The Long March

Long march, short book. I wonder if it’s unfashionable to read Styron these days, noting just one of my GR friends have read this. Or maybe it has other issues: because it’s a war book and who hasn’t read enough of them?

But this one’s different. It has two clear themes running through it. One is war and the army and we hear all the things we expect to. War’s bad. Even if you aren’t actually there, just training. But entwined in this story is the one about a type of person and a type of relationship. It’s told as the colonel vs the honest, cynical captain, who is determined to win his personal battle with the colonel by forcing his not competent for the exercise men to get through the long march imposed on them. But it show more could be any boss with any employee, it’s a story you see every day, the one where the boss is a sort of bully who catches the employee in that attitude of okay, I’m going to do every fucking unreasonable thing you tell me to and that’s going to make me the winner. But the incredibly sad truth is, it doesn’t make the employee the winner. It makes the employer the winner and to make matters worse, he doesn’t even care. He doesn’t even really notice that he’s won. And yet it is so hard not to engage, even though the bully triumphs whatever you do.

This is a marvellous book about such a heroic character who can’t win. It is beautifully told, takes a couple of hours to read. Throughout I had a picture in my head of who would be in the movie. George Rossi. Perfect.

rest here:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2017/08/21/the-long-march-by-william... show less

"Won't they ever let us alone, the sons of bitches?"
By sally tarbox on 25 November 2016
Format: Kindle Edition
Although this isn't 'my thing' at all, I must say that it's a superbly written novella (88p).
Set in a military base in Carolina, the two main protagonists, Culver and Mannix, are officers in the Marines. Having served in WW2, they remained reservists, never expecting to be wrenched away from the lives they've created with wives and jobs just 6 years later with the onset of the Korean War. Utterly resentful at being brought back to the military life, they despise the career soldiers, the stupid commands, the loss of life.

"You know", he said once, "I think I was really afraid just one time last war." The phrase 'last war' had had, show more itself, a numb resigned quality, in its lack of any particular inflection, like 'last weekend' or 'last movie I went to see."

After a friendly fire accident - heart rendingly described - leaves eight young soldiers dead, the Colonel orders a 36 mile walk; pride and a determination to spite his superior leave Mannix determined that he and his men make it, no matter what... The fatigue, the unreality, the pain and struggle to keep on are convincingly portrayed.

A book that would merit a second reading. show less

Long march, short book. I wonder if it’s unfashionable to read Styron these days, noting just one of my GR friends have read this. Or maybe it has other issues: because it’s a war book and who hasn’t read enough of them?

But this one’s different. It has two clear themes running through it. One is war and the army and we hear all the things we expect to. War’s bad. Even if you aren’t actually there, just training. But entwined in this story is the one about a type of person and a type of relationship. It’s told as the colonel vs the honest, cynical captain, who is determined to win his personal battle with the colonel by forcing his not competent for the exercise men to get through the long march imposed on them. But it show more could be any boss with any employee, it’s a story you see every day, the one where the boss is a sort of bully who catches the employee in that attitude of okay, I’m going to do every fucking unreasonable thing you tell me to and that’s going to make me the winner. But the incredibly sad truth is, it doesn’t make the employee the winner. It makes the employer the winner and to make matters worse, he doesn’t even care. He doesn’t even really notice that he’s won. And yet it is so hard not to engage, even though the bully triumphs whatever you do.

This is a marvellous book about such a heroic character who can’t win. It is beautifully told, takes a couple of hours to read. Throughout I had a picture in my head of who would be in the movie. George Rossi. Perfect.

rest here:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2017/08/21/the-long-march-by-william... show less

Long march, short book. I wonder if it’s unfashionable to read Styron these days, noting just one of my GR friends have read this. Or maybe it has other issues: because it’s a war book and who hasn’t read enough of them?

But this one’s different. It has two clear themes running through it. One is war and the army and we hear all the things we expect to. War’s bad. Even if you aren’t actually there, just training. But entwined in this story is the one about a type of person and a type of relationship. It’s told as the colonel vs the honest, cynical captain, who is determined to win his personal battle with the colonel by forcing his not competent for the exercise men to get through the long march imposed on them. But it show more could be any boss with any employee, it’s a story you see every day, the one where the boss is a sort of bully who catches the employee in that attitude of okay, I’m going to do every fucking unreasonable thing you tell me to and that’s going to make me the winner. But the incredibly sad truth is, it doesn’t make the employee the winner. It makes the employer the winner and to make matters worse, he doesn’t even care. He doesn’t even really notice that he’s won. And yet it is so hard not to engage, even though the bully triumphs whatever you do.

This is a marvellous book about such a heroic character who can’t win. It is beautifully told, takes a couple of hours to read. Throughout I had a picture in my head of who would be in the movie. George Rossi. Perfect.

rest here:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2017/08/21/the-long-march-by-william... show less

A training exercise, an endurance march by a set of marines, reveals a good deal about two major characters, and about the process of military training itself. I recommend this book to anyone trying to understand armies.

This is one of those stories that sets up shop in your mind and comes out when your own life experience rubs up in even the smallest way against the experiences of the characters.

Une hallucinante marche forcée, dans une unité de Marines. Tel est le fait divers réel dont est parti William Styron pour écrire ce roman où s'affrontent deux univers mentaux : celui de l'officier de profession et celui du civil qui a revêtu occasionnellement l'uniforme. Le grand romancier, auteur des Confessions de Nat Turner, a servi lui-même dans les Marines et son expérience donne à ce récit un ton de criante vérité.