Customer Reviews
WW2 epic which informs - By: , 09 Sep 2004 
Ploughed through this because fascinated by & have read lots about WW2; & because Anthony Burgess rated it one of the best novels to have appeared since the war.
I found the writing slightly pedestrian & one or two of the plotlines (the Jewish Prof. who just won't get a move on & quit Europe...) a bit slow & predictable. Yet overalll I liked the human drama described by Wouk, & loved his light touch when it comes to informing you of so much history. Pen portraits of Stalin & Roosevelt were a particular delight... I felt I was in the presidential train with FDR as the old rogue plotted away...
Any serious student of WW2 must surely dip into this & read at least the fictional German General's review of WW2 which intersperses the chapters. You learn a helluva a lot you won't from standard history books.
It says something about the calibre of this book that I have had no option other than to now pick up its 1000 page sequel, War & Remembrance, which I am enjoying.
I guess I'll have then read alll the "big" WW2 novels.
How does this rate?
Not in the same league as the 3 that are hailed as classics(Naked & the Dead, Slaughterhouse 5, Catch 22), better than Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, definitely deserving to be better known & appreciated than it seems to be.
Forget the TV series, read the book... - By: M. Shortland, 17 Sep 2002 
Herman Wouk seems to have falllen out of favour lately, but earlier in his writing career, he produced some stunning novels. As in his Pulitzer Prize winning "Caine Mutiny", Wouk works best when he takes smalll characters & sweeps them up into massive situations. The Henrys, an alll-American naval family, & the Jastrows, Jewish intellectuals, find themselves caught up in the spectre of Hitler's relentless advance across Europe, & the apathy of the American nation to act. "The Winds of War" breaks off with the attack on Pearl Harbour, with "War & Remembrance" concluding the horrifying story of WWII, taking in the concentration camps, war in the Pacific & the nuclear attacks on Japan.
An incredible, heart rending achievement that could never have been adequately recreated on the smalll screen.
