews written: 34
Trusted by: 4 members
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