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Guard of Honor
James Gould Cozzens was one of America's most famous writers after the Second World War. His Pulitzer Prize-winning novel GUARD OF HONOR balances a vast cast of intricately enmeshed characters as they react over the course of three tense days to a racial incident on a U.S. Air Force training base in Florida in 1942.
614 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1948
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James Gould Cozzens
83 books27 followersPulitzer Prize for Fiction for Guard of Honor in 1949
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October 29, 2013
So here we have the 631-page novel that won the Pulitzer in 1949, yet when I went Davis Kidd bookstore in West Nashville to purchase it, I was amazed to discover that not only did Davis Kidd not carry the novel, it had been out of print for years. Initially, I decided that was all I needed to know: no one publishes the novel because no one buys the novel because no one reads the novel because it’s not any good. Next. And yet, I felt remiss that I had committed myself to reading all the Pulitzers in fiction, and here I was already skipping the second work in the series.
I was also a little puzzled as to how a once-critically-acclaimed novel, if not a popular one, could fall so out of disfavor that it wasn’t even worth printing. It seems that the Pulitzer Board would guarantee at least a paltry printing each year, enough to keep up with the demands of literary scholars, if no one else. The sales clerk at Davis Kidd countered: “Lots good novels are no longer in print.”
My question: “If these novels are so good, why are they out of print?” I mean, really: Who’s definition of good are we talking about, certainly not the publisher’s? Since I would never attempt to measure the worth of a novel based solely on its popularity, perhaps we can strike a happy a medium and safely theorize “Many novels that were once considered good are no longer marketable.”
While it’s clear that the Pulitzer Board of 1949 thought Guard of Honor was not only a good book, but a distinguished book of American fiction, and while it’s clear that posterity vehemently disagrees, it’s not clear, on the surface, as to why. To this purpose, I bought a used, 1976-edition copy of the novel and went about the monotonous task of slogging my way through it. I say monotonous because there is very little tension to motivate the reader to keep reading. I found myself constantly drifting, digressing into my own thoughts and troubles, re-reading paragraphs, if not pages.
Added to the monotony is Cozzens’s somewhat challenging writing-style. This isn’t the type of book someone sits back to passively enjoy. Rather, the reader must constantly study and re-read sentences to ascertain, say, what part of which abstract idea the pronoun “this” refers to. In his life, Cozzens was known for his reclusive lifestyle. In his writing, his rhetorical questions, double negatives, disorienting descriptions, esoteric words, and equivocal pronouns lead me to believe that he wants to hide even from his readers. “Dig deep, dig deeper, if you want to find the story,” he seems to be saying. “It’s here if you’ll do the work to sort it out.”
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of writers whose writing-style is dense and challenging and can only be fully appreciated through dissection, analysis, and discussion. William Faulkner comes to mind. But the difference between Faulkner and Cozzens is that with Faulkner, there’s a huge payoff for your drilling. With Cozzens, I find no water at the bottom of the well.
The entire “action” of the novel, if that’s what you want to call it, takes place over a three-day period. Accordingly, the novel is divided not into chapters, but into three large sections aptly named: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Judging from the memorandums that appear throughout the story, the days in question are September 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of 1943.
The setting is a fictional United States Army Airforce base in central Florida. The main character is, well—there is no main character. That’s another problem. Rather than anchoring the reader in the lives of a few central characters, Cozzens attempts to sweep us away with an unending and homogenous flow of professional white males. I suppose this is all well and good if you can identify with the nuanced dilemmas of such a disenfranchised segment of the American populace.
In the interest of full disclosure I am a professional, white, male, veteran of the United States Army, and if anyone could identify with the litany of characters Cozzens presents in Guard of Honor, he should be, resoundingly, me. However, even I find myself drowning in all the officers and gentlemen. If you dare to cross this river, here are some of the names you will have to navigate: Lieutenant Phillips, Lieutenant Werthauer, Lieutenant Edsell, Lieutenant Anderson, Lieutenant Pettie, Lieutenant Kashkin, Lieutenant Carter, Captain Andrews, Captain Vaughn, Captain Dyer, Captain Raimondi, Captain Hicks, Captain Burton, Captain Collins, Captain Dobie, Captain Duchemin, Captain Wiley, General Baxter, General Beal, General Nichols, Colonel Ross, Colonel Woodman, Colonel Mowbray, Colonel Van Pelt, Colonel Schermerhorn, Colonel Jobson, Colonel Folsom, Colonel Coulthard, Major McCreery, Major Whitney, Major Beaudry, Major Blake, Major McIlmoyle, Major Pound, Major Tietam, Major Sears, Master Sergeant Pellerino, Sergeant Olmstead, Sergeant Brooks, Sergeant McCabe, Lieutenant Colonel Howden, Lieutenant Colonel Carricker, Mr. Bullen, Mr. Botwinick, Mr. James, and Mr. Lovewell.
The greatest problem that these men seem to have is deciding who actually out-ranks whom, since many of the officers presented are from the reserves and have achieved prestige and influence in their civilian lives, if not their military ones. As an almost ancillary point, these professional white males are also trying to cope with the suspicion that black people should have the same rights as white people. My God, what if it’s true?! Indeed, if there is an explanation for Guard of Honor winning the Pulitzer, it might be due to its use of civil rights as a medium for exploring the relative rank, talent, morality, and intelligence of professional white males.
There are three main events that happen in 600-plus pages of narrative. The first is the incidence of Lieutenant Colonel “Benny” Carricker punching Lieutenant Willis, who is an African-American pilot. This sets up event two, wherein other African-American pilots protest the use of segregated officer clubs, and the leadership debates appropriate action. Finally, during day three, there is a mass training exercise in which seven equipment-laden soldiers accidentally parachute into a lake, sink to the bottom, and drown. The last incident, incidentally, has nothing to do with anything. The first incident is charming enough. But the second, and here’s the point, is based upon an actual historical event that is widely regarded by civil rights historians as the catalyst that brought about the end segregation within the armed forces.
On April 5, 1945 at Freeman Air Field near Seymour, Indiana, African-American officers of the 477th Bombardment Group attempted to integrate with an all-white officer club. Although Army Regulation 210-10 formally disallowed segregation, authorities arrested sixty-one African-Americans, three of which were ultimately court-martialed. Later, after the commanding officer issued Base Regulation 85-2 (which maintained the status-quo segregation on technicalities) 101 more officers were arrested for refusing to sign a statement that they had read and understood the regulation. Not until 1995 did the Air Force begin the process of removing letters of reprimand from the permanent files of members of the 477th Bombardment Group.
If Cozzens demonstrates innovation—thereby creating literature—it’s in his willingness to explore and bring attention to such a controversial subject at the time. He also deftly categorizes different types of officers along with the merits of their ideas, the saliency of their minds, and the motivation of their actions and words. Colonel Norman Ross, a trenchant observer and thinker whose point-of-view we see more than any other character, and who is also a judge in his civilian life, is expertly contrasted with Colonel Mowbray, a man who, while an earnest and experienced military professional, has more power than intelligence, and therefore lacks the precision of thought and soundness of judgment that his position sometimes requires.
No matter how much the occasional paragraph delights us—some remark about intelligence, some paring of first impression from final conclusion—it isn’t enough to sustain the reader. When compared to the amount of energy required digest this novel, the rewards of Guard of Honor are insufficient at best, and a defamation to the Pulitzer Prize, indeed to literature itself, at worst.
To Cozzens’s credit, he also wrote By Love Possessed, a novel that won the Howell’s Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and topped The New York Time’s best seller list for several months in 1957. I haven’t read it, but if it’s still in print, I suspect your time is better spent there
I was also a little puzzled as to how a once-critically-acclaimed novel, if not a popular one, could fall so out of disfavor that it wasn’t even worth printing. It seems that the Pulitzer Board would guarantee at least a paltry printing each year, enough to keep up with the demands of literary scholars, if no one else. The sales clerk at Davis Kidd countered: “Lots good novels are no longer in print.”
My question: “If these novels are so good, why are they out of print?” I mean, really: Who’s definition of good are we talking about, certainly not the publisher’s? Since I would never attempt to measure the worth of a novel based solely on its popularity, perhaps we can strike a happy a medium and safely theorize “Many novels that were once considered good are no longer marketable.”
While it’s clear that the Pulitzer Board of 1949 thought Guard of Honor was not only a good book, but a distinguished book of American fiction, and while it’s clear that posterity vehemently disagrees, it’s not clear, on the surface, as to why. To this purpose, I bought a used, 1976-edition copy of the novel and went about the monotonous task of slogging my way through it. I say monotonous because there is very little tension to motivate the reader to keep reading. I found myself constantly drifting, digressing into my own thoughts and troubles, re-reading paragraphs, if not pages.
Added to the monotony is Cozzens’s somewhat challenging writing-style. This isn’t the type of book someone sits back to passively enjoy. Rather, the reader must constantly study and re-read sentences to ascertain, say, what part of which abstract idea the pronoun “this” refers to. In his life, Cozzens was known for his reclusive lifestyle. In his writing, his rhetorical questions, double negatives, disorienting descriptions, esoteric words, and equivocal pronouns lead me to believe that he wants to hide even from his readers. “Dig deep, dig deeper, if you want to find the story,” he seems to be saying. “It’s here if you’ll do the work to sort it out.”
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of writers whose writing-style is dense and challenging and can only be fully appreciated through dissection, analysis, and discussion. William Faulkner comes to mind. But the difference between Faulkner and Cozzens is that with Faulkner, there’s a huge payoff for your drilling. With Cozzens, I find no water at the bottom of the well.
The entire “action” of the novel, if that’s what you want to call it, takes place over a three-day period. Accordingly, the novel is divided not into chapters, but into three large sections aptly named: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Judging from the memorandums that appear throughout the story, the days in question are September 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of 1943.
The setting is a fictional United States Army Airforce base in central Florida. The main character is, well—there is no main character. That’s another problem. Rather than anchoring the reader in the lives of a few central characters, Cozzens attempts to sweep us away with an unending and homogenous flow of professional white males. I suppose this is all well and good if you can identify with the nuanced dilemmas of such a disenfranchised segment of the American populace.
In the interest of full disclosure I am a professional, white, male, veteran of the United States Army, and if anyone could identify with the litany of characters Cozzens presents in Guard of Honor, he should be, resoundingly, me. However, even I find myself drowning in all the officers and gentlemen. If you dare to cross this river, here are some of the names you will have to navigate: Lieutenant Phillips, Lieutenant Werthauer, Lieutenant Edsell, Lieutenant Anderson, Lieutenant Pettie, Lieutenant Kashkin, Lieutenant Carter, Captain Andrews, Captain Vaughn, Captain Dyer, Captain Raimondi, Captain Hicks, Captain Burton, Captain Collins, Captain Dobie, Captain Duchemin, Captain Wiley, General Baxter, General Beal, General Nichols, Colonel Ross, Colonel Woodman, Colonel Mowbray, Colonel Van Pelt, Colonel Schermerhorn, Colonel Jobson, Colonel Folsom, Colonel Coulthard, Major McCreery, Major Whitney, Major Beaudry, Major Blake, Major McIlmoyle, Major Pound, Major Tietam, Major Sears, Master Sergeant Pellerino, Sergeant Olmstead, Sergeant Brooks, Sergeant McCabe, Lieutenant Colonel Howden, Lieutenant Colonel Carricker, Mr. Bullen, Mr. Botwinick, Mr. James, and Mr. Lovewell.
The greatest problem that these men seem to have is deciding who actually out-ranks whom, since many of the officers presented are from the reserves and have achieved prestige and influence in their civilian lives, if not their military ones. As an almost ancillary point, these professional white males are also trying to cope with the suspicion that black people should have the same rights as white people. My God, what if it’s true?! Indeed, if there is an explanation for Guard of Honor winning the Pulitzer, it might be due to its use of civil rights as a medium for exploring the relative rank, talent, morality, and intelligence of professional white males.
There are three main events that happen in 600-plus pages of narrative. The first is the incidence of Lieutenant Colonel “Benny” Carricker punching Lieutenant Willis, who is an African-American pilot. This sets up event two, wherein other African-American pilots protest the use of segregated officer clubs, and the leadership debates appropriate action. Finally, during day three, there is a mass training exercise in which seven equipment-laden soldiers accidentally parachute into a lake, sink to the bottom, and drown. The last incident, incidentally, has nothing to do with anything. The first incident is charming enough. But the second, and here’s the point, is based upon an actual historical event that is widely regarded by civil rights historians as the catalyst that brought about the end segregation within the armed forces.
On April 5, 1945 at Freeman Air Field near Seymour, Indiana, African-American officers of the 477th Bombardment Group attempted to integrate with an all-white officer club. Although Army Regulation 210-10 formally disallowed segregation, authorities arrested sixty-one African-Americans, three of which were ultimately court-martialed. Later, after the commanding officer issued Base Regulation 85-2 (which maintained the status-quo segregation on technicalities) 101 more officers were arrested for refusing to sign a statement that they had read and understood the regulation. Not until 1995 did the Air Force begin the process of removing letters of reprimand from the permanent files of members of the 477th Bombardment Group.
If Cozzens demonstrates innovation—thereby creating literature—it’s in his willingness to explore and bring attention to such a controversial subject at the time. He also deftly categorizes different types of officers along with the merits of their ideas, the saliency of their minds, and the motivation of their actions and words. Colonel Norman Ross, a trenchant observer and thinker whose point-of-view we see more than any other character, and who is also a judge in his civilian life, is expertly contrasted with Colonel Mowbray, a man who, while an earnest and experienced military professional, has more power than intelligence, and therefore lacks the precision of thought and soundness of judgment that his position sometimes requires.
No matter how much the occasional paragraph delights us—some remark about intelligence, some paring of first impression from final conclusion—it isn’t enough to sustain the reader. When compared to the amount of energy required digest this novel, the rewards of Guard of Honor are insufficient at best, and a defamation to the Pulitzer Prize, indeed to literature itself, at worst.
To Cozzens’s credit, he also wrote By Love Possessed, a novel that won the Howell’s Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and topped The New York Time’s best seller list for several months in 1957. I haven’t read it, but if it’s still in print, I suspect your time is better spent there
January 16, 2022
I know that some readers adored this story about WWII on an airbase in Florida, ostensibly addressing racism, but without using a black voice. There are multiple perspectives here and a myriad of characters - some of which are referred to alternatively by names and nicknames, so it is not always evident to keep it all straight. I lost interest in the story several times (which explains why something not all that long took me three weeks to finish). It got a little more interesting at the end (I had to go back and reread some earlier sections which I had slept through to make sense of it), but I did not see all that much evolution in the characters and the racism and sexism threw me off. And it is EXTREMELY long.
I can't honestly say that the offerings from Pearl Buck (Peony), Truman Capote (Other Voices, Other Rooms), Willa Cather (The Old Beauty, and others (posthumous), or Norman Mailer (The Naked and the Dead) were any better having not read them yet. However, even if it was not his strongest book, I would likely have preferred Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust for the 1949 Pulitzer over this one.
All that being said, there was some good writing.
This one is typical of the rambling, introspective prose of Cozzens:
"In this joking relation were elements of complacence, and other elements of sentimental or self-interested reminiscence, the mind's flat lie about the past; but also, ingenuously full-hearted, wistfully it gathered a true tenderness around the more or less distorted facts. Unmixed with anything but sadness, fond feelings could live there, secure from the minute by minute test of verifiable truth and observable fact, unspoiled by the moving instant's irritabilities of sense, the separate dis-
comforts, the incompatible wishes that greatly moderated, in any present, men's appreciations of one another, let alone of their women." (pp. 505)
The central tragedy in the book is described with terrifying realism:
"From the shed by the lake, the sound of the siren went wailing up. Nathaniel Hicks felt his throat contract to gasp air in, and then contract more, as though to use the air to shout; but nothing came. In his eye sockets, across his eyeballs he felt stabbing twinges like the pain of too much light - perhaps a spraining of the muscles caught at cross-purposes attempting to maintain one focus while irresistibly drawn to assume another. This ache of the overpressed eyes merged distractingly with the insufferable demands the eyes made on the mind, the impossible work of anatomizing into instants, enough instants to hold, one instant to one perception, the tumultuous few seconds with their multiple movements above and on the lake's surface, suddenly begun, suddenly all gone." (pp. 540)
I liked this passage as well:
"The portentous truth appeared by intimation, full of comfort though so melancholy, touched with despair yet supportable, that nothing, not the best you might hope, not the worst you might fear, would ever be very much, would ever be very anything. Seen in this light, all other feelings must weaken, become more temperate-really, more indifferent. Since that was how it was, measures more moderate-really, more disinterested--suggested themselves." (pp. 570)
This passage is where the book's title comes from:
"Colonel Ross, not without grandiloquence, said: 'It does us good. Ceremony is for us. The guard, or as I think we now prefer to call it, escort of honor is a suitable mark of our regret for mortality and our respect for service--we hope, good; but if bad or indifferent, at least, long. When you are as old as I am you will realize that it ought to get a man something. For our sake, not his. Not much; but something. Something people can see." (pp. 594)
My list of Pulitzer winners (nearly finished all of them!):
here
I can't honestly say that the offerings from Pearl Buck (Peony), Truman Capote (Other Voices, Other Rooms), Willa Cather (The Old Beauty, and others (posthumous), or Norman Mailer (The Naked and the Dead) were any better having not read them yet. However, even if it was not his strongest book, I would likely have preferred Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust for the 1949 Pulitzer over this one.
All that being said, there was some good writing.
This one is typical of the rambling, introspective prose of Cozzens:
"In this joking relation were elements of complacence, and other elements of sentimental or self-interested reminiscence, the mind's flat lie about the past; but also, ingenuously full-hearted, wistfully it gathered a true tenderness around the more or less distorted facts. Unmixed with anything but sadness, fond feelings could live there, secure from the minute by minute test of verifiable truth and observable fact, unspoiled by the moving instant's irritabilities of sense, the separate dis-
comforts, the incompatible wishes that greatly moderated, in any present, men's appreciations of one another, let alone of their women." (pp. 505)
The central tragedy in the book is described with terrifying realism:
"From the shed by the lake, the sound of the siren went wailing up. Nathaniel Hicks felt his throat contract to gasp air in, and then contract more, as though to use the air to shout; but nothing came. In his eye sockets, across his eyeballs he felt stabbing twinges like the pain of too much light - perhaps a spraining of the muscles caught at cross-purposes attempting to maintain one focus while irresistibly drawn to assume another. This ache of the overpressed eyes merged distractingly with the insufferable demands the eyes made on the mind, the impossible work of anatomizing into instants, enough instants to hold, one instant to one perception, the tumultuous few seconds with their multiple movements above and on the lake's surface, suddenly begun, suddenly all gone." (pp. 540)
I liked this passage as well:
"The portentous truth appeared by intimation, full of comfort though so melancholy, touched with despair yet supportable, that nothing, not the best you might hope, not the worst you might fear, would ever be very much, would ever be very anything. Seen in this light, all other feelings must weaken, become more temperate-really, more indifferent. Since that was how it was, measures more moderate-really, more disinterested--suggested themselves." (pp. 570)
This passage is where the book's title comes from:
"Colonel Ross, not without grandiloquence, said: 'It does us good. Ceremony is for us. The guard, or as I think we now prefer to call it, escort of honor is a suitable mark of our regret for mortality and our respect for service--we hope, good; but if bad or indifferent, at least, long. When you are as old as I am you will realize that it ought to get a man something. For our sake, not his. Not much; but something. Something people can see." (pp. 594)
My list of Pulitzer winners (nearly finished all of them!):
here
November 10, 2021
James Gould Cozzens is an author who has been unjustly neglected both during the latter years of his life and in the three decades since his death. Of his often critically-acclaimed novels this one, published in 1948, stands alone, on its own merits. I believe that I first learned about this novel from reading Noel Perrin the Dartmouth professor and book reviewer who praised the author and this novel in particular as deserving more popular notice as worthy to stand beside Melville's novels in the American canon.
Cozzens' achievement in creating this war novel is evidenced by the setting, a Florida Air Base, but more importantly in doing this he has brought into sharp relief against the background of boredom and frustration and disappointment which most of the officers assigned there felt, the minor dramas of human lives, loves, hates, jealousies; the competitive spirit leveled at minor goals; and the interrelation of men, whose ranks are more or less the accident of the chance of war. General Beal, younger than most of his staff though already the commanding officer, is portrayed as vital figure who is torn by his friendship for a difficult junior officer, eternally in hot water, disturbed profoundly by the necessity of playing off local prejudices against the directives from Washington, attempting to be human and at the same time the martinet military procedure demanded.
The major issues that dominate and motivate the story include the problem of the Negro officers and the officers club; the disaster attendant on the trials of parachute jumping -- and the question of blame. Most of the story is told from the perspective of Nathaniel Hicks who, in private life, has a significant role in the media world of magazines. The tensions of civilian life are brought home through his own affair with a WAC Lieutenant. Character after character comes clear- small bits as well as large. In creating this world Cozzens reminds me of the breadth and depth found in the novels of George Eliot.
There is an implicit message of humaneness in the whole the kind of drama Command Decision provided -- against a setting that is infinitely less provocative of dramatic treatment. Cozzens has written a long book with many subplots; one that can be difficult at times. But the power of his prose and the resulting enjoyment of this great war novel builds as minor incident is piled on minor incident to create an unforgettable pattern. Rather than romanticizing his story, Cozzens' writing is taut and realistic, but at the same time exhibits an expansive warmth -- an unusual combination which makes for a favorable impression and an enjoyable read.
Cozzens' achievement in creating this war novel is evidenced by the setting, a Florida Air Base, but more importantly in doing this he has brought into sharp relief against the background of boredom and frustration and disappointment which most of the officers assigned there felt, the minor dramas of human lives, loves, hates, jealousies; the competitive spirit leveled at minor goals; and the interrelation of men, whose ranks are more or less the accident of the chance of war. General Beal, younger than most of his staff though already the commanding officer, is portrayed as vital figure who is torn by his friendship for a difficult junior officer, eternally in hot water, disturbed profoundly by the necessity of playing off local prejudices against the directives from Washington, attempting to be human and at the same time the martinet military procedure demanded.
The major issues that dominate and motivate the story include the problem of the Negro officers and the officers club; the disaster attendant on the trials of parachute jumping -- and the question of blame. Most of the story is told from the perspective of Nathaniel Hicks who, in private life, has a significant role in the media world of magazines. The tensions of civilian life are brought home through his own affair with a WAC Lieutenant. Character after character comes clear- small bits as well as large. In creating this world Cozzens reminds me of the breadth and depth found in the novels of George Eliot.
There is an implicit message of humaneness in the whole the kind of drama Command Decision provided -- against a setting that is infinitely less provocative of dramatic treatment. Cozzens has written a long book with many subplots; one that can be difficult at times. But the power of his prose and the resulting enjoyment of this great war novel builds as minor incident is piled on minor incident to create an unforgettable pattern. Rather than romanticizing his story, Cozzens' writing is taut and realistic, but at the same time exhibits an expansive warmth -- an unusual combination which makes for a favorable impression and an enjoyable read.
May 12, 2014
What an amazing author and what a fascinating story. 631 pages describe the events of some 20+ characters over a period of three days at an Army Air Force base called Ocanara, in Florida, USA during September 1943. All of the characters are linked through the base and the detailed prose is just so satisfying to read as the story moves from one person to another, to their backgrounds, their families, their current problems, their interactions, their weaknesses and strengths, and so many events occur in just those three days. A totally plausible and wonderful book which I would have been very happy to have had 1000 pages to read.
August 28, 2010
There were about 10 pages in this 600+ book that I didn't hate. And I was stoned when I read those, so feel free to draw your own conclusions.
To start with, it's about WWII and constantly uses military terms that I am completely unfamiliar with. There's no explanation, no handy key like there is in the beginning of The Caine Mutiny. I started out looking them all up, but when it became clear that I'd be stopping once a page to do so, I gave up. Besides, the book was written in the '50s. People did not have Wikipedia then, what the fuck were they expected to do!
Cozzens decided to further confuse the reader by having about 20 central characters, none of which could be considered a main character. The narrative switched perspectives every 5-20 pages. Normally that's OK with me, so long as it's done well, but the problem was that the characters were impossible to keep straight. Sometimes they were referred to by rank, sometimes last name, sometimes first name and many of them had nicknames as well. I suspect there were actually several men affectionately called, "Judge," but I'm not sure.
There was also not much going on. The story took place over three days. There were four main events, one dealing with race relations and another involved the death of 7 people, but the total pages used to actually tell those stories was less than 10% of the book. It was just mindless description after mindless dialogue, with characters you couldn't keep straight, let alone give two shits about.
I spent most of this book thinking to myself, "Wait, who was that guy who committed suicide?", which was an event that took place in the first 40 page. I never did figure it out.
I would give this 1 star, but Cozzens appears to be extremely gifted and he does have a strong and distinctive voice. I just don't speak his language.
To start with, it's about WWII and constantly uses military terms that I am completely unfamiliar with. There's no explanation, no handy key like there is in the beginning of The Caine Mutiny. I started out looking them all up, but when it became clear that I'd be stopping once a page to do so, I gave up. Besides, the book was written in the '50s. People did not have Wikipedia then, what the fuck were they expected to do!
Cozzens decided to further confuse the reader by having about 20 central characters, none of which could be considered a main character. The narrative switched perspectives every 5-20 pages. Normally that's OK with me, so long as it's done well, but the problem was that the characters were impossible to keep straight. Sometimes they were referred to by rank, sometimes last name, sometimes first name and many of them had nicknames as well. I suspect there were actually several men affectionately called, "Judge," but I'm not sure.
There was also not much going on. The story took place over three days. There were four main events, one dealing with race relations and another involved the death of 7 people, but the total pages used to actually tell those stories was less than 10% of the book. It was just mindless description after mindless dialogue, with characters you couldn't keep straight, let alone give two shits about.
I spent most of this book thinking to myself, "Wait, who was that guy who committed suicide?", which was an event that took place in the first 40 page. I never did figure it out.
I would give this 1 star, but Cozzens appears to be extremely gifted and he does have a strong and distinctive voice. I just don't speak his language.
March 9, 2021
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER: 1949
===
1.5 rounded up
JFC what a fucking SLOG. I am heartily sick of reading about books about war--apparently it's the best way to win the goddamn Pulitzer Prize. This one had the surprising merit of actually having female characters that sort of played a role, but not really. I mean, obvi lots of the casual racism and sexism one would expect from a book written at this time and covering this subject matter, but ye gads, this was boring as fuck. I legit could not keep the names of all the generic white male characters straight and I was so uninterested in basically everything that was happening I have no real idea what the point of it all was. There were WAY too many "primary" characters, to the point where the whole narrative lost focus. And then, the one character who I was actually liking, I almost DNF'd this a bunch of times, and I honestly feel no better for having read it. Disappointing.
===
1.5 rounded up
JFC what a fucking SLOG. I am heartily sick of reading about books about war--apparently it's the best way to win the goddamn Pulitzer Prize. This one had the surprising merit of actually having female characters that sort of played a role, but not really. I mean, obvi lots of the casual racism and sexism one would expect from a book written at this time and covering this subject matter, but ye gads, this was boring as fuck. I legit could not keep the names of all the generic white male characters straight and I was so uninterested in basically everything that was happening I have no real idea what the point of it all was. There were WAY too many "primary" characters, to the point where the whole narrative lost focus. And then, the one character who I was actually liking, I almost DNF'd this a bunch of times, and I honestly feel no better for having read it. Disappointing.
June 18, 2017
Like plunging into an Olympic-sized swimming pool on a hot day. The prose is confident and polished, measured, & self-assured. Every page fairly glides by like a wave. Hilarious moments in every chapter and that formidable attention to human detail that marks the experienced, professional, mid-Twentieth-Century author. Gozzens has a superb eye.
It's everything a novel should be in that the focus is on human behavior, customs, habits, morals. I'm enjoying it as I did a similar Pulitzer winner, 'Andersonville'. The same sweep and breadth in storytelling scope, yet everything hinges (as does real life) on the tiniest remark or expression by the characters.
Everyone in the book is extremely affable and engaging, it is a story of good men and bad men, strong men and weak men--how they all coordinate with each other under pressure; what they think and feel about one another. You hate to have to stop turning pages--and when you return to the covers after a break, it is with anticipation. Cracking good novel in a league with anything by James Jones.
No terse or laconic Hemingway style writing here. 500 pages still to go!
It's everything a novel should be in that the focus is on human behavior, customs, habits, morals. I'm enjoying it as I did a similar Pulitzer winner, 'Andersonville'. The same sweep and breadth in storytelling scope, yet everything hinges (as does real life) on the tiniest remark or expression by the characters.
Everyone in the book is extremely affable and engaging, it is a story of good men and bad men, strong men and weak men--how they all coordinate with each other under pressure; what they think and feel about one another. You hate to have to stop turning pages--and when you return to the covers after a break, it is with anticipation. Cracking good novel in a league with anything by James Jones.
No terse or laconic Hemingway style writing here. 500 pages still to go!
December 16, 2019
Rich psychological and ethical study. Wow!
October 18, 2017
I don't know how much I have to say about this book. I liked it, it was a little bit dated, the ending was a little bit disappointing. I'm not sure the day is coming when it will be recognized as better than any of the WWII books, as asserted on the back cover. I liked this angle of looking at the war, and not a bad book, but not spectacular.
December 20, 2009
What is there to write to write about a 800 page book written over 3 days based at a WWII Stateside Air force Base? First off, the detail in this book is incredible as you'd expect it to be (see above sentence). I really didn't get into the book for the first 500 pages, but looking back see why there's so much detail. The book has about a dozen major characters and the book bounces back and forth to each, it's one that you may want to keep a chart in your book of who everyone is to keep from getting confused. The meat of the book is several situations that arise at the Air Force Base and who the main character, a young general, handles those situations.
May 24, 2021
This Pulitzer winner from the late 1940s is long and dense, with tons of characters, and a time span of only three days for its 600+ pages. And it's (technically) a war book. Not a lot going for it, really, in the way of making me interested. But honestly it's not half bad - there were some long slogs, but when it was interesting, it was very nearly a treat. A Moby Dick minus the whale? Sort of. The writing is good, although not quite Melville good, so not quite good enough to keep me from getting frustrated with those slog sections. It would probably help if I were more interested in the intricacies of military admin, or, to be honest, military issues in general. Interesting (and possibly important) for its place in literary history and the history of race relations in the military. If this sort of thing interests you, chances are you'll have more patience for it than I did.
January 5, 2019
Guard Of Honor won the Pulitzer Prize in 1949. The story takes place over 3 days in 1943 on a military base in Florida and details several challenging events that test the military leadership of the base. There are many characters in the book which makes the story difficult to follow at times. If you like WWII novels I would recommend All the Light We Cannot See, 2015 Pulitzer winner, or The Caine Mutiny, 1952 Pulitzer winner. I give Guard on Honor 3 stars.
December 29, 2017
I'm a fan of James Cozzens. His fan club has probably about 3 people, but more should join. His books are realistic portrayals of the moral and practical dilemmas of professional men in the mid-20th century. They are the kind of book that one can read a chapter or two, go back a week or so later. At the end, there is a sense that one has experienced something, and understands more about the world.
These are stories that take place in the real world. There are also interesting stories about the struggles of women, black people, and Jews, all of whom faced and still face, discrimination. He reports on the problems these groups had and, like all of his writing, he tries to show as it really happened. Some people accused him of anti-Semitism, or anti-feminism, but I think that he was neither, based on having read 4 of his books. He does portray characters that hold these views, but his protagonists do not.
These are stories that take place in the real world. There are also interesting stories about the struggles of women, black people, and Jews, all of whom faced and still face, discrimination. He reports on the problems these groups had and, like all of his writing, he tries to show as it really happened. Some people accused him of anti-Semitism, or anti-feminism, but I think that he was neither, based on having read 4 of his books. He does portray characters that hold these views, but his protagonists do not.
March 11, 2008
Pulitzer Price Winner read as part of my law school “Law and Literature” class highlighting the period of World War II. This novel is very much a man’s man novel with as frank a depiction of life on a base during war time as I have ever read. Very adult and very dense with more character development than plot.
Set at a Florida air base in the later stages of World War II, a group of black pilots arrives to be trained as part of an experiment in integration. The characters in the novel are complex and interesting and have various opinions about the experiment, but mostly they are concerned with their own interests. The novel really isn’t about World War II, nor is it about corruption in a birthday party, nor is it about race relations.
Not as memorable as others in the World War II genre, and certainly not for everyone, but all in all I found it to be enjoyable.
Set at a Florida air base in the later stages of World War II, a group of black pilots arrives to be trained as part of an experiment in integration. The characters in the novel are complex and interesting and have various opinions about the experiment, but mostly they are concerned with their own interests. The novel really isn’t about World War II, nor is it about corruption in a birthday party, nor is it about race relations.
Not as memorable as others in the World War II genre, and certainly not for everyone, but all in all I found it to be enjoyable.
March 20, 2014
I tried, I really tried to like this book, and there were several moments where I really did enjoy myself, and then I would find that my mind was drifting away for the umpteenth time as a litany of characters I really should have had a mental picture of by page 300 droned endlessly about technical army information a civilian would never really be interested in. Honestly, I barely had any idea who anyone was, which made me singularly unable to care about any of them.
I even read a review here to see if anything interesting or mind blowing happened at the end of this book that would make it worth slogging through, (I hate spoilers as a general rule), but apparently it does not. Life's too short, read elsewhere.
I even read a review here to see if anything interesting or mind blowing happened at the end of this book that would make it worth slogging through, (I hate spoilers as a general rule), but apparently it does not. Life's too short, read elsewhere.
February 25, 2021
It is an intellectual and cultural scandal that this American masterpiece has been forgotten. This a brilliant, richly detailed, profoundly thought out, account of three days of crisis at an American Army Air Force base in Florida at the height of World war 2.It is more than a the best American novel about World War 2. it is a profound exploration of The American paradox-race- and of our national character. Cozzens brilliantly weaves at least 80 fully realized characters into an incredibly tense, suspenseful, narrative. This must be reprinted in a Library of America edition. In addition, it would make a superb Netflix film.
December 26, 2023
Guard of Honor, a 1949 Pulitzer Prize winner by James Gould Cozzens is a wonderful, leisurely read! It is social commentary set on an Air Force base in World War II. With subtly and nuanced observations, it looks at racism, gender roles, and personality differences. I reflected on the challenge and resulting absurdities of trying to bring so many civilians into military organization to fight a war. The novel's detail about everything military from policies to airplanes provide the reader with an experience paralleling a civilian's on joining the military. This is an overlooked gem.
January 11, 2009
A much ignored, and I think unjustly so, book. One reason for the lack of recognition is its conservatism. I think it the best of WW II fiction. It is pragmatic, but honest, and just plain good reading.
December 25, 2016
If you're going to write a book about war then shouldn't there be some action? Or if you're going to build a long book on straight dialogue then shouldn't the dialogue be witty or interesting? How about if you're going to include this many characters that they be the least bit engaging? But no.
August 12, 2009
blech. I didn't care about anyone in this book. I repeat, blech.
April 5, 2014
Mostly dry and boring. Hated it!
August 5, 2018
Took me a little more than two weeks to get through this Pulitzer winner. Partly, that was because it was over 600 pages long, partly it was because it was less plot driven and more heavily character driven and heavily descriptive of the most minute details. In the end, you are left with the sense that you really got nothing for the effort. The writing was decent, but there really wasn’t much in the way of transformative moments or events. Stuff just kinda happened and the officers just kinda muddled through. You are always expecting some watershed moment or some defining event that just never really materializes. Instead you just get little bits of stuff that add up to the usual problems and mistakes and interactions of a weekend on a military training base.
You want Carricker to get disciplined. You want the black soldiers to stick with their protest against the segregation they face, you want Edsell to have his defiant do-gooder resentments come back and bite him on his rear, you want Mowbray to be held accountable for his incompetent leadership, you want Gen. Beal to be a more engaged leader, etc. But you get nothing in terms of what you want and expect. Nothing changes. And all you are left with is a bunch of nice words on a page and much more knowledge about the technical details of military rank, base life, and aircraft design.
Pulitzer worthy? No, I’d say not. Decent writing, sure. But it lacks substance. To me, it’s no wonder it’s out of print.
You want Carricker to get disciplined. You want the black soldiers to stick with their protest against the segregation they face, you want Edsell to have his defiant do-gooder resentments come back and bite him on his rear, you want Mowbray to be held accountable for his incompetent leadership, you want Gen. Beal to be a more engaged leader, etc. But you get nothing in terms of what you want and expect. Nothing changes. And all you are left with is a bunch of nice words on a page and much more knowledge about the technical details of military rank, base life, and aircraft design.
Pulitzer worthy? No, I’d say not. Decent writing, sure. But it lacks substance. To me, it’s no wonder it’s out of print.
November 26, 2022
“A lot of things you don’t know about happen every day in the South. And a lot of things you don’t know about happen every day in the Army.”
This book, Guard of Honor, might be one of the most disliked Pulitzer winners, but it is actually quite good and in my view fully deserving of that award. Sure, it is long, slow, and crowded with characters who can be hard to tell apart, but so is real life, and providing a glimpse into real life at an Army Air Base in the middle of World War II is the author’s goal. The book puts me in mind of a Robert Altman or early Paul Thomas Anderson film—a little tough to get into, maybe, but also incredibly rewarding once you begin to understand the characters’ unique motivations and true relations to one another. In the end, I think Guard of Honor does an even better job at revealing and satirizing the bureaucracy that runs modern warfare than A Bell for Adano and Tales of the South Pacific (also Pulitzer winners) do. I’m not saying it is a better overall book than those other two, only that it is a worthwhile and in its unique way even an entertaining addition to the large corpus of WWII literature by US writers.
This book, Guard of Honor, might be one of the most disliked Pulitzer winners, but it is actually quite good and in my view fully deserving of that award. Sure, it is long, slow, and crowded with characters who can be hard to tell apart, but so is real life, and providing a glimpse into real life at an Army Air Base in the middle of World War II is the author’s goal. The book puts me in mind of a Robert Altman or early Paul Thomas Anderson film—a little tough to get into, maybe, but also incredibly rewarding once you begin to understand the characters’ unique motivations and true relations to one another. In the end, I think Guard of Honor does an even better job at revealing and satirizing the bureaucracy that runs modern warfare than A Bell for Adano and Tales of the South Pacific (also Pulitzer winners) do. I’m not saying it is a better overall book than those other two, only that it is a worthwhile and in its unique way even an entertaining addition to the large corpus of WWII literature by US writers.
September 6, 2020
Incredible travel to a pivotal moment in American history. Essential reading.
August 19, 2023
Even though the reviews point out the story about racism in the book, it is only one facet of the story, and one will be disappointed if that is what they expect of the novel. It is a multifaceted story with several characters weaving in and out of the storyline. The story itself centers on a weekend on which several crises occur and how the high command handles them. It is robust reading at best, and the changing point of view is not for the faint of heart. The author successfully tells the story with the various characters, either by what they were thinking or saying or by what others were thinking about them. It is difficult to read because of those above and the inherent goings-on of a military base in Florida during World War II.
While he talked, Captain Wiley, more and more restive, perhaps saw the fighter swarm, his preferred familiars, old squadronmates of his, coming off the runways at a hundred miles an hour; in thunder, airborne. The earth fell down under them; the winds aloft gave way. Not long after, the watchful far-off foe would note some specks on the sky. Stout he might be, skilled, sure of himself; but the man was not born yet who, seeing that sight, kept at that moment spit enough to swallow. He hadn't long to wait. On the heart's diastole, those coming fighters might look a mile off, and on the systole following, here they were.
The coming fighters had no waiting around to do, either. For God and country, for flying pay, for heart-in-mouth fun with death, for the hell of it, and in the excited hope to kill, they gave the incomparable two-thousand horsepower engines a good, swift, water-injection kick in the pants. To the expeditious brain, the expert eye said: now! A finger touch, light as the destroying angel's, broke simultaneous flame out all their guns. Behind this storm of lead, hand in experienced hand, they
bored in--once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!
November 19, 2013
Pulitzer 1949 - Guard of Honor is a very dense book of over 600 pages that takes place over 3 days (and really two and a half). It's the story of an Army base in Florida over those three days during WWII and the interactions of the characters. Cozzens is apparently thorough and accurate in his depiction of a base at the time and the characters in it. However I had a really hard time with this book. There were a host of characters in the novel but not any one strong central character (or even a couple). As I read this I wasn't invested in anyone to find out what happens to them. Other than the depiction of the base I found no real plot in this - I wasn't turning the page to see what happens - and found my mind wandering while I was in the midst of reading it. If I hadn't used a book mark and just put the book down I'd have had a real hard time remember where I was. Additionally all of the military personal are referred to by their Rank and last name, making it nearly impossible to distinguish - and maybe that was his intention but it certainly didn't anchor me to any one character.
If your a WWII enthusiast this is probably an interesting read - but for the rest of us...meh... (2 stars for thoroughness)
If your a WWII enthusiast this is probably an interesting read - but for the rest of us...meh... (2 stars for thoroughness)
July 28, 2007
Another forgotten mid-century American classic. Cozzens won the Pulitzer Price in 1949 for this novel set on a Florida Army airbase in 1943, centered on the various minor dramas surrounding the integration of black pilots into the armed services — which I know makes the book sound especially boring. It's not – the writing is straightforward, unsentimental and avoids the usual treacly clichés. Solid & satisfying and virtually out-of-print.
(If you can find it, I recommend the Modern Library edition.)
(If you can find it, I recommend the Modern Library edition.)
May 30, 2020
Won the Pulitzer in 1949. Told over 3 days in 1943 at an Army Air Force base in Florida. It tells a much different story about WWII. It a slice of life story of the war that you don't usually see. It starts with a near collision of a couple airplanes (won being flown by a general) that leads to a fist fight that leads to racial tensions between black and white airmen. It explores, the bureaucracy of command, race and gender relations and segregation's in the deep south in the 40's. Its a long book with a lot of characters, that I thought was a worthwhile read.
November 16, 2009
I didn't realize anyone could make World War II so mundane, but here it is! There is no plot, little character development and incessant paper pushing. A nightmare read.
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Pulitzer winner from 1949.
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Pulitzer winner from 1949.
July 7, 2012
I don't know why no one has ever heard of or read Cozzens (or at least not since the 50s). This story is very much of the period in which it was written, but it is powerful and well-crafted.
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