Wine, Women And War: A Diary Of Disillusionment

by Howard Vincent O'Brien, Karl Edwin Harriman (Introduction)

The author, an AEF officer, had been trained as an artillery officer and was later attached to "Intelligence" and worked behind the front lines. His wartime journal was kept in a series of small black books in a half shorthand of his own devisement, but quite readily translatable. Here is one of the most remarkable books that the Great War has produced, a vivid, living thing; done without attempt at drama or at form by an honest man who possessed, perhaps unconsciously, an extraordinary literary facility. Very few books like it have been produced in any country since the conflict, though why this is true is difficult to understand. Written with perfect candor for the eyes of its author only, the necessity for the author's original anonymity will be apparent to every reader. Authentic from the first word to the last, it is precisely what it appears to be-the undramatized record of the actions and reactions, recorded almost at the moment of their execution and perception, of one young American, who, given an undramatic part to play in one of the greatest dramas the world has ever witnessed, played it through to the final curtain. And, while playing it through, he recorded some of the most perceptive observations ever written about the Allied armies, France and its people and of the Germans.

Genres: Nonfiction

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1926

Reviews

[Bkwormmegs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quotes "In heaven's debt now for the years I've had her, and no complaints if the loan is called." On his wife and his going to war.
"Trying everything for H___'s homesickness. Nothing works but whisky. Prefer him homesick."
"And so much black. Makes the throat ache, to go down a street." Describing war ravaged France...