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Glory for Me
This is a narrative poem telling the story of three veterans returning home at the end of WWII and of their adjustment into society. The film, The Best Years of Our Lives was based on this book, with some changes.
268 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1945
38 people are currently reading
309 people want to read
About the author
MacKinlay Kantor
227 books65 followersBenjamin McKinlay Kantor, was an American journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 novels, several set during the American Civil War, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956 for his 1955 novel
Andersonville
Kantor was born in Webster City, Iowa, in 1904. His mother, a journalist, encouraged Kantor to develop his writing style. Kantor started writing seriously as a teen-ager when he worked as a reporter with his mother at the local newspaper in Webster City.
Kantor's first novel was published when he was 24.
During World War II, Kantor reported from London as a war correspondent for a Los Angeles newspaper. After flying on several bombing missions, he asked for and received training to operate the bomber's turret machine guns (this was illegal, as he was not in service).
Nevertheless he was decorated with the Medal of Freedom by Gen. Carl Spaatz, then the U.S. Army Air Corp commander. He also saw combat during the Korean War as a correspondent.
In addition to journalism and novels, Kantor wrote the screenplay for Gun Crazy (aka Deadly Is the Female) (1950), a noted film noir. It was based on his short story by the same name, published February 3, 1940 in a "slick" magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. In 1992, it was revealed that he had allowed his name to be used on a screenplay written by Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten, who had been blacklisted as a result of his refusal to testify before the House Un-American Committee (HUAC) hearings. Kantor passed his payment on to Trumbo to help him survive.
Several of his novels were adapted for films. He established his own publishing house, and published several of his works in the 1930s and 1940s.
Kantor died of a heart attack in 1977, at the age of 73, at his home in Sarasota, Florida.
Kantor was born in Webster City, Iowa, in 1904. His mother, a journalist, encouraged Kantor to develop his writing style. Kantor started writing seriously as a teen-ager when he worked as a reporter with his mother at the local newspaper in Webster City.
Kantor's first novel was published when he was 24.
During World War II, Kantor reported from London as a war correspondent for a Los Angeles newspaper. After flying on several bombing missions, he asked for and received training to operate the bomber's turret machine guns (this was illegal, as he was not in service).
Nevertheless he was decorated with the Medal of Freedom by Gen. Carl Spaatz, then the U.S. Army Air Corp commander. He also saw combat during the Korean War as a correspondent.
In addition to journalism and novels, Kantor wrote the screenplay for Gun Crazy (aka Deadly Is the Female) (1950), a noted film noir. It was based on his short story by the same name, published February 3, 1940 in a "slick" magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. In 1992, it was revealed that he had allowed his name to be used on a screenplay written by Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood Ten, who had been blacklisted as a result of his refusal to testify before the House Un-American Committee (HUAC) hearings. Kantor passed his payment on to Trumbo to help him survive.
Several of his novels were adapted for films. He established his own publishing house, and published several of his works in the 1930s and 1940s.
Kantor died of a heart attack in 1977, at the age of 73, at his home in Sarasota, Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
December 10, 2009
Wow. Glory For Me was more than I expected. The content was stronger and rawer. I had anticipated something more restrained and inspirational, something like the movie The Best Years of Our Lives, which is adapted from this book.
The film version was a Best Picture winner in 1946, with a top notch cast including two of my favorite actors of that era: Frederic March and Theresa Wright. It is one of my all-time favorite films. It is also a proverbial old Hollywood offering with tasteful and restrained depictions of sexuality, alcohol consumption, and depression.
Glory For Me, on the other hand, spares the reader nothing. Long before the aftermath of Vietnam popularized the veteran’s plight, soldiers returned home from WWII and found it almost impossible to reacclimatize. Some were amputees. Many suffered PTSD. They found it difficult to function in, or even find, jobs unrelated to killing enemy soldiers. And they were haunted by the ghosts of fallen comrades. This is what Glory For Me depicts in all its pain and personal darkness.
I love the book, though it verges on overstatement in the later chapters as things get more and more hopeless. Still, like the wonderful film adaptation, the ultimate message is one of practical hope. Glory For Me reminds us that for true healing to take place, friends and loved ones play a vital part.
Two final notes:
1) This book is written in blank verse. It is a poem. However, it is written in a contemporary (1940s) voice, very accessible and even a fun chance to enjoy the slang of an earlier generation.
2) You’ll have to hunt used booksellers for this one. But it’s easy enough to find a decent copy online. That’s how I got mine.
The film version was a Best Picture winner in 1946, with a top notch cast including two of my favorite actors of that era: Frederic March and Theresa Wright. It is one of my all-time favorite films. It is also a proverbial old Hollywood offering with tasteful and restrained depictions of sexuality, alcohol consumption, and depression.
Glory For Me, on the other hand, spares the reader nothing. Long before the aftermath of Vietnam popularized the veteran’s plight, soldiers returned home from WWII and found it almost impossible to reacclimatize. Some were amputees. Many suffered PTSD. They found it difficult to function in, or even find, jobs unrelated to killing enemy soldiers. And they were haunted by the ghosts of fallen comrades. This is what Glory For Me depicts in all its pain and personal darkness.
I love the book, though it verges on overstatement in the later chapters as things get more and more hopeless. Still, like the wonderful film adaptation, the ultimate message is one of practical hope. Glory For Me reminds us that for true healing to take place, friends and loved ones play a vital part.
Two final notes:
1) This book is written in blank verse. It is a poem. However, it is written in a contemporary (1940s) voice, very accessible and even a fun chance to enjoy the slang of an earlier generation.
2) You’ll have to hunt used booksellers for this one. But it’s easy enough to find a decent copy online. That’s how I got mine.
December 4, 2019
Astonishing.
Written in blank verse, Glory for Me tells the story of three GIs returning for war to the same Midwestern town. Beautifully written, the tale is an unflinching look at the reality of returning to life after war, of what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and how returning home is more complicated and complex than parades and patriotism and celebration.
Immensely powerful, moving, and rich, Glory for Me deserves to be better known today. The story remains as relevant as ever, and it’s a shame it’s not as revered as the movie it inspired: The Best Years of Our Lives. Highly recommended.
Written in blank verse, Glory for Me tells the story of three GIs returning for war to the same Midwestern town. Beautifully written, the tale is an unflinching look at the reality of returning to life after war, of what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and how returning home is more complicated and complex than parades and patriotism and celebration.
Immensely powerful, moving, and rich, Glory for Me deserves to be better known today. The story remains as relevant as ever, and it’s a shame it’s not as revered as the movie it inspired: The Best Years of Our Lives. Highly recommended.
October 21, 2013
Absolutely fantastic book/poem. I can not recommend this enough. If you are fan of the movie The Best Year's of Our Lives, or a fan of powerful writing, you must read this.
August 7, 2018
Glory for Me is not a novel one would just happen across while browsing on Amazon, or even perusing the shelves at your local bookstore. Out of print and incredibly obscure, MacKinlay Kantor’s book was written as a tribute to Word War Two veterans and to show readers the different struggles they go through when they come home. It was groundbreaking at the time. Ernest Hemingway may have had the market cornered in angsty, veteran stories, but he didn’t write his novels entirely in prose. Kantor’s entire novel, 268 pages, are stanzas of poetry.
If you don’t get tears pricking your eyes, goosebumps on your arm, or some other sort of physical reaction when you read the first line, “Fred Derry, twenty-one, and killer of a hundred men. . .” I’d venture a guess that The Best Years of Our Lives isn’t one of your favorite movies of all time. Hollywood snatched up the rights to the novel, and William Wyler requested a change to the story: instead of a disfigured, shell-shocked veteran who can’t even walk or talk properly, Wyler wanted the character written for real veteran Harold Russell, who lost his hands. Screenwriter Robert E. Sherwood has his work cut out for him; although Kantor’s work is beautiful and full of talent, it’s about as dissimilar to a screenplay as you can get. The end result was an Oscar for both Wyler and Sherwood, as well as two Oscars for Harold Russell!
This is the kind of book you’ll want to savor. The language is lovely and flows as beautifully as any romantic poem. The characters are real and go through heartbreaking struggles as they find out the best years of their lives are behind them. How do you cope when children are frightened of your face and no one can understand your speech? What’s left for you when your greatest talent is dropping bombs and you can’t find work? How do you go back to a comfortable bank job when you’ve lived through horrors on the battlefield?
I can’t recommend this novel highly enough, especially if you’re like me and my family and are in love with The Best Years of Our Lives. While I had to search far and wide to find an old copy for a pretty price, it’s been reissued in the past year and is now available on Amazon for a much more affordable price. Kantor’s words are so moving, so thoughtful, and so true. Some passages are very sad and difficult to read, but it is an overwhelmingly hopeful story, like the film. Keep a tissue box handy, though, and close the book often so you can absorb the beautiful words.
hottoastyrag.weebly.com/glory-for-me....
If you don’t get tears pricking your eyes, goosebumps on your arm, or some other sort of physical reaction when you read the first line, “Fred Derry, twenty-one, and killer of a hundred men. . .” I’d venture a guess that The Best Years of Our Lives isn’t one of your favorite movies of all time. Hollywood snatched up the rights to the novel, and William Wyler requested a change to the story: instead of a disfigured, shell-shocked veteran who can’t even walk or talk properly, Wyler wanted the character written for real veteran Harold Russell, who lost his hands. Screenwriter Robert E. Sherwood has his work cut out for him; although Kantor’s work is beautiful and full of talent, it’s about as dissimilar to a screenplay as you can get. The end result was an Oscar for both Wyler and Sherwood, as well as two Oscars for Harold Russell!
This is the kind of book you’ll want to savor. The language is lovely and flows as beautifully as any romantic poem. The characters are real and go through heartbreaking struggles as they find out the best years of their lives are behind them. How do you cope when children are frightened of your face and no one can understand your speech? What’s left for you when your greatest talent is dropping bombs and you can’t find work? How do you go back to a comfortable bank job when you’ve lived through horrors on the battlefield?
I can’t recommend this novel highly enough, especially if you’re like me and my family and are in love with The Best Years of Our Lives. While I had to search far and wide to find an old copy for a pretty price, it’s been reissued in the past year and is now available on Amazon for a much more affordable price. Kantor’s words are so moving, so thoughtful, and so true. Some passages are very sad and difficult to read, but it is an overwhelmingly hopeful story, like the film. Keep a tissue box handy, though, and close the book often so you can absorb the beautiful words.
hottoastyrag.weebly.com/glory-for-me....
September 23, 2018
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3093984.html
I think this is the only work of poetry adapted to become an Oscar-winning film - Glory For Me was MacKinlay Kantor's 276-page blank verse response to Sam Goldwyn's commission for the screenplay that became The Best Days of our Lives. The second paragraph of the third section, reflecting Fred Derry's experience, is:
(It’s hard to think that you are young when you are seventeen.
It’s hard to think that you could ever be just seventeen,
When you look back from twenty-one,
And know that you have killed a hundred men or more.)
The biggest change made for the screen is that the original Homer had PTSD and brain damage affecting the motor system on one side of his body; when Russell appeared on the scene, the character's disability was changed to the physical loss of his hands. Having said that, the character arc is pretty similar, though more dramatic, with Homer attempting suicide with Fred's gun and Wilma then talking him round to continued life, with her support.
She held the book
Squeezed precious in her hands.
“About a man ... he used to be like you.
He wrote this book himself—a man named Carlson.
And I’ve read Helen Keller, too. But Carlson knows
Just how it feels to be like you,
And worse. He crawled around;
He couldn’t walk, and he was born that way.
That’s how he got the title for his book,
He calls it ‘Born That Way.’ You see,
It’s better, Homer, if it happens to you late:
You have a pattern formed. He says
You have to re-establish it—the pattern.
All the motions that you make,
You have to will them—think them out.
And you can do it, Homer. Yes, you can.”
In general the poem has more drama (perhaps even more plot), though one early and significant divergence is that Fred and Marie decide their marriage is over the night he gets back, rather than trying to make a go of it as they do for most of the film. He is far from blameless - he has had several love affairs during the war, including one with an aristocratic Englishwoman, and he hits Marie when he discovers that she has been doing the same.
“You file for the divorce,” he said.
“It’s easy in this State. I socked you:
That’s enough. But don’t you spend too much.
Look—here’s a hundred bucks—”
He brought some money out
And counted off five Twenties.
“That’ll be enough.
It’s all you’ll get from me. No alimony, babe.
And do it quick. And if you don’t
I’ll go myself, and file, and tell
Just what I found when I came back—”
And Fred and Peggy get somewhat better closure than on screen (in that they definitely bonk, but in a poetic way).
The poetic form allows Kantor to sum up the point of the story with a vivid metaphor, much more so than is possible on screen:
WHEN YOU come out of War to quiet streets
You lug your War along with you.
You walk a snail-path. On your back you carry it—
A scaly load that makes your shoulders raw;
And not a hand can ever lift the shell
That cuts your hide. You only wear it off yourself—
Look up one day, and vaguely see it gone.
You do not see yourself in malformation.
The men and girls who have no shells
Of War upon their backs—You count them well deformed.
You recognize the other snails by eyes or ribbons;
You speak your perfect language to their ears,
And they to yours. You look with solemn eye
On those without a shell. You do not scorn,
You do not hate, you do not love them for it.
You only say, “They have no shell.”
With other snails you crawl the quiet street
And wonder why you’re there,
And think of folks who aren’t.
You polish up your shell for pride
Until you tire of it.
And one day it is gone if you are wise.
I think this is the only work of poetry adapted to become an Oscar-winning film - Glory For Me was MacKinlay Kantor's 276-page blank verse response to Sam Goldwyn's commission for the screenplay that became The Best Days of our Lives. The second paragraph of the third section, reflecting Fred Derry's experience, is:
(It’s hard to think that you are young when you are seventeen.
It’s hard to think that you could ever be just seventeen,
When you look back from twenty-one,
And know that you have killed a hundred men or more.)
The biggest change made for the screen is that the original Homer had PTSD and brain damage affecting the motor system on one side of his body; when Russell appeared on the scene, the character's disability was changed to the physical loss of his hands. Having said that, the character arc is pretty similar, though more dramatic, with Homer attempting suicide with Fred's gun and Wilma then talking him round to continued life, with her support.
She held the book
Squeezed precious in her hands.
“About a man ... he used to be like you.
He wrote this book himself—a man named Carlson.
And I’ve read Helen Keller, too. But Carlson knows
Just how it feels to be like you,
And worse. He crawled around;
He couldn’t walk, and he was born that way.
That’s how he got the title for his book,
He calls it ‘Born That Way.’ You see,
It’s better, Homer, if it happens to you late:
You have a pattern formed. He says
You have to re-establish it—the pattern.
All the motions that you make,
You have to will them—think them out.
And you can do it, Homer. Yes, you can.”
In general the poem has more drama (perhaps even more plot), though one early and significant divergence is that Fred and Marie decide their marriage is over the night he gets back, rather than trying to make a go of it as they do for most of the film. He is far from blameless - he has had several love affairs during the war, including one with an aristocratic Englishwoman, and he hits Marie when he discovers that she has been doing the same.
“You file for the divorce,” he said.
“It’s easy in this State. I socked you:
That’s enough. But don’t you spend too much.
Look—here’s a hundred bucks—”
He brought some money out
And counted off five Twenties.
“That’ll be enough.
It’s all you’ll get from me. No alimony, babe.
And do it quick. And if you don’t
I’ll go myself, and file, and tell
Just what I found when I came back—”
And Fred and Peggy get somewhat better closure than on screen (in that they definitely bonk, but in a poetic way).
The poetic form allows Kantor to sum up the point of the story with a vivid metaphor, much more so than is possible on screen:
WHEN YOU come out of War to quiet streets
You lug your War along with you.
You walk a snail-path. On your back you carry it—
A scaly load that makes your shoulders raw;
And not a hand can ever lift the shell
That cuts your hide. You only wear it off yourself—
Look up one day, and vaguely see it gone.
You do not see yourself in malformation.
The men and girls who have no shells
Of War upon their backs—You count them well deformed.
You recognize the other snails by eyes or ribbons;
You speak your perfect language to their ears,
And they to yours. You look with solemn eye
On those without a shell. You do not scorn,
You do not hate, you do not love them for it.
You only say, “They have no shell.”
With other snails you crawl the quiet street
And wonder why you’re there,
And think of folks who aren’t.
You polish up your shell for pride
Until you tire of it.
And one day it is gone if you are wise.
February 9, 2024
Best Picture Adaption, 1946
Unreal. I’m not usually a fan of verse, but this blew me away. Incredibly moving, realistic, and poignant look at post-WW2 American life through the eyes of three returning soldiers. I thought the end was a little too Disney for me but the rest of the book makes up for it. READ THIS.
Unreal. I’m not usually a fan of verse, but this blew me away. Incredibly moving, realistic, and poignant look at post-WW2 American life through the eyes of three returning soldiers. I thought the end was a little too Disney for me but the rest of the book makes up for it. READ THIS.
May 6, 2020
Masterpiece
This story illustrates that Odysseus journey is a universal experience for those returning from war. Great writing that captures the emotions and personalities that war creates and the haunting longings it leaves in the hearts of those that have experienced it.
This story illustrates that Odysseus journey is a universal experience for those returning from war. Great writing that captures the emotions and personalities that war creates and the haunting longings it leaves in the hearts of those that have experienced it.
December 9, 2022
Both the book and movie made from it are superb. I marvel at the way Kantor’s original essence in this 265 page epic poem in blank verse was captured and replicated by Robert Sherwood’s 1946 Academy Award winning screenplay “The Best Years of Our Lives.”
The movie has been my absolute all-time favorite since I first saw it as a teenager, and the book, although different in many ways is easily its equal.
The movie has been my absolute all-time favorite since I first saw it as a teenager, and the book, although different in many ways is easily its equal.
December 23, 2022
I got this because of the movie “The Best Years of Our Lives” but it is so much better than the very good movie. It is rough and harsh (it is not vulgar) and definitely will be ‘offensive’ to many but I can only imagine it portrays just a small reality of those returning from war. The morals and societal expectations of the 1940s were way different than those of our 21st century but it is so evident that doing right was deeply imbedded in those who fought in WWII.
Very good. My favorite characters were Peggy Stephenson, Fred Derry (it seems he was the most focused upon), and Wilma Jacobson. In the movie I really appreciated Milly Stephenson most but we don’t really get the same portrayal in the book.
Very good. My favorite characters were Peggy Stephenson, Fred Derry (it seems he was the most focused upon), and Wilma Jacobson. In the movie I really appreciated Milly Stephenson most but we don’t really get the same portrayal in the book.
March 30, 2019
This book is the basis for one of my favorite movies, The Best Years of Our Lives. The book is quite incredible, written in blank verse. I give credit to the screenwriter, Robert Sherwood, for which he won an Oscar. The movie won 7 in all. It is in many ways more powerful than the movie, as the traumas suffered by all three main characters is much worse in the book. I was truly moved by their stories.
August 3, 2008
Being a big fan of the movie, The Best Years of Our Lives, I was eager to read the book it was based on. It was a surprise to discover it was written as a narrative poem, but took it on anyway. Wow.
September 12, 2020
Stunningly good. I was inspired to read this when I found out it was the source for one of my favorite movies, The Best Years of Our Lives. It's a novel in verse, and that lends a weight to it that befits the subject matter and respects the three main characters. Profound and riveting.
July 3, 2023
📙This book was published in 1945.
🖊 Book review: This work was a surprise – it is written entirely in blank verse, and what a powerful and intelligent way to tell a story of three servicemen – Fred (who worked on the Norden bombsight), Al Stephenson (a bank executive), and Homer Wermels – who return home from The War. This was made into the movie, “The Best Years of Our Lives,” 1946.
🔵 The e-book version can be found at Internet Archive.
🎥 1946 movie version with Dana Andrews, Frederick March, Harold Russel, Myrna Loy, and Virginia Mayo.
🖊 Movie review: This is an outstanding rendition of the book, Glory for Me, and although it is quite long, it needs to be so because of what needs to be said about war. The movie made a few changes, e.g. the surname of Homer was changed to Parrish, his struggles were modified, and the story was smoothed out for the move.
📻 Radio adaptations produced in 1947 and 1949.
🍸 ●▬● 🎥 ●▬● 🍸
🖊 Book review: This work was a surprise – it is written entirely in blank verse, and what a powerful and intelligent way to tell a story of three servicemen – Fred (who worked on the Norden bombsight), Al Stephenson (a bank executive), and Homer Wermels – who return home from The War. This was made into the movie, “The Best Years of Our Lives,” 1946.
🔵 The e-book version can be found at Internet Archive.
🎥 1946 movie version with Dana Andrews, Frederick March, Harold Russel, Myrna Loy, and Virginia Mayo.
🖊 Movie review: This is an outstanding rendition of the book, Glory for Me, and although it is quite long, it needs to be so because of what needs to be said about war. The movie made a few changes, e.g. the surname of Homer was changed to Parrish, his struggles were modified, and the story was smoothed out for the move.
📻 Radio adaptations produced in 1947 and 1949.
🍸 ●▬● 🎥 ●▬● 🍸
July 16, 2025
2.5 stars
I have watched The Best Years of Our Lives about four times now and only recently, I learned it was based on a book. Naturally, I had to read it.
It's not meant to be a comfortable read for obvious reasons; I think Kantor did a good job capturing what so many soldiers suffered after the war, physically and psychologically. In that regard, it's timeless since war and soldiers unfortunately are in every culture and era. I ended up skimming, because I did not appreciate the constant profanity or one character's course thoughts; thus, my low rating.
I read that Kantor was upset when the screenplay ended up being different than his work. I understand his reaction, but I admit I am glad the screenplay was different. I do think the book title should have been named in the credits. Though different and less dark, the movie still captures the soldiers' suffering and their readjustment to society. I wish the movie would have shown us Novak's progress with the loan and Al's partnership with him. The movie is almost 3 hours...what's another half hour or so, lol.
I have watched The Best Years of Our Lives about four times now and only recently, I learned it was based on a book. Naturally, I had to read it.
It's not meant to be a comfortable read for obvious reasons; I think Kantor did a good job capturing what so many soldiers suffered after the war, physically and psychologically. In that regard, it's timeless since war and soldiers unfortunately are in every culture and era. I ended up skimming, because I did not appreciate the constant profanity or one character's course thoughts; thus, my low rating.
I read that Kantor was upset when the screenplay ended up being different than his work. I understand his reaction, but I admit I am glad the screenplay was different. I do think the book title should have been named in the credits. Though different and less dark, the movie still captures the soldiers' suffering and their readjustment to society. I wish the movie would have shown us Novak's progress with the loan and Al's partnership with him. The movie is almost 3 hours...what's another half hour or so, lol.
March 30, 2022
I'd been wanting to read this book for some time because "The Best Years of Our Lives" (the movie based on it) is one of my favorites.
This book did not disappoint. Though the movie strays from some of its characterizations and plot lines, the overall narrative is the same -- the story of three WWII vets returning home and adjusting, as best they can, to "normal" life. It's poignant and heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful.
I wrote a fuller review at my blog:https://libbysbooks.wordpress.com/202...
This book did not disappoint. Though the movie strays from some of its characterizations and plot lines, the overall narrative is the same -- the story of three WWII vets returning home and adjusting, as best they can, to "normal" life. It's poignant and heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful.
I wrote a fuller review at my blog:https://libbysbooks.wordpress.com/202...
September 9, 2018
This is the basis for the classic movie, The Best Years of our Lives. The story of three men trying to adjust to civilian life after World War II still rings true. The transition is just as difficult and pertinent today. This story is also unique in that it is not a narrative story, but rather the whole story is written in verse.
December 29, 2020
4th time I've read this, starting back when I was in grad school, looking for long narrative poems with details and insights to enlighten the reader rather than confuse. Still a great book, with a heartbreaking narrative, plus painful and beautiful moments illuminating war and PTSD. I think it's better than the film, which is also pretty great. Both are heartbreakers.
February 6, 2022
I didn't like it a lot, though by the end it was at least carrying itself forward.
The author wrote this before writing the screenplay for The Best Years Of Our Lives, and I think it is a better movie for him getting some of the gloom and feeling out of his system this way. It's not bad, but it is dated, and maybe self-indulgent, and the movie is better.
The author wrote this before writing the screenplay for The Best Years Of Our Lives, and I think it is a better movie for him getting some of the gloom and feeling out of his system this way. It's not bad, but it is dated, and maybe self-indulgent, and the movie is better.
November 30, 2025
This is the book upon which the movie 'Best Years of Our Lives' was based. Very different presentation - kind of a blank verse narrative that takes a few pages to get used to - but surprisingly effective. Sentence fragments and pauses are a powerful device. I don't give many 5s but this one deserves it.
February 4, 2018
Different in many ways than the film The Best Years of Our Lives that is based on it, this stands on its own as a neglected classic. A beautiful and profound piece of writing that absolutely justifies its unusual form as a novel-length narrative poem.
September 16, 2021
Amazingly well written book. It is gritty, and will help you understand what those in combat go through. But it is not a clean read.
March 2, 2024
Great story about soldiers struggling after returning from WWII. Was a little different from the movie "The Best Years of Our Lives" but just as moving.
February 5, 2025
Good story-the basis for the movie “Best Years of Our Lives, but the writing style is off putting.
January 22, 2023
MacKinlay Kantor's 1945 Glory for Me, the blank-verse novel later adapted into the classic black-and-white The Best Years of Our Lives, is beautiful 5-star read that is by turns witty and haunted and romantic, and ultimately life-affirming.
Most readers, I presume, will have come to Kantor's novel via love of the 1946 film starring Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Myrna Loy, and Frederic March, so a word on the title seems in order. For a work about combat veterans returning to the sunny, untouched Midwestern streets of home, after all, The Best Years of Our Lives is a title immediately understood. I confess that the tale's original title of Glory for Me at first struck me most peculiarly. Was this some sort of self-aggrandizing? If so, then the book sure was going to be different from the movie... Well, the book is different in many respects, but of course it is no swaggering rah-rah. The "Glory for me," one learns on page 2, is a line from a hymn by Charles H. Gabriel: the reward received "When all my labors and trials are o'er / And I am safe on that beautiful shore..." So, yes, for soda-jerk-turned-bombardier Fred Derry, the tough sergeant whom the once-soft banker Al Stephenson has become, and grievously wounded sailor Homer Wermels, their hometown Boone City indeed should be Heaven.
But is it? No. For "Fred Derry, twenty-one, and killer of a hundred men" (page 3), and Al with his "voice...low / And smooth and wholly courteous / But hard as concrete underneath" (page 8), and Homer with "a little telephone...doing things" in his brain so that "[s]pacticity...diagnosed a dozen times" (page 13) makes his walk shambling and his speech almost unintelligible, are like "many million other men": "afraid," "resentful," not "trust[ing] the people they had left" and yet needing to "learn to trust them," just as "[t]hey'd have to learn the U.S.A. / Like any immigrant who tries to speak / His bits of history aloud before a flag" (page 10).
Fred, for example, who kneeling in the plexiglas nose of his B-17 has massaged the "[e]leven thousand dollars worth of well-tooled steel / And glass and jewelry" (page 19) of the top-secret Norden bombsight, actually has nothing to which to return. His father is a lush, his stepmother merely tolerated, his wife a tramp, his old job menial kids' stuff. Twenty-one he is, twenty-one...but he has seen friends go down in the flak, and has made love to a titled English lady, and had the best tailored uniforms from Saville Row, with hundreds of pounds in his pocket--"Pounds sterling: multiply by four, and you have dollars" (page 21)...and multiply by 10 or 12, and you have what those dollars would be worth today.
Well, but you know the gist, right? Actually, while the film with which we all are familiar is tidy and pat, almost every tidy and pat scene we can think of has been changed from Kantor's novel. That's all right, though. The movie is excellent for a movie, but the book is a different sort of animal, yet still an animal of great power and lethal grace.
Without getting into any of the interesting differences in detail and plot--except to comment that with Dana Andrews looking 30-ish in the 1946 film, I had to keep nudging myself to remember that the "toughly proud" Fred of the novel, "young and hard and mean" (page 3), is only a very world-weary 21--let us simply say that all the pieces still fit. There are remembered terrors, and confused longings, and hope against hope in a world that seems impossible. It isn't even a postwar world either. The movie lets us assume it is, and yet midway through we come to realize that although Germany has been defeated, Japan still stands fanatical and defiant. We of decades, even generations, later know that in only a few months the B-29s of 20th Air Force--and only two of them, really--will wrap up the show, but at the time of Kantor's writing, "Golden Gate in '48" was the timeframe imagined after the planned invasion of the Home Islands. Thus there would be ever more like Fred and Al and Homer in the coming years, it was presumed.
MacKinlay Kantor's Glory for Me is a beautiful, bleak, and touching 268-page, 56-chaptered poem so much more condensed than ordinary prose, and sometimes lyrical. Shifting from a flavorful and distilled third-person narrative to first-person among the three main characters, and even through surprising second-person passages directed at "you" the reader suddenly become one of the servicemen, and back again, Kantor explores the plight and the possibilities of homecoming. Especially for readers interested in the Second World War--preferably also with knowledge in military aviation of the period, as the opening pages might feel a bit cryptic and off-putting without it--Glory for Me is a powerful book well worth the read.
Most readers, I presume, will have come to Kantor's novel via love of the 1946 film starring Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Myrna Loy, and Frederic March, so a word on the title seems in order. For a work about combat veterans returning to the sunny, untouched Midwestern streets of home, after all, The Best Years of Our Lives is a title immediately understood. I confess that the tale's original title of Glory for Me at first struck me most peculiarly. Was this some sort of self-aggrandizing? If so, then the book sure was going to be different from the movie... Well, the book is different in many respects, but of course it is no swaggering rah-rah. The "Glory for me," one learns on page 2, is a line from a hymn by Charles H. Gabriel: the reward received "When all my labors and trials are o'er / And I am safe on that beautiful shore..." So, yes, for soda-jerk-turned-bombardier Fred Derry, the tough sergeant whom the once-soft banker Al Stephenson has become, and grievously wounded sailor Homer Wermels, their hometown Boone City indeed should be Heaven.
But is it? No. For "Fred Derry, twenty-one, and killer of a hundred men" (page 3), and Al with his "voice...low / And smooth and wholly courteous / But hard as concrete underneath" (page 8), and Homer with "a little telephone...doing things" in his brain so that "[s]pacticity...diagnosed a dozen times" (page 13) makes his walk shambling and his speech almost unintelligible, are like "many million other men": "afraid," "resentful," not "trust[ing] the people they had left" and yet needing to "learn to trust them," just as "[t]hey'd have to learn the U.S.A. / Like any immigrant who tries to speak / His bits of history aloud before a flag" (page 10).
Fred, for example, who kneeling in the plexiglas nose of his B-17 has massaged the "[e]leven thousand dollars worth of well-tooled steel / And glass and jewelry" (page 19) of the top-secret Norden bombsight, actually has nothing to which to return. His father is a lush, his stepmother merely tolerated, his wife a tramp, his old job menial kids' stuff. Twenty-one he is, twenty-one...but he has seen friends go down in the flak, and has made love to a titled English lady, and had the best tailored uniforms from Saville Row, with hundreds of pounds in his pocket--"Pounds sterling: multiply by four, and you have dollars" (page 21)...and multiply by 10 or 12, and you have what those dollars would be worth today.
Well, but you know the gist, right? Actually, while the film with which we all are familiar is tidy and pat, almost every tidy and pat scene we can think of has been changed from Kantor's novel. That's all right, though. The movie is excellent for a movie, but the book is a different sort of animal, yet still an animal of great power and lethal grace.
Without getting into any of the interesting differences in detail and plot--except to comment that with Dana Andrews looking 30-ish in the 1946 film, I had to keep nudging myself to remember that the "toughly proud" Fred of the novel, "young and hard and mean" (page 3), is only a very world-weary 21--let us simply say that all the pieces still fit. There are remembered terrors, and confused longings, and hope against hope in a world that seems impossible. It isn't even a postwar world either. The movie lets us assume it is, and yet midway through we come to realize that although Germany has been defeated, Japan still stands fanatical and defiant. We of decades, even generations, later know that in only a few months the B-29s of 20th Air Force--and only two of them, really--will wrap up the show, but at the time of Kantor's writing, "Golden Gate in '48" was the timeframe imagined after the planned invasion of the Home Islands. Thus there would be ever more like Fred and Al and Homer in the coming years, it was presumed.
MacKinlay Kantor's Glory for Me is a beautiful, bleak, and touching 268-page, 56-chaptered poem so much more condensed than ordinary prose, and sometimes lyrical. Shifting from a flavorful and distilled third-person narrative to first-person among the three main characters, and even through surprising second-person passages directed at "you" the reader suddenly become one of the servicemen, and back again, Kantor explores the plight and the possibilities of homecoming. Especially for readers interested in the Second World War--preferably also with knowledge in military aviation of the period, as the opening pages might feel a bit cryptic and off-putting without it--Glory for Me is a powerful book well worth the read.
December 24, 2016
Author MacKinlay Kantor was asked to write something about GIs returning from WWII that could be adapted for the screen. This dark and frank 268-page narrative poem was not expected, but it is one of the best descriptions of the returning warriors of WWII. We are inside the psyche of three men, strangers returning together by chance to a small American town. They are diverse in age and social status, and one now has a noticeable disability. Constant flashbacks help us understand how difficult the transition back home is for them and their family and friends. From their chance meeting on the plane, a close bond develops between them. You can choose to read the book first or watch the film adaptation, the 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives, arguably the best film on post-war transitions of any era.
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