Andy Rooney (1919–2011)

Lately I've been reading stories about war, an unfortunate constant of human history, I'm afraid. Tales about WWII, or "The Last Good War" (a book I read many years ago), as Studs Terkel called it, abound, but I especailly recommend this one. My War, by Andy Rooney (yep, the same bushy-eyebrowed old grump you see on 60 Minutes every week), is a true gem, full of his homespun self-deprecating bits of humor and wisdom, along with the expected grim and grisly stories about the carnage that is show more war. As to the importance of his wartime experience, Rooney says right up front, "My life was never the same again." As a young reporter (his army ID photo looks startlingly like Audie Murphy, who of course penned his own memoir, To Hell and Back) for The Stars and Stripes, Rooney got up close and personal with both the air and ground wars in Europe, and also traveled to India and China, rubbing shoulders with Ernie Pyle, Bill Mauldin and Walter Cronkite. One particular line from the book has stayed with me: "I laugh, bitterly, when I hear the phrase, 'He gave his life for his country.' No one gives his life. His life is taken." Rooney is a newspaperman and a reporter, but more than anything else he is a damn fine writer who simply tells it like he sees it. - Tim Bazzett, author of Soldier Boy and Love, War & Polio show less

My War is a blunt, funny, idiosyncratic account of Andy Rooney’s World War II. As a young, naïve correspondent for The Stars and Stripes, Rooney flew bomber missions, arrived in France during the D-Day invasion, crossed the Rhine with the Allied forces, traveled to Paris for the Liberation, and was one of the first reporters into Buchenwald. Like so many of his generation, Rooney’s life was changed forever by the war. He saw life at the extremes of human experience, and wrote about what show more he observed, making it real to millions of men and women. My War is the story of an inexperienced kid learning the craft of journalism. It is by turns moving, suspenseful, and reflective. And Rooney’s unmistakable voice shines through on every page. show less

I found this one in the back of a classic thrift store, somewhat near my house. It is the last of these types of thrift stores that I came of age frequenting that I know of - the mothball smell of the old clothes, the yellowed atmosphere. In the back room where they keep all their books, board games, puzzles, old magazines, and records, this book caught my eye from the overstuffed bookshelves.

My family and I used to watch 60 Minutes ritually when I was a kid, and Andy Rooney’s rants were show more my favorite part. However, the cleverness has faded, and the text has aged rather badly. This book filled me with a kind of nostalgia when I read it, a glimpse of a world long gone (the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s). Many of his "witty" gripes have been dissolved by advancement, or the cause has disappeared altogether, or proves to be sexist or even racially insensitive.

However, there are a few must-reads here: D-Day, An Essay on War, and Savers. I would give an honorable mention to Chairs, a classic of Rooney’s curmudgeonry. I did like In Praise of New York City as well, where he said that diversity and the failure of immigrant cultures to melt into society at large, combined with the successes of integration into the same society by the same immigrants, lay at the heart of the city. Wonder what he’d say about it now? These parts that I delighted in amount to a total page count of 28 pages in a 245-page book, so take that as you will.

In the end, I really cannot recommend this book. I picked it up in a fit of 1980s nostalgia; it has aged badly save for the bits I mentioned above. Although the parts on WWII are really worth seeking out and reading, though very short. show less

This was an interesting, and unusual, perspective on WWII. While some reviewers have criticized Rooney for some of the actions he relates in his book, I think they do him a disservice in overlooking just how young and inexperienced he was at the time he describes, in overlooking the regrets he voices, and in overlooking the fact that most people writing their autobiography would not be as candid as to their flaws and mistakes as Rooney is. As Rooney wrote this book late in life, the book show more also contains a number of valuable insights about societies, governments, war, and patriotism/nationalism. While I stumbled across this book by accident, I think it worth seeking out. show less