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Bezig met laden... Something About a Soldierdoor Charles Willeford
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. Willeford doesn't candy coat anything in this memoir. He gives us a very engaging, non-airbrushed account of being a young man in the military during the great depression. However, it's not all just whoring and drinking and gambling but an honest and even endearing tale of how young Willeford grows into a young adult-hood and finally manages get ahead in the army . Similar to E. C. Abbott's fantastic We Pointed Them North: Recollections of a Cowpuncher, which is also a "tell it like it was" kind of a book. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
"This funny, rich, raunchy autobiography re-creates the adventures of a very young soldier in the U.S. Army at the height of the Depression. Charles Willeford was sixteen in 1935 when he signed up and was sent to the Philippines. And the Philippines of those days was like a place out of another century. Willeford's job was to fuel aircraft whose pilots treated him and his buddies almost like slaves. At night, however, he was a lord, fully exploring a great, timeless and sensual city with a multitude of women available--even on a private's pay. While still in his teens, Charles Willeford had an artist's eye for the interesting detail, and he recalls here, with telling effect, the hardest of times and introduces the reader to the unusual companions he met along the way. He also initiates the reader into an exotic, leisurely way of life that will never be seen again in or out of the Armed Services. Willeford wanted to leave the Army after his tour of duty, but there still were no jobs, and he re-enlisted, this time in the cavalry in California, where he learned about horses the Army way. Perfect in its depiction of an often brutish way of life--and the colorful mingling of unfettered boys, bitter old men, and even intellectuals--Something About a Soldier is a rare portrait of a vanished army"--Dust jacket. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)355.0092Social sciences Public Administration, Military Science Military Science Biography And History BiographyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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Willeford fancied himself a poet, though he dropped out of junior high before enlisting in the army at sixteen, in the depths of the Great Depression, to escape a life of grinding poverty in Los Angeles. But he was a voracious reader, devouring the work of Thomas Wolfe, Steinbeck and Jack London, as well as some of the hack writers of his day - Tiffany Thayer, Donald Henderson Clark, etc. - writers popular with his army buddies.
Willeford ended up serving twenty years in the army, and emerged from WWII as a much-decorated veteran. He did go to college much later in life and taught at the University of Miami. He authored nearly twenty books, including many popular detective novels. He died in 1988, just two years after the publication of this book.
I really enjoyed Willeford's story and was sorry to get to the end of it. Wished I could call him up and chat. No dice with that. R.I.P., Will. And thanks for sharing these great stories from your youth. Highly recommended, especially for military veterans. ( )