My War: A Love Story in Letters and Drawings

by Tracy Sugarman

On December 7, 1941, when the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor, Tracy Sugarman was a young man studying to be an illustrator--and falling in love with a tawny-haired girl named June. But for Tracy, as for all Americans, everything changed that December dawn.
        Two years later, now married to June, Tracy was on a troopship bound for England, part of the massive Allied buildup for the liberation of Europe. On D-Day he landed on Utah Beach, one young ensign in the greatest military invasion in history.
        But Tracy Sugarman was not only a sailor. He was also an artist, who chronicled every aspect of his war in watercolors and sketches and in more than four hundred letters to his wife, who carefully saved everything her new husband sent her. Fifty years later, June Sugarman astonished her husband by showing him his long-forgotten pictures and words: lush watercolors and pen-and-ink drawings set down with breathtaking immediacy in the midst of war, and letters in which the young man poured out his feelings--about the terror and tedium of battle, his own ideals and hopes . . . and, always, his love for his wife.
        Here, selected from this treasure trove, are the drawings and watercolors that best portray the war Tracy Sugarman experienced. Interspersed throughout are excerpts of his loving and poignant letters home and, as the capstone of this extraordinary book, the single surviving letter from June to her husband. My War is a luminous, powerful account of a world at war--and a beautifully touching love story.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Memoir, War, Biography, Biography Memoir

191 pages, Hardcover

First published October 3, 2000

Reviews

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very worthwhile book to read that portrays WWII in a perspective that is unlike most other war books. Got this book at the Half-Price bookstore for only a couple bucks. A great find.

[Larraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a quick and fast read. It's mostly illustrations and is an interesting documentary of one person's war. Tracy Sugarman was a well known artist and illustrator who died in 2013. I admit I wasn't familiar with his work at all. It turns out he and his wife were passionate about civil rights. He talks about that in his letters to his wife and his own observations. It disturbs him how easily his fellow Americans can talk so easily about "niggers" and "kikes" (Sugarman was Jewish) and then band together and work so well as a unit, forgetting who is what for a while. Then it comes back - so easily. He also talks about his first introduction to art in Paris. He had already fallen in love with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Then he sees the paintings in Paris and is amazed. He had a degree in fine art, but tells his wife that he feels undereducated and ignorant. The letters to his wife are wonderful. Unfortunately he didn't save the ones she sent to him. He talks about that loss. He was at the D-Day invasion and talks about the terror of that day and the days after. This is really an interesting book from the viewpoint of someone who was there and was educated enough write and illustrate what he wrote. At the beginning of the book he bemoans the ignorance of his fellow Americans. When he is in England, he is appalled by the way they treat the English - as if they are second class citizens in many ways. It's "their war" some of them say, as if they deserved what happened instead of seeing how they held out from being conquered despite the Germans being right across the channel and even occupying the Jersey Islands. In his remarks at the end he says that he is so glad that we are much better than that now. This book was published in 2000. He died in 2013. I wonder if he would think that today.

[Olivia Plasencia · Rating 3 out of 5]

My War was not your typical WWII letters being exchanged book. Writer Tracy Sugarman was sent off to war with the Navy and sent to the European theater. An area I confess I am not familiar with for the most part. Maybe they are not written about as much because there duties were not as dramatic as their Navy brothers in the Pacific. Still the insight of Sugarman's letters are raw, touching and the added bonus the writer was going to school to be an illustrator when Pearl Harbor was attacked. His thoughtful wife gave him a sketch pad, and pencils to take overseas and he used them. He drew everything he saw, mostly people. The neat day to day things he drew and people he captured are wonderful.

As a WWII history buff I enjoyed this book and plan to pass it on to a dear friend who is also always on the lookout for good books on the war. While not as hair raising a book like "No silent night" the book contains information and rich details of an important group of men that I think many people tend to forget about since they were not under fire or being attacked by planes as much as those fighting the Japanese. The book is mostly letter's to Tracy Sugarman's wife with some narrations to expand on what he had written to his wife. It's an easy read and his drawing are nice to pour over.

[VanBrianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read a lot of WWII books and this is just ok. I guess I was disappointed that it’s a one sided conversation because he never saved the letters his wife sent back. And he just sat on a ship essentially throughout the entire war. He didn’t see any combat, so from his perspective he’s mostly bored and homesick. And the drawings are much of the same over and over… guys standing in uniform, etc. there’s not much for him to draw.
It was interesting because of his intellect and the way he viewed things, but it wasn’t an especially amazing read.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delightful find in one of my Little Free Libraries. A beautiful book of excerpts from letters home to his wife during WWII as well as his sketches, watercolors, and oils of what he sees. Sugarman was in the navy and took part of Omaha Beach as well as other well-known war actions. I was impressed with his writing as well as his artistic talents.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an interesting story. The drawings and paintings were not about the warfare, they were of the people that Tracy Sugarman's husband was with during WWII. It had a good love story of how they stay connected throughout the war.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting WWII memoir filled with artwork from the author.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered Tracy Sugarman's exquisite recounting of his early art studies, marriage to Junie and then going to Sea with the Navy in WW II, being stationed onboard ship at Omaha Beach from D-Day onward for six months. Juniors parting gift of art supplies have immeasurably enriched Sugarman's recounting his daily wartime experiences in his letters and journals home to Junie, from which this book was reconstructed. She saved all his letters and artwork. I picked it up while recataloging biographies in my local libraries, because the artwork count my eye. He is as gifted a writer as an artist, allowing me to experience WW II through his eyes and his all - encompassing love for his wife, Junie.

[Philip Shade · Rating 4 out of 5]

A recollection of WWII as put together by illustrator Tracy Sugarman put together from his drawings, photographs and more than 400 letters he wrote home to his wife.

It's incredibly personal tale of a war that could be incredibly impersonal.

[Melissa]

Own

[Val · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!

[Carolyn (in SC) C234D · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author entered World War II as a navy ensign after graduating from Syracuse University in May 1943. He married June in September '43. He was (died in 2013) an artist, and sent home drawings and watercolors that he did in spare moments on ships. I found this book very interesting and poignant.