A review by gregbrown
Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness by Elizabeth D. Samet
More digestive than illuminating, Samet assembles a bric-a-brac of other author's takes that mostly make you wish you were reading those books instead.
I probably would have enjoyed this book if she stuck to a stronger or more centralized thesis, instead of meandering through postwar accounts, literature, and cinema to argue that WW2 and returning veterans affected them—no shit! So much of the book's actual meat is leaning on secondary sources making the same points, almost always with much more detail and real force. And the organization is just a disaster, feeling like she wanted to throw in every bit of research and personal interest that could be related to the book.
Just a very uneven reading experience, with small chunks where I was digging it between much larger stretches of hating the author.
I probably would have enjoyed this book if she stuck to a stronger or more centralized thesis, instead of meandering through postwar accounts, literature, and cinema to argue that WW2 and returning veterans affected them—no shit! So much of the book's actual meat is leaning on secondary sources making the same points, almost always with much more detail and real force. And the organization is just a disaster, feeling like she wanted to throw in every bit of research and personal interest that could be related to the book.
Just a very uneven reading experience, with small chunks where I was digging it between much larger stretches of hating the author.