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PaperclipPerfector  27d ago (text post)   3318 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 26, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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I seek recommendations for a book about WWII for my son. He's 8 years old and is an advanced reader... he hasn't read much text targeted for adults but sucks down 500-page young adult fantasy novels on a day.

We watched a documentary about FDR and now he wants to learn about World War II. I think what I seek is something non-fiction targeted to adults but also targeted to popular consumption -- not something super dry but something a bit more meaty than a fantasy novel.

Alternatively, good fiction that's not just super depressing could be interesting as well.

War Diary, 1939-1945. It's a collection of... well, war recollections, from every theatre, every side, military and civilian.

I also recommend Escort Commander, Sink the Bismarck!, and you could always go for The Longest Day... it even got a movie adaptation with one or two decently-known actors.

There’s always Audi Murphy’s memoirs.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Horrible Histories entry when I was in primary school: https://www.amazon.com/Woeful-Second-World-Horrible-Histories/dp/1407163914

Despite the funny illustrations, it's remarkably unsanitised for a children's book. I think this is actually where I first learned what the Holocaust was. There's a chapter going into detail about the moral ambiguity of the conflict, pointing out that, while the Nazis were obviously evil, the Allies did some pretty questionable things too, such as the firebombing of Dresden. Surprisingly confrontational given the intended demographic.

These books made me better at British history than 99.9% of American middle schoolers. The Slimy Stuarts stands out as an especially entertaining entry.

Maybe Operation Mincemeat? Wikipedia tells me there have been multiple books and films based on it. I watched the BBC TV programme based on Ben Macintyre's book.

I second this - I've read Macintyre's book, it's excellent. Also I feel like it's got a very approachable writing style, even for a younger reader.

Boris Polevoy's Story of a Real Man was something we had to read in school. Don't know how easy it is to find in English. It's the right blend of realism and idealism, I think. Don't know how easy it is to find in English. Amazon has it in Chinese, Turkish, Bengali and Malayalam.

I'm not sure if it's exactly what you want, since it's a British perspective and mostly focuses on the less-famous fronts, but George MacDonald Fraser is a fantastic writer IMO. Check them for content/style before you give them to your son, though. I don't know what you consider appropriate reading material.

He has a great, thinly-fictionalised account of his time in Africa after the war. It's very funny and mostly covers the antics that Highland regiments get up to when nobody's watching. It's post-war so there's a few shots fired but no death or gore that I can remember. It's clear-eyed too: there's one part where his squad gets trapped by a rioting crowd of nationalists and only quick thinking by a side character prevents him from having to choose between firing into the crowd and letting them tear his men apart. But in general it's pretty light-hearted and a military family member recommended it to me as the best account of what it's actually like in the army.

Alternatively, he has one non-fiction autobiographical book about his time in Burma which isn't depressing exactly but is probably too adult for your son. (One of his friends gets up to go to the loo, wanders into the wrong place, and gets killed by friendly machine-gun fire; a group of Japanese prisoners mysteriously die when a boulder is rolled on top of their improvised gaol and everyone is very careful not to investigate; Japanese torture is mentioned; there is a lengthy section at the end where he passionately defends dropping nukes on Japan).

I have never seen someone in the wild recommend this author. It's so odd to me that nobody's heard of him around me, because his Flashman series is iconic, and I still find myself thinking of his Quartered Safe Out Here anecdotes (like the one you mentioned, his friend getting cut in half by machine gun friendly fire in the middle of the night, or the one where he randomly stumbled on a Japanese soldier and surprised each other and he unshouldered his rifle and shot him first).

I read all the Flashman books and I greatly appreciate the Three and Four Musketeer films based on the screenplays he wrote. I will readily second the recommendation.

But now I have to ask myself why I haven't read more from the man. I guess it just never occurred to me. Will have to remedy this.

Greeting, fellow man of culture!

I always remember him saying that people in real life react so exactly like the most hackneyed of Hollywood films that they're completely unwriteable, like the friend who got a bullet in the shoulder and rolled over shouting, "They got me, the rats! They got me!"

That said, I could never get into Flashman. I recognise that they're absolutely gripping yarns, and very well-researched, but the main character is too deliberately unlikeable for me to enjoy spending time with him. I wish GMF had written more books like McAuslan.

I've only read the first Flashman book but it was his unlikeability that made it so enjoyable. The character's utter lack of apology for being so unabashedly self-serving provides a lot of fun.

The first book is where he's the most unlikeable, the latter books increasingly make him trend towards being more of a rascally anti-hero rather than the complete shit he is in the first one. (He's still pretty monstrous in the few following ones but the process has already started.)

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