That Winter

by Merle Miller

First published in 1948, Merle Miller’s first novel, That Winter, is a book of disillusioned youth, of veterans in the post-war world, in a story of personal despair, individual tragedy. It is the winter after the war has ended. Peter lets his inaction lead to writing for a magazine in which he has no faith. Lew renounces his Jewish name and family. Ted realizes that his only home was the Army. Through Westing, a phony novelist, who serves as catalytic agent, Ted suicides, Peter throws up his job, Lew realizes he cannot pass as a Christian.

Widely considered to be one of the best novels about the post-war readjustment of World War II veterans, this classic novel will have you captivated from the first page.

“Here is the clarification of unresolved drives, problems, incidents, of the push and pull of Fitzgerald, in the recording of the cracking of foundations, security, personal affairs, of hard reality edged with the passion of beliefs, with the gentleness of characterization.”—Kirkus Review

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Merle Miller, born in Montour, Iowa, wrote almost a dozen books, including more than half a dozen novels. His first, ''That Winter'' (1948), was considered one of the best novels about the postwar readjustment of World War II veterans. His other novels included ''A Day in Late September,'' set in suburban Connecticut on a Sunday in September 1960, ''The Sure Thing,'' ''Reunion,'' and his masterwork, the monumental "A Gay and Melancholy Sound" (1960).

Oral biographies accounted for his greatest success. The first of them, ''Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman,'' was published in 1974. It was adapted from an abortive television series for which the former President spent many hours in the early 1960's talking with Miller, the researcher and writer for the project.

His Johnson biography, a book for which he conducted 180 interviews and consulted almost 400 oral histories, was a best seller in 1980. Although he said he began the biography disliking the former President, in part because Miller was an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, he ended up appreciating Mr. Johnson's parliamentary achievements and calling him ''one of the most complex, fascinating Presidents of all time.''

In 1971, Miller wrote a widely discussed essay for The New York Times Magazine, ''What It Means to Be a Homosexual,'' which, he said, brought him more than 2,000 letters, many of them from other homosexuals thanking him for helping to restore their self-respect. This article, and the enlarged book published from it, "On Being Different," made Miller the first nationally-known advocate for gay rights. He closely followed that famous essay with the novel "What Happened," fictionalizing some of his own horrific life experiences which lay behind the NYT essay.

Miller attended the University of Iowa and spent a year at the London School of Economics. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 and served as an editor of Yank magazine, in both the Pacific and in Europe, until his discharge in September 1945. He worked briefly as an editor at Time and Harper's magazines.

Reviews

[Alana Cash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a bestseller in 1948 when it was published and I can understand why. It's a well-written (probably autobiographical) account of what it was like the first winter that soldiers returned from serving in WWII. Three ex-soldiers share a big sublet in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan. Two of them spend their days writing and they days and nights drinking heavily. One of them is rich enough that he spend his days and nights drinking and hardly shows up at the office of his father's company. They all experienced so much out of the ordinary - traumas, wounds, one of them lost an arm - that they are finding it hard to get started in life again. It's poignant, sad, distressing, and very real. Besides the lives of these men, the reader gets a glimpse into the world of literary magazine publishing in New York which is quirky and ivy-league laden. Yale men working as copy boys waiting for an office and a chance to write. And you learn about many bars in New York.

[Jill Condon · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable book. Some pretty cool war imagery and truly lovable characters. If this had been a series of short stories I would have been more into it because it failed to be one coherent novel. Also it talked about alcohol too much.