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Company K (Library Alabama Classics) by William March
With an Introduction by Philip D. Beidler This book was originally published in 1933. It is the first novel by William March, pen name for William Edward Campbell. Stemming directly from the author's experiences with the US Marines in France during World War I, the book consists of 113 sketches, or chapters, tracing the fictional Company K's war exploits and providing an emotional history of the men of the company that extends beyond the boundaries of the war itself. William Edward Campbell served courageously in France as evidenced by his chestful of medals and certificates, including the Croix de Guerre, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Navy Cross. However, without the medals and citations we would know of his bravery. For it is clear in the pages of Company K that this book was written by a man who had been to war, who had clearly seen his share of the worst of it, who had somehow survived, and who had committed himself afterward to the new bravery of sense-making embodied in the creation of major literary art. It is of that bravery that we still have the record of magnificent achievement, the brave terrible gift of Company K.
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First published January 1, 1933
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About the author
William March
40 books86 followersWilliam March (born William Edward Campbell) was an American author and a highly decorated US Marine. The author of six novels and four short-story collections, March was a critical success and heralded as "the unrecognized genius of our time", without attaining popular appeal until after his death. His novels intertwine his own personal torment with the conflicts spawned by unresolved class, family, sexual, and racial matters. March often presents characters who, through no fault of their own, are victims of chance, and writes that freedom can only be obtained by being true to one's nature and humanity.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews
March 17, 2024
“Este libro empezó siendo un testimonio de mi compañía, pero ya no quiero que sea eso. Quiero que sea un testimonio de todas las compañías de todos los ejércitos”El alistamiento de miles de jóvenes, era la primera gran guerra del siglo XX, las mentiras con las que los embaucaban en torno a la religión y la patria (“nuestras vidas no nos pertenecen a nosotros, sino al Creador del universo y al presidente Hoover”), las mujeres guapas vestidas de enfermeras que les animaban a luchar, el entusiasmo inicial de toda la sociedad, las muchas y cotidianas penalidades que sufren los soldados en las trincheras —mala, escasa y monótona comida, suciedad, falta de sueño, barro, frío, humedad, enfermedades…—, los humillantes y gratuitos actos de autoridad de los mandos, sus trágicamente malas decisiones, las mentiras sobre el enemigo que incitan a su aniquilamiento, la sensación de pieza insignificante fácilmente sacrificada, el ruido de las balas, el silbido de las bombas, el constante miedo, los gritos y el sufrimiento de los heridos, sus horribles heridas, sus mutilaciones, la lotería de la muerte, actos de heroísmo, actos compasivos, actos crueles, miserables, el estado nervioso y hasta de locura en la que se hunden muchos, las masacres anónimas y la salvajada individual, la excusa del cumplimiento del deber, la falta de excusas, los ruegos a Dios pidiendo protección y la muerte del enemigo que ruega a Dios pidiendo protección y la muerte del enemigo, el Horror.
“Es fácil distinguir un viejo campo de batalla donde muchos hombres han perdido la vida. La primavera siguiente, la hierba crece más verde y más lozana que la del paisaje circundante; las amapolas son más rojas, los acianos más azules… Sin embargo, yo no estaba de acuerdo con tan sencilla explicación: a mí siempre me ha parecido que Dios está tan asqueado de los hombres, y de la infinita crueldad que se infligen unos a otros, que cubre cuanto antes los lugares en los que han estado.”También se habla de las juergas en los días de permiso, las visitas a bares y casas de putas (las que no eran solo para oficiales), las bromas, a veces pesadas, entre los compañeros, los chistes macabros, la belleza de la luna ascendiendo en una noche tranquila, la amistad, la alegría del final de la guerra y la vuelta a casa, los homenajes pronto olvidados, la reanudación de una vida que había seguido sin ellos, las noches sin dormir, las pesadillas, los héroes que volvían a su anodina vida, los soldados que regresaban sin una pierna, sin la mano con la que proseguir su prometedora carrera de pianista, junto a esposas a las que les repelía las quemaduras de sus caras… y pasado el tiempo, el olvido de todo, hasta del rostro de los compañeros, los vivos y los muertos, del horror que compartieron y que no impedirá la siguiente guerra.
“«Dios es Amor». Esa es sin duda la peor mentira jamás inventada por el hombre”Todo esto y más se encuentra en los 113 brevísimos y poderosos capítulos que componen esta novela, cada uno de ellos encabezados con el nombre de un soldado de la Compañía K, como si de un puñado de cartas encontradas entre los cuerpos de los hombres caídos en el frente se tratara, cada una con una anécdota que contar, en ocasiones la cara y la cruz del mismo suceso en dos capítulos consecutivos, en una ocasión, el relato de un suceso terrible y central, son seis los capítulos más dos posteriores de propina, testimonios de los que ya nadie se acuerda, como esta carta de condolencia que el soldado encargado finalmente no se atrevió a mandar.
“Estimada señora:
Su hijo, Francis, falleció innecesariamente en el bosque de Belleau. Le interesará saber que en el momento de su muerte estaba plagado de bichos y debilitado por la diarrea. Tenía los pies hinchados y podridos y apestaban. Vivió como un animal asustado, pasando frío y hambre. Entonces, el día 6 de junio, le alcanzó un pedazo de metralla y sufrió dolores horrorosos mientras agonizaba lentamente. Nadie hubiese creído que pudiera sobrevivir aquellas tres horas, pero así fue. Pasó tres horas enteras entre gritos y maldiciones. Verá, no tenía nada a lo que aferrarse: había aprendido hacía tiempo que lo que usted misma, su madre, que tanto lo quería, le había enseñado a creer mediante unos sustantivos tan inanes como honor, valentía y patriotismo era una enorme mentira...”
January 15, 2012
Company K,William March's "non-fiction" Novel of World War I
When Truman Capote claimed to have created a new literary form, the non-fiction novel,In Cold Blood in 1966, he was about thirty three years behind the times. William March. beat him to the punch in 1933 with his novel Company K.
Recently, I reviewed Patrica Anthony's lost classic, Flanders, the story of a young American, Travis Lee Stanhope and his experience as a young man who volunteered to fight with the British prior to America's entering the war against Germany in World War I. It's a great book. However it had a great predecessor, Company K, by William March.
The difference between these two books lies in the difference of the authors who wrote them. Patricia Anthony was born in 1947, in San Antonio Texas. William March was born William Edward Campbell on September 18, 1893, to a dirt poor itenerant farm family near Mobile, Alabama. His father spent the majority of his working life in the logging industry. March to his name from his mother, Susan March Cambell. It was his mother who read to March and his nine siblings, although his hard drinking father was prone to recite the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe when he was in his cups.
As one of ten children, March received no special privileges in the family home. March made his own way in the world. He obtained a job as a law clerk in Mobile, Alabama. He went to The University of Alabama School of law, but left in 1916 because he could no longer afford the tuition. That same year, he traveled to New York, New York, obtaining a job as a law clerk with a firm there.
A few days after the United States entered the War, March entered the United States Marine Corp, and trained at Parris Island. He emerged as a Sergeant, assigned to March reached France in March 1918, serving as a sergeant in Co F, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 4th Brigade of Marines, Second Division of the U.S. Army Expeditionary Force.
March fought in every major American engagement during the war, first at Verdun, then Belleau Wood, the assault on Soissons, the Battle of Sant Mihiel, and alongside the French at Mont Blanc. During the course of his fighting, March was awarded the Croix de Guerre, and the Distinguished Service Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor.
As so many other soldiers who saw action in the first great war, March returned to America suffering from acute episodes of depression. March lived with his family in Tuscaloosa, Alabama prior to taking a job at a law firm in Mobile, Alabama. Shortly thereafter, March became the personal secretary of the CEO of the Waterman Steamship Company, eventually becoming vice president of the company.
In 1926, March traveled to New York, taking writing courses at Columbia University. His personal experience of encountering a young German Soldier whom he bayonted through the throat continued to haunt him long after the incident occurred.
In New York, March finished his first extraordinary novel, Company K. The novel was originally serialized in the Forum Magazine. It was published in 1933.
March covers his experiences from training through combat in a series of 113 different vignettes, each chapter devoted to an individual marine. However, the episode that haunted March, the bayoneting of the young German soldier was attributed to a marine named Nate Burt.
Company K contains all the horror of war. From the execution of the wounded enemy and prisoners, to the frantic chaos of mustard gas, and the fragging of officers sending their men on suicidal missions, March's novel emerged as the American anti-war novel of World War I. Change the setting to the humid jungles of East Asia, you can easily find the imbroglio of the Vietnam War.
March did not win acclaim for his novel. The most favorable criticism came from the British, including Graham Greene and Christopher Morley.
Writing for The Spectator Graham Greene wrote:
When Truman Capote claimed to have created a new literary form, the non-fiction novel,In Cold Blood in 1966, he was about thirty three years behind the times. William March. beat him to the punch in 1933 with his novel Company K.
Recently, I reviewed Patrica Anthony's lost classic, Flanders, the story of a young American, Travis Lee Stanhope and his experience as a young man who volunteered to fight with the British prior to America's entering the war against Germany in World War I. It's a great book. However it had a great predecessor, Company K, by William March.
The difference between these two books lies in the difference of the authors who wrote them. Patricia Anthony was born in 1947, in San Antonio Texas. William March was born William Edward Campbell on September 18, 1893, to a dirt poor itenerant farm family near Mobile, Alabama. His father spent the majority of his working life in the logging industry. March to his name from his mother, Susan March Cambell. It was his mother who read to March and his nine siblings, although his hard drinking father was prone to recite the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe when he was in his cups.
As one of ten children, March received no special privileges in the family home. March made his own way in the world. He obtained a job as a law clerk in Mobile, Alabama. He went to The University of Alabama School of law, but left in 1916 because he could no longer afford the tuition. That same year, he traveled to New York, New York, obtaining a job as a law clerk with a firm there.
A few days after the United States entered the War, March entered the United States Marine Corp, and trained at Parris Island. He emerged as a Sergeant, assigned to March reached France in March 1918, serving as a sergeant in Co F, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 4th Brigade of Marines, Second Division of the U.S. Army Expeditionary Force.
March fought in every major American engagement during the war, first at Verdun, then Belleau Wood, the assault on Soissons, the Battle of Sant Mihiel, and alongside the French at Mont Blanc. During the course of his fighting, March was awarded the Croix de Guerre, and the Distinguished Service Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor.
As so many other soldiers who saw action in the first great war, March returned to America suffering from acute episodes of depression. March lived with his family in Tuscaloosa, Alabama prior to taking a job at a law firm in Mobile, Alabama. Shortly thereafter, March became the personal secretary of the CEO of the Waterman Steamship Company, eventually becoming vice president of the company.
In 1926, March traveled to New York, taking writing courses at Columbia University. His personal experience of encountering a young German Soldier whom he bayonted through the throat continued to haunt him long after the incident occurred.
In New York, March finished his first extraordinary novel, Company K. The novel was originally serialized in the Forum Magazine. It was published in 1933.
March covers his experiences from training through combat in a series of 113 different vignettes, each chapter devoted to an individual marine. However, the episode that haunted March, the bayoneting of the young German soldier was attributed to a marine named Nate Burt.
Company K contains all the horror of war. From the execution of the wounded enemy and prisoners, to the frantic chaos of mustard gas, and the fragging of officers sending their men on suicidal missions, March's novel emerged as the American anti-war novel of World War I. Change the setting to the humid jungles of East Asia, you can easily find the imbroglio of the Vietnam War.
March did not win acclaim for his novel. The most favorable criticism came from the British, including Graham Greene and Christopher Morley.
Writing for The Spectator Graham Greene wrote:
"His book has the force of a mob-protest; an outcry from anonymous throats. The wheel turns and turns and it does not matter, one hardly notices that the captain of the company, killed on page 159, is alive again a hundred pages later. It does not matter that every stock situation of the war, suicide, the murder of an officer, the slaughter of prisoners, a vision of Christ, is apportioned to Company K, because the book is not written in any realistic convention. It is the only War-book I have read which has found a new form to fit the novelty of the protest. The prose is bare, lucid, without literary echoes, not an imitation but a development of eighteenth-century prose." William March: An Annotated Checklist (First ed.). University of Alabama Press. p. 120 , Roy S. Simmonds (1988)
Morley added his kudos to that of Greene:"It's queer about this book--it suddenly made me wonder whether any other book about the War has been written in this country. It's a book of extra-ordinary courage--not the courage of hope but the quiet courage of despair. It will make patriots and romanticists angry--yet it is the kind of patriotism that is hardest and toughest. It ranks at once with the few great cries of protest. It is a selected, partial, bitter picture, but a picture we need. It will live. None of the acts of bravery for which the author was decorated during the War was as brave as this anthology of dismay."
Simmonds (1988), p. 4, ibid.
For the definitive biography to date concerning William March, see The Two Worlds of William March by Roy S. Simmonds, University of Alabama Press (1984)
This is not quite the lost American classic. However, published only by the University of Alabama Press, this is another novel of the caliber of All Quiet on the Western Front, deserving the same readership. This is a book with the staying power of any novel written on the horror of war. Find it. Read it. You cannot forget it.
May 31, 2021
Ordinary men: career soldiers, volunteers, and draftees; compassionate and callous; reluctant combatants and enthusiastic murderers; educated and illiterate; smart and stupid, honorable men and criminals, cowards, and shirkers. Some are true believers in the idea of war to end all war, or in the allied propaganda that all Germans are murderous brutes deserving of whatever they get. Others sneer at the idea of the fighting having any noble aims or higher purpose, and see only the inefficiency and incompetence of Army life. Taken altogether, they are a cross section of men thrown together by chance and sent off to war.
The book consists of 113 short tales, more vignettes than stories. Some are as brief as two paragraphs, most less than two pages. Each is told by a different soldier in the form of reminiscences from a few years after the war. Most are from survivors, but some are from beyond the grave as they relate the manner of their death.
In the first story, which serves as an introduction to the collection, the author says that he sees each tale as a tiny slice of the totality of war. If you could put them all together in a circle like a roulette wheel and spin it until they merge together, and add in the sounds and smells and the rest of the experience, you could gain an appreciation of what it was really like to be there.
The illusions of the recruiting campaigns and the patriotic speeches and songs were long gone. These are tales of cold and fatigue, of hunger and fear. Inexperienced officers made stupid mistakes that cost lives, or order prisoners murdered in cold blood. Even the humor is dark and bitter: the company commander is regarded by his officers and NCOs as utterly incompetent. When one of the soldiers reports to a sergeant having seen him killed with a bullet through the head, he mentions a spoonful of brains spilling out. The sergeant laughs and says it could not have been their company commander, because a spoonful was more than he ever had.
The dominant theme of the stories is cynicism, as befits men who are looking back at the war from enough perspective to understand the madness and futility of the fighting. A secondary theme is ironic detachment, as bad things happen to people for foolish reasons, or no reasons at all. The company virgin, who had pledged his fiancée that he would remain pure until their marriage, is cajoled into having sex with a prostitute, and gets a venereal disease. A man marries his girlfriend just before shipping out and finds that she only wanted his money. An elderly French couple who had lost their only son early in the war go out of the way to show kindness to the soldiers when they are billeted near them, only to have one of them steal their most cherished memento of their lost child as a souvenir.
Some live, some die, but all are changed. The final section of stories deals with the homecomings. Some of the men are scarred for life: blinded, maimed, or disfigured, and even the ones who came back physically whole have to deal with the mental and emotional trauma of what they had gone through.
The author, William March, served with distinction in the Marines. He received the Croix de Guerre and both the Army’s and the Navy’s second highest awards for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Navy Cross. Even so, this book shows he did not allow his awards to turn him into an apologist for war. Some of the stories are searing, some inexplicable, and some just show ordinary men trying to survive the inferno, whether through courage, resignation, or despicable behavior. Taken together March brilliantly recreates the experience of men at war.
The book consists of 113 short tales, more vignettes than stories. Some are as brief as two paragraphs, most less than two pages. Each is told by a different soldier in the form of reminiscences from a few years after the war. Most are from survivors, but some are from beyond the grave as they relate the manner of their death.
In the first story, which serves as an introduction to the collection, the author says that he sees each tale as a tiny slice of the totality of war. If you could put them all together in a circle like a roulette wheel and spin it until they merge together, and add in the sounds and smells and the rest of the experience, you could gain an appreciation of what it was really like to be there.
The illusions of the recruiting campaigns and the patriotic speeches and songs were long gone. These are tales of cold and fatigue, of hunger and fear. Inexperienced officers made stupid mistakes that cost lives, or order prisoners murdered in cold blood. Even the humor is dark and bitter: the company commander is regarded by his officers and NCOs as utterly incompetent. When one of the soldiers reports to a sergeant having seen him killed with a bullet through the head, he mentions a spoonful of brains spilling out. The sergeant laughs and says it could not have been their company commander, because a spoonful was more than he ever had.
The dominant theme of the stories is cynicism, as befits men who are looking back at the war from enough perspective to understand the madness and futility of the fighting. A secondary theme is ironic detachment, as bad things happen to people for foolish reasons, or no reasons at all. The company virgin, who had pledged his fiancée that he would remain pure until their marriage, is cajoled into having sex with a prostitute, and gets a venereal disease. A man marries his girlfriend just before shipping out and finds that she only wanted his money. An elderly French couple who had lost their only son early in the war go out of the way to show kindness to the soldiers when they are billeted near them, only to have one of them steal their most cherished memento of their lost child as a souvenir.
Some live, some die, but all are changed. The final section of stories deals with the homecomings. Some of the men are scarred for life: blinded, maimed, or disfigured, and even the ones who came back physically whole have to deal with the mental and emotional trauma of what they had gone through.
The author, William March, served with distinction in the Marines. He received the Croix de Guerre and both the Army’s and the Navy’s second highest awards for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Navy Cross. Even so, this book shows he did not allow his awards to turn him into an apologist for war. Some of the stories are searing, some inexplicable, and some just show ordinary men trying to survive the inferno, whether through courage, resignation, or despicable behavior. Taken together March brilliantly recreates the experience of men at war.
July 29, 2023
Se trata de una buena novela antibelica de comienzos del siglo pasado. Leí que la comparaban con algunas de las mas afamadas, pero yo lo que le encontré principalmente es el formato un tato diferente: decenas de narradores soldados, oficiales, etc que dan pequeños retazos de la barbaridad que supone una guerra, nada menos que la Primera Guerra Mundial. A veces hay un hilo conductor de algún personaje que se repite en distintos relatos.
El autor no puede estar mejor documentado, no en vano fue laureado repetidas veces y considerado "Héroe de guerra" (con lo que quiera significar eso); la veracidad de la narración se palpa. El desencanto, el arrepentimiento, la zozobra, el excepticismo de los excombatientes respecto del mensaje político y religioso al respecto de la guerra, también se ve por todos lados.
"Pronto se extenderá una mano que me arrojará al suelo -pensé-, y yaceré roto contra esta tierra rota. ¡Pronto un pie, con la forma del infinito, pisará mi frágil cráneo y lo aplastará!".
La importancia de la jerarquía en el ejército y la necesidad de imponer órdenes sobre el inferior, da igual que sean absurdas o necias...refleja muy bien esa convivencia de castas.
Por cierto la portada del libro es fantástica, esos soldaditos de recortables, con el mismo rostro pero distintos uniformes, me parece estupendo.
El autor no puede estar mejor documentado, no en vano fue laureado repetidas veces y considerado "Héroe de guerra" (con lo que quiera significar eso); la veracidad de la narración se palpa. El desencanto, el arrepentimiento, la zozobra, el excepticismo de los excombatientes respecto del mensaje político y religioso al respecto de la guerra, también se ve por todos lados.
"Pronto se extenderá una mano que me arrojará al suelo -pensé-, y yaceré roto contra esta tierra rota. ¡Pronto un pie, con la forma del infinito, pisará mi frágil cráneo y lo aplastará!".
La importancia de la jerarquía en el ejército y la necesidad de imponer órdenes sobre el inferior, da igual que sean absurdas o necias...refleja muy bien esa convivencia de castas.
Por cierto la portada del libro es fantástica, esos soldaditos de recortables, con el mismo rostro pero distintos uniformes, me parece estupendo.
September 7, 2018
Gli uomini della Compagnia K, soldati semplici, caporali, sergenti, tenenti, sono i protagonisti di questo romanzo corale, definito da Graham Green come “il romanzo più importante che sia mai stato scritto sulla Prima Guerra Mondiale”: ognuno di loro prende parola e ci racconta, in capitoli brevissimi, la sua testimonianza. C’è chi partecipa alla fucilazione di nemici inermi, chi butta via la gavetta di riso perché ha fame di ciò che mangiava prima di arruolarsi, chi dopo aver ucciso un tedesco ne ruba il pane inzuppato di sangue perché di fame non ne può più, chi scrive poesie, chi riceve medaglie d’onore, chi, preso forse da un raptus, uccide il proprio comandante, chi uccide in maniera gratuita e poi, a guerra finita, verrà perseguitato per sempre dagli incubi. C’è persino un soldato sconosciuto, che caduto sul reticolato, prima di morire, getta via la sua piastrina e il suo numero identificativo per andarsene così, senza un nome da celebrare come eroe.
Vittime e carnefici di una stessa guerra.
Sono diversi i racconti di questi uomini, dal tono crudele, quasi bestiale, che mi hanno impressionata, lasciandomi in bocca quel sapore di amaro e di macabro che ancora adesso, a lettura terminata, fatica ad andarsene.
Sì, decisamente un libro impressionante e importante, nato dalla stessa esperienza di guerra vissuta dall’autore. E a dimostrazione che, eroi o no, la guerra è uno schifo. Sempre.
Vittime e carnefici di una stessa guerra.
Sono diversi i racconti di questi uomini, dal tono crudele, quasi bestiale, che mi hanno impressionata, lasciandomi in bocca quel sapore di amaro e di macabro che ancora adesso, a lettura terminata, fatica ad andarsene.
Sì, decisamente un libro impressionante e importante, nato dalla stessa esperienza di guerra vissuta dall’autore. E a dimostrazione che, eroi o no, la guerra è uno schifo. Sempre.
November 11, 2013
William Edward Campbell served with the Marine Corps during WWI in Company K of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 4th Brigade, within the 2nd Division. Drawing from his personal experiences he wrote this powerful fictitious novel using the pen name William March. From the beginning of the war to the return home the author portrays how one mans life was dramatically changed under the philosophy of “you don’t come out the way you went in”.
September 8, 2025
"All we know is that life is sweet and that it does not last long. Why should people be envious of each other? Why do we hate each other? Why can't we live in peace in a world that is so beautiful and so wide?"It's likely that William March will always be remembered primarily for writing 'The Bad Seed', his 1954 horror novel depicting the serial-killing spree of eight-year-old Rhoda Penmark. That this novel should dominate his legacy is, perhaps, understandable. 'TBS' was certainly groundbreaking in its approach to psychopathy in childhood.
~ and it's a wallop of a tale. I've read it three times. Though I wish I knew more details as to why... it's believed that March didn't himself think much of the book. (He passed on soon after its publication; perhaps aware that the work was well received by critics and early readers but naturally having no clue as to its future as both a Broadway play and a successful film.)
I can only guess that March held his earlier literary achievements in higher regard. And, as much as I appreciate 'TBS', I might easily share that feeling.
His 3-volume 'Pearl County' series of novels ('Come In at the Door', 'The Tallons' and 'October Island') can be a bit difficult to track down (esp. in good copies) - and I've yet to read them.
However, a subsequent continuation of that series - 'The Looking-Glass' - is more readily available... and it's a marvelous achievement as an impressively insightful examination of small-town, early-20th century folk. 'TL-G' is on a par with what seems (to me) to be March's masterpiece, 'Trial Balance: The Collected Short Stories of William March': these are among some of the finest short stories I've ever read (and there are tons of them in this volume).
Others have mentioned the fact that much of March's work seems influenced by Edgar Lee Masters' 1915 volume of prose poetry 'Spoon River Anthology', a collection of monologues from inside and beyond one town's graveyard; capsule portraits delivered by the town's inhabitants.
Masters does seem to have informed March's work - and most prominently in 'Company K', which adopts the actual format of 'Spoon River'. In the book's 113 vignettes, the many, many and varied men of Company K tell their WWI stories one-by-one. Most may still be alive to tell their tales; some have passed on.
To sum it up, it's a book of fierce, vivid emotions - detailing the countless specifics of pre-war excitement, then battlefield terror, then war's aftermath / the soldiers' return to civilian life (much of which is particularly heartbreaking, as though the war were over but would still never end).
'Company K' is a startling work, full of memorable imagery, and easily on a visceral level with Gabriel Chevallier's stunning / at times savage 1930 WWI novel 'La Peur' ('Fear'). It's a work which somehow feels simultaneously deeply felt yet unsentimental - and decidedly unflinching.
My sense tells me that, like the other works by March that I've been fortunate-enough to find, this is a book which - once read - could very well take up residence in your soul.
February 21, 2021
"COMPANY K" hardly fits the mold of a typical war novel highlighting the experiences of soldiers under fire. It is, rather, a patchwork quilt, in which a variety of men who served in Company K of the U.S. Marine Corps during World War I, relate their experiences in France. And for those who were fortunate enough to return home after the war, they have their stories to tell, too.
July 10, 2022
of the three books i read in june – all written by former first world war marines – this was the one that caused me the most pain.... which is amazing because they were all so hard to read! i didn't think mackin could be surpassed in wringing the most dreadful irony out of the devastation & banality of war but march has him beat... some of these chapters are only a few paragraphs long and yet they strike with the force of an entire novel. and you could say (through the wheat moment!) that company k is fiction and so the irony is totally contrived i.e. should hurt less but you know, you know so much of what transpires in the book actually happened, whether to march himself or to others, and so it cuts that much deeper....
i wish there were some way to take these stories and pin them to a huge wheel, each story hung on a different peg until the circle was completed. then i would like to spin the wheel, faster and faster, until the things of which i have written took life and were recreated, and became part of the wheel, flowing toward each other, and into each other; blurring, and then blending together into a composite whole, an unending circle of pain... that would be the picture of war. and the sound that the wheel made, and the sound that the men themselves made as they laughed, cried, cursed or prayed, would be, against the falling of walls, the rushing of bullets, the exploding of shells, the sound that war, itself, makes...
i wish there were some way to take these stories and pin them to a huge wheel, each story hung on a different peg until the circle was completed. then i would like to spin the wheel, faster and faster, until the things of which i have written took life and were recreated, and became part of the wheel, flowing toward each other, and into each other; blurring, and then blending together into a composite whole, an unending circle of pain... that would be the picture of war. and the sound that the wheel made, and the sound that the men themselves made as they laughed, cried, cursed or prayed, would be, against the falling of walls, the rushing of bullets, the exploding of shells, the sound that war, itself, makes...
September 16, 2013
A masterful work by March, this novel is a rich and powerful description of much of WWI. March speaks from experience to create entries by various characters, many of these entries being short, but nonetheless complete stories describing multiple aspects of the war. Although the entries are often brief, March effectively submerses the reader into the world each soldier lived in, describing with such detail the experiences of each soldier that one can almost feel the uniform on himself and hear the marching of boots on either side. However, what makes this novel so important as a reflection of history is the realistic description of the war down to every chilling detail. March spares nothing as he describes the horrid smelling trenches, the childlike fear one is struck with when he is being shelled, and even the humbling final thoughts one faces as his last breath escapes him on the field of battle. He also skillfully captures the feeling of the Lost Generation as he describes the aftermath the war plays on a soldier's everyday life following the war. The author also describes the futility of the war and how foolish the war was. March's artistic portrayal of the war through his concise entries make this a must read for anyone who seeks a novel describing one of the most important events in the world's history.
October 10, 2013
Resultaría mucho más sencillo escribir sobre un libro lineal. Por ejemplo: se conocen, se quieren, surgen conflictos y finalmente se casan. O por ejemplo: Un adolescente no encuentra su lugar en el mundo hasta que una serie de avatares solventan la situación. Sería más sencillo, sin lugar a dudas, escribir sobre algo así. Sin embargo, la lectura hubiese resultado menos enriquecedora, menos satisfactoria. Compañía K es una obra poliédrica sobre la guerra. Un prisma con un descomunal número de caras. Cada cara una voz. Cada voz una historia. Completamente razonable. ¿Acaso la guerra está compuesta por una sola voz? En ningún caso. En la guerra, como en todos los juegos, confluyen como mínimo un par de jugadores. Y cada pieza tiene su propia visión de lo que acontece. Sus principios, sus miedos, sus ilusiones. El caballo nunca será la torre. El alfil jamás será reina. El muerto no compartirá la visión del vivo.
Todo cabe en Compañía K, porque William March no se limita a contar una historia. William March nos cuenta la guerra. Ni siquiera una guerra cualquiera. Entre los muchos atributos de Compañía K está la de contar una historia sin fecha de caducidad. Una historia válida para todas las guerras. Una historia que si sabemos mirarla sin uniformes es válida para todos los ejércitos, para todos los derrotados. Un alfa y omega del sinsentido que es la guerra.
Todo cabe en Compañía K, porque William March no se limita a contar una historia. William March nos cuenta la guerra. Ni siquiera una guerra cualquiera. Entre los muchos atributos de Compañía K está la de contar una historia sin fecha de caducidad. Una historia válida para todas las guerras. Una historia que si sabemos mirarla sin uniformes es válida para todos los ejércitos, para todos los derrotados. Un alfa y omega del sinsentido que es la guerra.
November 11, 2014
It's Remembrance Day here in Canada, a day set aside each year to show respect for veterans who served in the great wars. Politicians stand in front of war memorials and yap about young men making the ultimate sacrifice against the forces of evil. It's all very shallow, sappy and sacrosanct. But what was the Great War, anyhow? How, in these empty, symbolic gestures, has the real war been lost?
WWI was a stupid, pointless war fought by a dying aristocracy. Millions of men snuffed out with mechanical banality. William March (pen name of a serviceman, see Wikipedia for more) gives these men life and purpose. Company K comprises of every short chapters, each a vignette of war-time and afterwards, the survivors trying to regain a sense of normalcy. Hear the cries of the dying, bleeding out in no man's land. See a soldier commit an ironic murder of his commanding officer. Get the feels for a former piano prodigy, returned to small-town civilian life with less digits. Watch as a lovelorn soldier gets grifted by a French prostie. Even in the darkness, there are moments of laughter and levity.
This isn't a war book, this is a book about humanity. It's not a Harper speech, it's real. A soldier is haunted by the ghost of a German he killed. Forces of evil? War is the evil, and so is forgetting.
WWI was a stupid, pointless war fought by a dying aristocracy. Millions of men snuffed out with mechanical banality. William March (pen name of a serviceman, see Wikipedia for more) gives these men life and purpose. Company K comprises of every short chapters, each a vignette of war-time and afterwards, the survivors trying to regain a sense of normalcy. Hear the cries of the dying, bleeding out in no man's land. See a soldier commit an ironic murder of his commanding officer. Get the feels for a former piano prodigy, returned to small-town civilian life with less digits. Watch as a lovelorn soldier gets grifted by a French prostie. Even in the darkness, there are moments of laughter and levity.
This isn't a war book, this is a book about humanity. It's not a Harper speech, it's real. A soldier is haunted by the ghost of a German he killed. Forces of evil? War is the evil, and so is forgetting.
April 14, 2007
One of my favorite books, one that has accompanied me on every cross-country move, a piece of WWI literature that deserves far more recognition than it gets. Written by an decorated veteran of the Great War, Company K offers an semi-fictionalized account of the unit's experiences, from deployment to decades after the war ends.
Each member of the group tells his own story in the first person, and each has a very different perspective, from deserters to cold-blooded murderers, philosophers to politicians. The stories are hardly more than snippets; most don't continue beyond two or three pages, with a few notable exceptions. A sad but beautiful masterpiece.
Each member of the group tells his own story in the first person, and each has a very different perspective, from deserters to cold-blooded murderers, philosophers to politicians. The stories are hardly more than snippets; most don't continue beyond two or three pages, with a few notable exceptions. A sad but beautiful masterpiece.
December 6, 2021
This is an interesting book about US involvement in WWI. It is not quite the same quality as Three Day Road or All Quiet on the Western Front, but it does provide a unique perspective of the war, making it an excellent addition to any collection of war literature.
Its greatest weakness is at the same time its greatest strength, namely that is comprised of 113 different soldiers relating experiences from enlistment and training, through WWI to life after the war. This series of 1 to 4 page vignettes provides a great perspective on different facets of war and the different people who take part in war. However, it also provides a very disjointed narrative and the pieces are of varying quality, which makes it hard to read more than a few pages at a time--I would often find myself reading until the next ho-hum piece and then put the book aside.
All in all though, I did enjoy the book as a whole and there is definitely something to be said for the variety that the vignette style provided. And like I already said, it is a great piece to round out a collection of war literature. It is probably a 3.5 star book, but due to its uniqueness I am happy to round up to 4. Pick this one up off the shelf if you see it.
Its greatest weakness is at the same time its greatest strength, namely that is comprised of 113 different soldiers relating experiences from enlistment and training, through WWI to life after the war. This series of 1 to 4 page vignettes provides a great perspective on different facets of war and the different people who take part in war. However, it also provides a very disjointed narrative and the pieces are of varying quality, which makes it hard to read more than a few pages at a time--I would often find myself reading until the next ho-hum piece and then put the book aside.
All in all though, I did enjoy the book as a whole and there is definitely something to be said for the variety that the vignette style provided. And like I already said, it is a great piece to round out a collection of war literature. It is probably a 3.5 star book, but due to its uniqueness I am happy to round up to 4. Pick this one up off the shelf if you see it.
August 11, 2021
I served thirty years in the Marines and have read lots of war literature but had never heard of this book or the author until Paul Theroux talked about him in a travel book on the South. The author was a highly decorated Marine who died two years before I was born. Yet he chose to set his novel with the Army. I’m glad he did too as it’s a unique experiment in style and presentation and it’s filled with reality and darkness. A true anti-war novel. No glory here. Only stupidity and war crimes.
It’s the recollections of 113 of the men of Company K in chronological order (260 pages) from training all the way to after the war when PTSD is still attacking some of them. The armistice is declared at page 183 but the war is not over for many. Every chapter is a page or two and no man appears more than once. Skip the introduction which is literary analysis.
It’s the recollections of 113 of the men of Company K in chronological order (260 pages) from training all the way to after the war when PTSD is still attacking some of them. The armistice is declared at page 183 but the war is not over for many. Every chapter is a page or two and no man appears more than once. Skip the introduction which is literary analysis.
October 30, 2014
Really good WWI book. A series of 113 very short (two or three pages) stories that interconnect. Surprised I'd never heard of this one before... its definitely up there with the other classic WWI books.
May 25, 2017
One of the best books I have ever read. A revelatory and soul jarring comment on the folly of war as we know it. The writing is exceptional and the style is totally fresh (to me at least). Read this book. 5 stars.
September 11, 2008
In high school, the book that got me labeled a communist by my friend's dad. Should be read with Slaughterhouse-Five to ward off ignorance, arrogance, and tendencies of warmongering.
February 19, 2015
Spesso parlo con diffidenza dei consigli del critico letterario A. D'Orrico (in realtà penso che il suo "peccato originale" sia stato aver enfaticamente salutato Faletti come "il più grande scrittore italiano". Lo so che l'autore è recentemente scomparso, ma non credo che rivedrò i miei pre-giudizi per questo. Da allora D'Orrico, per quanto mi riguarda, ha perso un po' di credibilità), ma bisogna dire che qualche volta ci azzecca(va). Questo Compagnia K era infatti da lui consigliato dalle colonne del settimanale del Corriere della Sera come uno dei "libri per l'estate 2010”: curiosa definizione, perché, come si vedrà, non è esattamente una lettura da ombrellone, ma nulla da eccepire sulla qualità.
William March è un autore statunitense forse poco conosciuto da noi, ma discretamente noto in patria. Così come Chevallier, autore de La paura, era un reduce della prima guerra mondiale e, sempre per continuare coi parallelismi, anche Compagnia K, uscito nel 1933, inizialmente scandalizzò l'opinione pubblica per la violenza, l'antimilitarismo, il rifiuto di ogni retorica patriottarda. Col tempo, naturalmente, venne ampiamente rivalutato, fu un'importante ispirazione per il Vonnegut di Mattatoio n. 5 ed è in generale considerato uno dei capolavori della letteratura di guerra. Fu soprattutto, e si sente, un romanzo molto "sentito" e "sofferto" per il suo autore, che, come si legge nell'introduzione di Dario Morgante, non fu mai in grado di riprendersi totalmente dall'esperienza della guerra, che lo tormentò fino alla morte.
La struttura del libro è inusuale: protagonisti del romanzo sono gli uomini della Compagnia K dell'esercito americano, ma la storia si dipana in brevi o brevissimi capitoletti, quasi mini-monologhi, in cui a turno ciascun soldato o ufficiale prende la parola, in prima persona. Uno alla volta, "sfilano" davanti a noi il soldato semplice Edward Romano, il tenente Edward Bartelstone, il soldato semplice William Anderson, il soldato semplice Benjamin Hunzinger, il sergente Julius Pelton, il soldato semplice Richard Mundy, e tanti altri (sono in tutto 115, cioè l'intera compagnia), ciascuno per raccontare il proprio pezzetto di storia, chi è stremato per i turni di guardia in trincea di ore e ore e ore, chi ha dovuto sparare su dei prigionieri inermi, chi si è ritrovato in mezzo a un attacco col gas, chi è morto in mezzo alla terra di nessuno.
L'espediente di dare a ciascuno un nome e un cognome li rende più veri e "reali", eppure, allo stesso tempo, non impedisce che la loro testimonianza diventi per così dire "universale" (specialmente perché, come detto, anche i defunti partecipano a questo "rito" collettivo). L'unica, significativa eccezione è "il soldato sconosciuto" (p. 167), che muore rifiutandosi di rivelare il proprio nome, perché non entri a far parte di nessun elenco degli "eroi caduti". E dietro a ciascuno di questi nomi si può anche vedere un po' dello stesso William March che tenta di esorcizzare e guarire le proprie ferite.
4/5
http://moloch981.wordpress.com/2014/0...
William March è un autore statunitense forse poco conosciuto da noi, ma discretamente noto in patria. Così come Chevallier, autore de La paura, era un reduce della prima guerra mondiale e, sempre per continuare coi parallelismi, anche Compagnia K, uscito nel 1933, inizialmente scandalizzò l'opinione pubblica per la violenza, l'antimilitarismo, il rifiuto di ogni retorica patriottarda. Col tempo, naturalmente, venne ampiamente rivalutato, fu un'importante ispirazione per il Vonnegut di Mattatoio n. 5 ed è in generale considerato uno dei capolavori della letteratura di guerra. Fu soprattutto, e si sente, un romanzo molto "sentito" e "sofferto" per il suo autore, che, come si legge nell'introduzione di Dario Morgante, non fu mai in grado di riprendersi totalmente dall'esperienza della guerra, che lo tormentò fino alla morte.
La struttura del libro è inusuale: protagonisti del romanzo sono gli uomini della Compagnia K dell'esercito americano, ma la storia si dipana in brevi o brevissimi capitoletti, quasi mini-monologhi, in cui a turno ciascun soldato o ufficiale prende la parola, in prima persona. Uno alla volta, "sfilano" davanti a noi il soldato semplice Edward Romano, il tenente Edward Bartelstone, il soldato semplice William Anderson, il soldato semplice Benjamin Hunzinger, il sergente Julius Pelton, il soldato semplice Richard Mundy, e tanti altri (sono in tutto 115, cioè l'intera compagnia), ciascuno per raccontare il proprio pezzetto di storia, chi è stremato per i turni di guardia in trincea di ore e ore e ore, chi ha dovuto sparare su dei prigionieri inermi, chi si è ritrovato in mezzo a un attacco col gas, chi è morto in mezzo alla terra di nessuno.
L'espediente di dare a ciascuno un nome e un cognome li rende più veri e "reali", eppure, allo stesso tempo, non impedisce che la loro testimonianza diventi per così dire "universale" (specialmente perché, come detto, anche i defunti partecipano a questo "rito" collettivo). L'unica, significativa eccezione è "il soldato sconosciuto" (p. 167), che muore rifiutandosi di rivelare il proprio nome, perché non entri a far parte di nessun elenco degli "eroi caduti". E dietro a ciascuno di questi nomi si può anche vedere un po' dello stesso William March che tenta di esorcizzare e guarire le proprie ferite.
4/5
http://moloch981.wordpress.com/2014/0...
March 31, 2014
This novel is one of the unpatriotic novels about the First World War. Along with "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Three Soldiers" and "A Farewell to Arms", this novel broke through the barrier of war novels that served to glorify the side of a war on which its author had once fought. While I really enjoyed "All Quiet" and "Farewell", "Company K" was a bit too abstract for me.
"Company K" is the story of an American Marine infantry company on during the First World War. It traces the experiences of the members of the unit from training in the States, to the crossing of the Atlantic, through the war in the trenches in France, to the return to the States and the lives of the veterans of the company after the war. The story is told in the first person by each member of the company, which makes the narrative quite a bit disjointed. Furthermore, the personalities of the narrators do not seem to vary from each other, which is understandable given that each narrative only lasts a few pages, and there is not enough room to do anything like character development or plot development. The story covers some pretty disturbing ground. There are scenes involving the murder of officers by their own men, and men who are considering or about to commit desertion in the face of the enemy. One of the veterans of Company K commits a capital crime after the war and is executed in his narrative. Another tries to start an anti-war organization at home, but when the potential members of the group hear this veteran's stories of the war, they become filled with patriotic feeling and go out to enlist in the National Guard! This is probably the only piece of humor in this novel, and I don't believe that the author intended it to be humorous, but I found it to be funny. The bottom line here is that this is a hard book to read. The realities described by the author undoubtedly were real problems experienced by recruits, soldiers and veterans of the First World War.
If you are interested in reading a great novel about the realities of the Great War in the trenches, I would highly recommend "All Quiet on the Western Front" or "A Farewell to Arms". "Company K" is really not in the same league as these two, but it is worth a read for hard-core enthusiasts of the Great War.
"Company K" is the story of an American Marine infantry company on during the First World War. It traces the experiences of the members of the unit from training in the States, to the crossing of the Atlantic, through the war in the trenches in France, to the return to the States and the lives of the veterans of the company after the war. The story is told in the first person by each member of the company, which makes the narrative quite a bit disjointed. Furthermore, the personalities of the narrators do not seem to vary from each other, which is understandable given that each narrative only lasts a few pages, and there is not enough room to do anything like character development or plot development. The story covers some pretty disturbing ground. There are scenes involving the murder of officers by their own men, and men who are considering or about to commit desertion in the face of the enemy. One of the veterans of Company K commits a capital crime after the war and is executed in his narrative. Another tries to start an anti-war organization at home, but when the potential members of the group hear this veteran's stories of the war, they become filled with patriotic feeling and go out to enlist in the National Guard! This is probably the only piece of humor in this novel, and I don't believe that the author intended it to be humorous, but I found it to be funny. The bottom line here is that this is a hard book to read. The realities described by the author undoubtedly were real problems experienced by recruits, soldiers and veterans of the First World War.
If you are interested in reading a great novel about the realities of the Great War in the trenches, I would highly recommend "All Quiet on the Western Front" or "A Farewell to Arms". "Company K" is really not in the same league as these two, but it is worth a read for hard-core enthusiasts of the Great War.
November 11, 2025
Amerikkalainen kirjailija William March osallistui ensimmäisen maailmansodan taisteluihin, ja tiettävästi hän kantoi monien muiden veteraanien tavoin loppuelämänsä mukanaan länsirintaman tapahtumista aiheutunutta traumaa.
Sotakokemuksiaan hän vuodatti romaaniin "Komppania K" (Tarmio, 2014), joka ilmestyi Yhdysvalloissa vuonna 1933, mutta saatiin käännettyä suomeksi vasta tänä vuonna, jolloin ensimmäisen maailmansodan alkamisesta on tullut kuluneeksi sata vuotta. Ja hyvä että käännettiin, sillä kirja on vähintään yhtä väkevä pasifistinen puheenvuoro kuin Erich Maria Remarquen Länsirintamalta ei mitään uutta.
Teos sisältää hieman toistasataa lyhyttä lukua, joissa kirjailija antaa äänen aina yhdelle amerikkalaisen K-komppanian riveissä taistelleelle sotilaalle. Suomenkielisen painoksen esipuheessa romaania verrataankin kerrontatekniikkansa puolesta Mastersin Spoon River Antologiaan.
Sodan julmuus ja mielettömyys tulee erinomaisesti esille sotilaiden kuvaamien pienien tapahtumien kautta. Länsirintaman taisteluiden kauhuja kuvataan lohduttomaan sävyyn, ja vain harvakseltaan mustaakin mustempi hirtehishuumori keventää tekstiä näennäisesti.
Siviiliin palaaminen ei sekään suju kitkattomasti. Sodan päättyminen ei tuo rauhaa, vaan rintamatapahtumat seuraavat monia kotiin niin silpoutuneiden ruumiinosien kuin järkkyneiden mielten muodossa.
Ei siitä mihinkään pääse, "Komppania K" on hieno sotakirja. Lukekaa myös Marchin toinen suomennettu teos, Pimeät leikit, joka on myös erinomainen genrensä edustaja.
Sotakokemuksiaan hän vuodatti romaaniin "Komppania K" (Tarmio, 2014), joka ilmestyi Yhdysvalloissa vuonna 1933, mutta saatiin käännettyä suomeksi vasta tänä vuonna, jolloin ensimmäisen maailmansodan alkamisesta on tullut kuluneeksi sata vuotta. Ja hyvä että käännettiin, sillä kirja on vähintään yhtä väkevä pasifistinen puheenvuoro kuin Erich Maria Remarquen Länsirintamalta ei mitään uutta.
Teos sisältää hieman toistasataa lyhyttä lukua, joissa kirjailija antaa äänen aina yhdelle amerikkalaisen K-komppanian riveissä taistelleelle sotilaalle. Suomenkielisen painoksen esipuheessa romaania verrataankin kerrontatekniikkansa puolesta Mastersin Spoon River Antologiaan.
Sodan julmuus ja mielettömyys tulee erinomaisesti esille sotilaiden kuvaamien pienien tapahtumien kautta. Länsirintaman taisteluiden kauhuja kuvataan lohduttomaan sävyyn, ja vain harvakseltaan mustaakin mustempi hirtehishuumori keventää tekstiä näennäisesti.
Siviiliin palaaminen ei sekään suju kitkattomasti. Sodan päättyminen ei tuo rauhaa, vaan rintamatapahtumat seuraavat monia kotiin niin silpoutuneiden ruumiinosien kuin järkkyneiden mielten muodossa.
Ei siitä mihinkään pääse, "Komppania K" on hieno sotakirja. Lukekaa myös Marchin toinen suomennettu teos, Pimeät leikit, joka on myös erinomainen genrensä edustaja.
November 20, 2013
“Company K” is one of the more intense novels written about World War One; a bleak and direct narrative entirely void of sentiment or hope. In it, members of the army unit describe their experiences before, during and after the Great War. A hundred young men - hardly any of them having any experience on the battlefield - start their training filled with enthusiasm and bravery. But from the prologue, years after the war in which a conversation regarding the evil of murder is discussed, we know most of these men who will survive the war, will do so embittered, broken and lost.
Through the 113 different voices, “Company K” becomes a panoramic collage of experiences during the war. Because of the extremely short chapters, it sometimes felt like I was skimming through a much larger novel, only reading a paragraph here and there. But even though that makes the story less coherent, it didn’t make the reading experience as a whole any less intense.
Despite being a highly decorated WW1-veteran himself, author William March regarded war as pure evil, so most of the stories are mean, coldblooded chapters of madness without any hope or comfort. There turns out to be nothing patriotic about fighting in the name of freedom, nor do one’s actions on the ruined landscapes of France prove one’s courage or loyalty. “Company K” serves as an anti-war protest; and at the time, March was breaking barriers by using the pain of his PTSD in order to create this work of literature.
One of the characters at the beginning of the book, who has penned down his experiences as a soldier, hopes his words will not only be understood by American combatants, but by those all across the world where men are plunged into war. Likewise, “Company K” is a universally accessible book on the effects of war, and 80 years after its first publication, the words of William March still carry incredible power, strength and pain in them.
Through the 113 different voices, “Company K” becomes a panoramic collage of experiences during the war. Because of the extremely short chapters, it sometimes felt like I was skimming through a much larger novel, only reading a paragraph here and there. But even though that makes the story less coherent, it didn’t make the reading experience as a whole any less intense.
Despite being a highly decorated WW1-veteran himself, author William March regarded war as pure evil, so most of the stories are mean, coldblooded chapters of madness without any hope or comfort. There turns out to be nothing patriotic about fighting in the name of freedom, nor do one’s actions on the ruined landscapes of France prove one’s courage or loyalty. “Company K” serves as an anti-war protest; and at the time, March was breaking barriers by using the pain of his PTSD in order to create this work of literature.
One of the characters at the beginning of the book, who has penned down his experiences as a soldier, hopes his words will not only be understood by American combatants, but by those all across the world where men are plunged into war. Likewise, “Company K” is a universally accessible book on the effects of war, and 80 years after its first publication, the words of William March still carry incredible power, strength and pain in them.
April 14, 2018
William March's Company K is a series of vignettes (113 in all) of the various members of this fictional (but no doubt autobiographical) WW1 US Marine company in France in 1918.
When I first read this as a teenager, I found it entertaining, sad, and in parts disturbing. Every scene is described in stunning detail from one who could only have been an eye witness to the events described. The scene where they shot the freshly surrendered German prisoners in a ravine is told from a few view points, and it is harrowing.
The detachment and disillusionment of the post war vignettes of the lives of those that survived the horrors of the front is no less sad. The horrifically disfigured young soldier who insists on his pre-war fiancé honouring her promise to marry him - and the vividly painted scene of spending his wedding night at opposite ends of the room from his young bride, who is repulsed by his grotesque appearance and is sobbing hysterically at her predicament of being married to a "monster" left a crushing emotional impact on me when I first read it as a teenager.
This book covers every range of emotions, from the funny boot camp episodes to the description of watching comrades walk straight into an artillery bombardment that wipes them out. It is not a book you will easily forget.
When I first read this as a teenager, I found it entertaining, sad, and in parts disturbing. Every scene is described in stunning detail from one who could only have been an eye witness to the events described. The scene where they shot the freshly surrendered German prisoners in a ravine is told from a few view points, and it is harrowing.
The detachment and disillusionment of the post war vignettes of the lives of those that survived the horrors of the front is no less sad. The horrifically disfigured young soldier who insists on his pre-war fiancé honouring her promise to marry him - and the vividly painted scene of spending his wedding night at opposite ends of the room from his young bride, who is repulsed by his grotesque appearance and is sobbing hysterically at her predicament of being married to a "monster" left a crushing emotional impact on me when I first read it as a teenager.
This book covers every range of emotions, from the funny boot camp episodes to the description of watching comrades walk straight into an artillery bombardment that wipes them out. It is not a book you will easily forget.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2015
Vuonna 1933 ilmestynyt teos on melkeinpä pikemmin kertomuskokoelma kuin romaani. Kirjan 113 katkelmaa liittyvät kuitenkin toisiinsa ja kuvaavat ensimmäisen maailmansodan kulkua melko kronologisessakin kehyksessä yhdysvaltalaiskomppanian näkökulmasta. Tuloksena on rakenteeltaan kiinnostava ja modernilla tavalla yhtenäinen teos, joka pohjautuu kirjailijan omiin kokemuksiin.
Juuri moniääninen rakenne mahdollistaa hienosti tekstin sävyvaihtelut. Toiset tapahtumat asettuvat koomiseen ja toiset hyvin traagiseen valoon. Joskus realistinen asetelma saa absurdeja piirteitä. Muutama yksittäinen katkelma jäi kummittelemaan mieleen, kuten ”Tuntemattoman sotilaan” riipaiseva oivalluksen hetki keskellä taistelukenttää.
Joissain arvioissa on ehdotettu, että tämän parina voisi lukea Erich Maria Remarquen Länsirintamalta ei mitään uutta, jossa puolestaan näkökulma on saksalaisten. Hesarin arvion mukaan myös Ville Kivimäen Murtuneet mielet sopii teemansa puolesta yksiin tämän kanssa. Yhtä kaikki vasta viime vuonna suomennettu Komppania K on vaikuttava sodanvastainen puheenvuoro. Kriitikko Tuukka Hämäläisen mukaan myös ”sotakirja niille, jotka eivät yleensä lue sotakirjoja” (ES 17.9.14), mistä ainakin omasta puolestani olen samaa mieltä.
Juuri moniääninen rakenne mahdollistaa hienosti tekstin sävyvaihtelut. Toiset tapahtumat asettuvat koomiseen ja toiset hyvin traagiseen valoon. Joskus realistinen asetelma saa absurdeja piirteitä. Muutama yksittäinen katkelma jäi kummittelemaan mieleen, kuten ”Tuntemattoman sotilaan” riipaiseva oivalluksen hetki keskellä taistelukenttää.
Joissain arvioissa on ehdotettu, että tämän parina voisi lukea Erich Maria Remarquen Länsirintamalta ei mitään uutta, jossa puolestaan näkökulma on saksalaisten. Hesarin arvion mukaan myös Ville Kivimäen Murtuneet mielet sopii teemansa puolesta yksiin tämän kanssa. Yhtä kaikki vasta viime vuonna suomennettu Komppania K on vaikuttava sodanvastainen puheenvuoro. Kriitikko Tuukka Hämäläisen mukaan myös ”sotakirja niille, jotka eivät yleensä lue sotakirjoja” (ES 17.9.14), mistä ainakin omasta puolestani olen samaa mieltä.
December 7, 2022
The best war novel I’ve read. I’ve heard it called an anti-war novel but I think that simplifies the book too much. Usually war novels can be divided into patriotic pro-war novels and pacifist anti-war novels, but this book by being told through 114 different voices brings out an image of war that is closer to reality than anything I’ve ever read and it’s incredibly powerful because of it. These characters act like real people: some refuse or are reluctant to kill, others do it easily out of a sense of duty or moral failing. They lie, steal and are cruel. They are open, humorous and kind. After the war, some become criminals, some kill themselves, some continue to live on with the physical and mental pain that follows them. While others become career military men, preachers or state senators.
The best summation of the book I can offer is a direct quote from the work itself: “I have watched the reactions of many men to pain, hunger and death, but all I have learned is that no two men react alike, and that no one man comes through the experience unchanged. I have never ceased to wonder at the thing we call human nature, with its times of beauty and its times of filthiness, or at the level of calm stupidity that lies between the two.” — William March
The best summation of the book I can offer is a direct quote from the work itself: “I have watched the reactions of many men to pain, hunger and death, but all I have learned is that no two men react alike, and that no one man comes through the experience unchanged. I have never ceased to wonder at the thing we call human nature, with its times of beauty and its times of filthiness, or at the level of calm stupidity that lies between the two.” — William March
February 10, 2018
A “Band of Brothers” for the First World War, and a relatively rare glimpse into the experience of American Marines in the trenches, “Company K” is a vital and intense novel. Told through the eyes of 113 different soldiers in short chapters and comprised largely of experiences that the author witnessed himself during his time serving in France, “Company K” is an experience that is not easily forgotten.
Once described as “an anthology of dismay” by Christopher Morley, I would venture that the short cries that issue forth across each chapter are not only of dismay, but a full to bursting spectrum of all emotions. That's the thing with this singular and remarkable work, it is not so much a novel of war, but war itself rendered through the mouths of these men. It can be despairing, hopeful, violent, funny, tragic and dastardly at any moment. For me, March has achieved the purest form of war novel imaginable. One that is honest. It is not glorious, though glory is to be found, it is not condemning these men, though there are rogues amongst them. It merely allows them to speak so that they may not be forgotten. I can think of few better reasons to write than that.
Tsam
Once described as “an anthology of dismay” by Christopher Morley, I would venture that the short cries that issue forth across each chapter are not only of dismay, but a full to bursting spectrum of all emotions. That's the thing with this singular and remarkable work, it is not so much a novel of war, but war itself rendered through the mouths of these men. It can be despairing, hopeful, violent, funny, tragic and dastardly at any moment. For me, March has achieved the purest form of war novel imaginable. One that is honest. It is not glorious, though glory is to be found, it is not condemning these men, though there are rogues amongst them. It merely allows them to speak so that they may not be forgotten. I can think of few better reasons to write than that.
Tsam
December 18, 2020
William March's Company K is one of the original World War I accounts; published in 1933, it tells the story of the war from the viewpoint of all 113 men in Company K. And while Company K is fictional, the author March (a pen name for William Edward Campbell), served heroically in the war, earning such such distinctions as the Croix de Guerre, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Navy Cross. From the writing, there can be no doubt that March has been on intimate terms with the war, as well as how it feels to return from the fighting.
Unlike such classics as All Quiet on the Western Front or Over the Top where a single perspective dominates, the story here is entirely balanced; some men recount their piece in a few pages, others in only two or three paragraphs, all woven together in a single narrative. The result is that the reader doesn't have an opportunity to know any man individually, to feel any great attachment to him, to think of him as anything other than one more cog in the great wheel of war. The war, then, dominates, becoming the main actor - the mud, the blood, the misery. The effect is altogether powerful - and powerfully disconcerting.
Unlike such classics as All Quiet on the Western Front or Over the Top where a single perspective dominates, the story here is entirely balanced; some men recount their piece in a few pages, others in only two or three paragraphs, all woven together in a single narrative. The result is that the reader doesn't have an opportunity to know any man individually, to feel any great attachment to him, to think of him as anything other than one more cog in the great wheel of war. The war, then, dominates, becoming the main actor - the mud, the blood, the misery. The effect is altogether powerful - and powerfully disconcerting.
September 18, 2019
I've wavered between 3 and 4 stars. The book does a good job of showing you the horror of WWI and the hypocrisy of society at the time. There were moments that were painful to read and had me in tears because it was so sad.
However the structure of the book is told in little vignettes of members of the company. So you never get an opportunity to get to know characters which make all of them come off as u likable and not as sympathetic as some should be.
This is the first WWI novel I read from an American perspective. I think I prefer the European perspectives a bit more. Maybe it's partly because America didn't join until near the end. They also had less to lose compared to other countries. I'm not sure. But it felt different. Overall though it wasn't bad but it did a good job of telling the painful truths but it was definitely in a more blunt way compared to the German and English texts.
However the structure of the book is told in little vignettes of members of the company. So you never get an opportunity to get to know characters which make all of them come off as u likable and not as sympathetic as some should be.
This is the first WWI novel I read from an American perspective. I think I prefer the European perspectives a bit more. Maybe it's partly because America didn't join until near the end. They also had less to lose compared to other countries. I'm not sure. But it felt different. Overall though it wasn't bad but it did a good job of telling the painful truths but it was definitely in a more blunt way compared to the German and English texts.
April 24, 2013
En su momento fue impactante y novedoso, tanto por la temática como por la estructura, y quizás se mereciese las tres estrellas. Pero el tiempo ha pasado por ella, la narración de los momentos más macabros de la IGM ya no levanta más que un estremcimiento que desaparece al pasar págima. ¿Nos hemos endurecido?, no lo creo, simplemente la narrativa de la guerra sin sentido se ha fijado en nuestra concepción del mundo de la misma manera que a los europeos de la Gerra de los Cien Años les parecía natural la violencia que los rodeaba.
Puesto a elegir me quedo con "Sin novedad en el frente" y su continuación, mucho más desconocida, "El camino de la vuelta". Pero quizás vuelva a leerla con otro ánimo en algún momento.
Puesto a elegir me quedo con "Sin novedad en el frente" y su continuación, mucho más desconocida, "El camino de la vuelta". Pero quizás vuelva a leerla con otro ánimo en algún momento.
May 7, 2015
All most of us know of war is through the movies we have watched. The story is told of John Wayne visiting a hospital in Hawaii during WWII and being soundly booed by the Marines who were their healing. They knew the truth of what war was like and that it was nothing like what he had portrayed on screen. This book is a story of a company in WWI. It is raw and honest in its descriptions. You read about senseless violence. The language is true to the era, as it was written by a member of this company. This book stands as a stark contrast to the broader narratives you will read of battles and strategies being executed. It is told man by man, by each member of the company. Even if you have no interest in military history, this is an excellent book to read.
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