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For years, Jeff Shaara has been blending fiction and history into compelling and emotionally charged story devices for readers. Following in the footsteps of his father, Michael, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his historical novel THE KILLER ANGELS, Shaara has impressed common readers as well as historians with his portrayals of the Civil War, World War I, the American Revolution and the Mexican War. Now, with THE RISING TIDE, he begins a journey into the very heart of World War II, and his opening volley in this three-book series is explosive.
May 27, 1942 is the starting point for this endeavor, buried in the sand of the Libyan Desert. German commander Field Marshall Erwin Rommel is pushing across the dunes with his Afrika Korps and striking against the British Desert Rats. Hitler overruns France and begins to set his sights on Russia. With the Germans focusing their attentions on two separate fronts, the Allied Forces make ready a strong blitz in Northern Africa with the ultimate hope of invading and overtaking Italy. This all builds up to a grand scheme: a decisive invasion of France in an effort to sweep into Europe and destroy the German army.
As with all his previous novels, Shaara weaves together solid historical fact based on tireless research and a vast array of resources, and sprinkles in fictional men for us to relate to. It's one thing to be in the presence of Roosevelt, Churchill or Hitler, seeing through their eyes on a level we as normal, everyday citizens cannot fully comprehend. It's another to see the war through the eyes of Private Jack Logan, a simple tank gunner, or Sergeant Jesse Adams, a simple paratrooper. Yet even these men are not so simple, and they are saddled with great burdens and the weight of the world.
The true beauty of Shaara's writing is that history is entertaining, enthralling and invigorating. His introduction, which is an outlining of the elements leading up to war, the political powerplays and maneuverings, could all come across as dry and heartless grade school textbook fare. Here, however, he infuses that history with a passion in the telling that jumps from the page and will captivate even those who previously bore no real interest in World War II.
Once he gets into the heart of the story, the tale of the great and savage battles, the life-altering and world-bending decisions being made behind closed doors and on foreign fields, Shaara's work shines. Reading about what Rommel did in a history book pales in comparison to Shaara's ability to get into his head, to study his thought process, and to actually be with Rommel as he maneuvers his way through the desert. The challenges of Patton, Eisenhower and Montgomery are breathing moments instead of flat historical regurgitation.
THE RISING TIDE is, quite simply, a must read for anyone who cares for quality work, for history, or for both. In reading this novel you will learn as you are entertained, and you will not feel that you're being schooled as you turn the pages. The greatest accomplishment, however, is that with this book, Shaara has taken the momentous and the brave who have so greatly deserved our respect and gratitude, and made them human and approachable --- and in doing so has made them all the more extraordinary.
--- Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard
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