William Manchester (1922–2004)

I've wanted to read GOODBYE, DARKNESS (1980) for a long time, ever since reading that cover blurb from the LA Times, saying, "It belongs with the best war memoirs ever written." Unfortunately I don't agree, because I found it to be a frustrating mix of too much of history and not nearly enough of the personal. In fact it didn't seem to fit comfortably into the memoir category at all, and this in spite of the way Manchester framed his story with a narrative of his trip back to the scenes of show more the most horrific battles of the Pacific theater - Guadalcanal, Guam, Corregidor, Okinawa and more - thirty-plus years later. And maybe I shouldn't have been surprised at all the facts, figures and history crammed in here, since Manchester is, first an foremost, an historian-biographer (MacArthur Mencken, Churchill). And the personal parts here were indeed very good, both the humorous and the horrific, like his failed attempt to lose his virginity in San Diego before shipping out, or the memory of the first time he killed an enemy soldier, close up and very personal. Or accounts of how he was wounded, or carried an injured comrade to safety under fire. These parts, sprinkled here and there between all the historical data were really quite riveting. But they were rare and other parts could be a hard slog. But I got through it all, and it was a pretty impressive read, albeit, to my mind, not a real "memoir."

And then, wondering if/when William Manchester had died, I Googled him. He died in 2002. And after he died, numerous fact checkers learned that most of the personal parts of GOODBYE, DARKNESS were grossly exaggerated or complete fabrications, including his boasts of having been awarded the Navy Cross, a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts. Nope. Manchester was a Marine cartographer. He did not receive those distinguished decorations.

Stolen valor. Sad. Why didn't he just write a novel? Because he really can write! I find it all kinda depressing. Because I LOVED his MacArthur biography, AMERICAN CAESAR, when I read it back in the early eighties. Ah, well ...

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir BOOKLOVER show less

The fact that Churchill was so witty, and so right about one big thing, is why I read so much about him. He was a great man, and a racist who did terrible things to people he thought didn’t count, which was most of the human race. His concern was for Britain, always. Manchester is also a pleasure to read: “If the man existed with whom Wallis [Simpson] had enjoyed a platonic friendship, his name is lost to history.”

This is a raw and brutally vivid memoir by a US marine who fought in the Pacific in World War 2. He also happens to be an accomplished author and biographer, so the prose is beautiful. The story itself is not - it is rough and disturbing - but it feels accurate. It is a close-up view of the absurity and stupidity of war - in clear and extremely personal terms. The story is told via the author's trip back to those islands 33 years after the events that took place. The effect is at once show more haunting and hopeful....we learn about the scars of the author, the landscapes and the islanders. All in all a heavy read, but an important one. show less

There are few political leaders that have captured my imagination like Winston Churchill does. William Manchester not only tells the story of what is perhaps Britain's greatest prime minister, he does it in fantastic detail. I've read complaints that Manchester uses perhaps too much detail, but I could not have enjoyed it more.

Manchester paints a picture of life at the end of one era--the Victorian--and beginning of the next, the Edwardian. Churchill's life straddled change in eras, and show more Manchester doesn't just write Churchill's biography, but a history of the time that is full and vibrant. Churchill isn't just a great leader, but a product of both the past and the future. His lived as colorfully and dangerously as any writer could have imagined, in spite of a beginning that was marked by comfort and wealth.

Born to a wealthy aristocratic family, Winston was raised by a nanny while his father and mother (an American) were off gallivanting with the nobles of England. Along the way, Winston proved to be a poor student and got himself kicked out of several schools. Never close to his father--if at all--Winston would write pleading letters to his mother to come visit him during the years he would spend at prep school. His father died young after being marginalized from a career that put him on the threshold of England's prime minister-ship.

The family's wealth mostly squandered, Winston was required to find a career, unique from his aristocratic peers who were used to living off of their families' wealth. He had always had an interest in the military, and he pursued a career that combined writing and military action, utilizing his mother's influence in the aristocracy to go where the action was. He saw action in Afghanistan and Sudan, and he sent home breathtaking accounts to the newspapers that catapulted him into the nation's consciousness. When he was taken as a POW in the Boer War, and escaped, he became a celebrity.

And it only gets better. Winston would feed himself by his pen for the rest of his life, writing articles, stories, books, and even publishing an entire newspaper during a nationwide general strike. He served as First Lord of the Admiralty at a time when Britain ruled the waives and the British Navy was unrivaled on the seas. Though later blamed for the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, Winston would be a remain force to reckoned with in the House of Commons through out his life. Winston would levy powerful rhetoric in defense of his allies and against his enemies, giving "impromptu" speeches after hours of preparation the night before.

This first volume of the biography covers the first fifty eight years of Churchill's life, up to a time when many politicians would be entering the twilight of their careers. Faced with setbacks and defeats, Churchill himself switched parties twice over the course of his career. With yet, his greatest hour, and Britain's, would come later with World War II.

I look forward reading the next volume in Manchester's trilogy. show less