NUMBER: 47TITLE: Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce
AUTHOR: Stanley Weintraub
STARTED: August 19, 2007
FINISHED: August 21, 2007
PAGES: 206
GENRE: Military
FIRST SENTENCE: Three myths would arise during the early months of the Great War.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] At Christmas time in 1914, blood enemies emerged from their trenches in Flanders Field in Belgium, shook hands, and wished each other a merry Christmas. In his newest book, Weintraub (A Stillness Heard Round the World: The End of the Great War) draws on letters, diaries, and a variety of other source material to tell the inspiring story of the spontaneous Christmas Truce of World War I, when enemy troops laid down their arms, exchanged gifts, and reveled in their shared humanity. The desperate longing for peace, which Weintraub captures through the words of the soldiers themselves, underscores the poignancy of the ending of the truce, when outraged commanders ordered newly made friends to kill one another.
REASON FOR READING: I saw the film "Joyeux Noel" and was intrigued by the real life incidents on which it was based.
THOUGHTS: This book was a bit scattered and loose in its structure, but was interesting in content nonetheless. Weintraub takes a very academic approach to his material, going so far as to not translate some foreign language passages. While that made the material rather dense, the instances of personal narratives and stories brought the book down to a more accessible level.
The prose, while not overly thick on the academic language, can be a bit difficult to slip into. Weintraub seems to take a very distanced approach to his material. The stories and examples he chooses to include seem passive. The subject matter of this book could have really connected with the reader, but Weintraub's writing puts space between the reader and the history. It was rather annoying - I wanted to get to know these soldiers, but Weintraub merely tossed their stories in before jumping to another example. I think Weintraub's narrative could have benefited greatly if he chose one section of trench to focus on. The way he jumps around, clumping groups together only by actions (i.e. sharing songs, burying the dead, playing soccer), can be very discombobulating.
What this book needed was a decent edit and rewrite. Silent Night has all the makings of a great book, but it reads like a first draft instead of a polished, final manuscript.
MISCELLANEOUS: I think I need to read more about World War I.
RATING: 5/10 [Meh.]
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