A Walk in the Sun

by Harry Brown

With A Walk in the Sun, Harry Brown tells an understated yet gripping and realistic tale of the randomness and impersonal nature of combat. In the Allied landings at Salerno on the Italian peninsula during World War II, a fictional platoon loses its lieutenant and senior sergeant to enemy fire, regroups inland to decide what to do, and soon loses its next-senior NCO to battle fatigue. This short but intense novel follows the remaining members of the platoon as they attempt to ascertain their mission and carry it out based on the only guide they have, a map found on the lieutenant’s body. The day unfolds from there—as simple as a walk in the sun, as simple, really, as war sometimes is. Some make it, some don’t, and those who don’t aren’t always dead. Brown’s spare narration echoes the gritty realities his characters face and provides an unflinching portrayal of the uncertainty of war.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II, War, Military Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Harry Peter McNab Brown, Jr. was an American poet, novelist and screenwriter.

Born in Portland, Maine, he was educated at Harvard University.Brown dropped out of Harvard after his sophomore year to write poetry, work at Time magazine, and contributed to and became a sub-editor of The New Yorker.

Charles Scribner's Sons, of New York, published, in 1941, Brown's sustained unified poem, The Poem of Bunker Hill. The 158-page poetic epic won praise for its author's literary gifts as a poet and for the timely presentation of a vital topic - young men and war. Louise Bogan, from The New Yorker, was quoted, "Brown...possesses one of the most unmistakable poetic gifts which have recently appeared. Such a talent is not only basically good from the beginning but exhibits, also from the first, all the signs of virtuosity." Also published, early in that year, was Brown's first full-length book, The End of a Decade.

From the American Revolutionary warfare of The Poem of Bunker Hill, Harry Brown went directly to modern military operations. Brown enlisted in July 1941 in the US Army Corps of Engineers where he served at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. In 1942 he joined the staff of Yank magazine.

Brown wrote a column for the magazine under the nom de plume of "PFC Artie Greengroin" with a book published in 1945 of the columns under that title. Brown also wrote a play A Sound of Hunting that was produced on Broadway in 1946 starring Burt Lancaster and Frank Lovejoy.

Brown wrote the novel A Walk in the Sun in 1944, which was made into a film in 1945. Director Lewis Milestone asked Brown to come to Hollywood as a screenwriter where he worked on films including Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), A Place in the Sun (1951) (winning an Oscar), and Ocean's 11 (1960). Brown also was credited for his work on the first Ocean's 11 when it was remade in 2001.

Brown died from emphysema in Los Angeles in 1986.

Reviews

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up after reading a favourable review from Anna Kavan published by Horizon, where she commends Harry Brown for capturing the mindsets and personalities of Western youth in the war. In her review, Kavan writes cynically about how young men, often teenagers, make the perfect soldiers: violent, unsure of themselves, and eager to follow orders. A Walk in the Sun captures this sentiment and much more. Brown packs all kinds of unveiled sentiments--deep, dark, depressing truths, stripped bare--about the emotional and psychological toll of war on its soldiers.

Contrary to the summary on the jacket cover (my copy is a facsimile of the first printing from 1944), the novel did not strike me as non-stop action. In fact, I found the story to be quite slow, more focused on the random banter of the soldiers as they try to figure out what on Earth their mission could be after all commanding officers are suddenly killed. In a way it is non-stop action, sure, but it just didn't feel that way. Mostly it's just soldiers walking, walking in the sun.

I wasn't too thrilled, but Brown's cliff-hanger ending is perfect and really saves the story, makes it something much more elusive than the reader felt throughout the preceding narrative. Certainly one of the great unsung war novels.

[Jane]

I don’t even know how to rate this. Dang. Heavy.

[Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of an infantry platoon landing in Italy in 1943. The platoon is charged with capturing a bridge and a farmhouse, but just as they reach shore their lieutenant is killed and their lead sergeant is wounded. The third-in-command soon suffers a nervous breakdown, leaving the command to an inexperienced corporal. The story is told through the eyes of various men in the unit and includes ongoing humorous dialogue between Rivera, a machine-gunner from Brooklyn, and his ammo man, Jake Friedman, from Hoboken. The platoon encounters Germans and ends up losing a number of men, and the story ends with a heroic charge on the farmhouse, through grenades and a hail of bullets.

The book was published in 1945 when the author, Harry Brown, was just out of the service, and went immediately to Hollywood, where it became a successful film. Brown himself never saw action in WWII--he was an editor for Yank magazine--but he captures the flavor and language of troops in action with brilliant accuracy.

I met Harry Brown in the 1970s, many years after this book was published, and his words to me were: "Internal scenery and action are just as important as the external ones. Don't depict one without the other." Brown does a great job of describing his characters' states of mind as well as the hot, dry Italian countryside they are walking through. The reader feels the fatigue, thirst and fear of each man in the book.

One of the best novels to come out of WWII.

[Peter Bridgford · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Walk in the Sun is a realistic look at warfare. That is not to say it is graphic or violent, although there are always those elements in war. This book feels as if it was written by and about the grunts on the ground in WWII. In this way, the war is less about the big picture we sometimes get caught up on in movies and epic books - sweeping movements of units in a choreographed campaign - and more about a group of men who find themselves together in the middle of enemy territory with a job to do and not much intel on what or where. In the end, it is the collection of men who are herded toward the objective without really caring about it more than they need to. And, when you have a bunch of human beings gathered together in a life or death situations, it is the mundane which comes out. This book creates the perfect collection of silly stories and stupid small talk that soldiers must share while they wait for the next order into action. The book reads quickly, but there are some in-depth insights into the human psyche and its emotions. This is less of a shoot 'em up book, and more about the psychology of being a soldier in the middle of a war.

[Eric_W · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was originally written in 1944 and describes in vivid imagery the life of an army platoon during the first few hours following their landing on a beach in Italy. Their objective is simple: reach an isolated farmhouse near a bridge and guard that bridge. Ill luck dogs their path from the moment they get on the landing craft ' First their new lieutenant is killed by a stray shell fragment - it was his first engagement. Their old, well experienced sergeant who had commanded the platoon through several actions, is stitched by a German machine gun on a vehicle that just happened to pass their way. The platoon is then strafed by 3 enemy fighters, and the remaining sergeant slowly begins to lose command. The result is a very realistic account (I assume) of men fighting during the Second World War.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the other book for July book group. I only got it the night before book group, and read it the same night, but for a military book, I actually enjoyed it a lot. The author really focused on making the men seem like well-rounded characters, and didn't pull back from painting an honest, unglamorous representation of what war is like.

I liked how it took place during the course of a single day, and mainly was just about these guys walking and talking to each other. It reminded me of some scenes from Tropic Thunder (but I kept that reference to myself. I'm thinking none of the ladies in the book group have seen it :)

The ending is interesting, and we could have talked for an hour just about that!

[Stormcrow Hayes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just bought this on a whim at Glendale's Vintage Paperback Bookshow and it was short enough that I decided to start it the same week. At only 159 pages (my paperback copy) it's a quick read and my might be fun if you're traveling and need something simple to read, but for me it was all a bit too empty.

There are some interesting elements such as the men losing their LT and half their NCOs and being uncertain as to their mission, but so much of the book is just random snippets of conversation. At times, they're interesting, but there are so many and they don't tie into anything that it goes from what at first seems to be giving the characters a little depth into what later felt like just padding! Hey, my book is only 130 pages and my publisher says it's too short. Let's add some random snippets of dialogue and pepper it throughout. (I'm sure that's not how Brown wrote it, but it does feel tacked on.)

The book is also quite repetitive and by the end I noticed a character was thinking about something on one page and the next page he tells his buddy what he was thinking (see why it felt padded?) So we get the same info twice for no reason.

(By the way, Dan Brown did this several times in The Da Vinci Code which annoyed me -- is this a fault of authors named Brown?

(Of course, I'm kidding!)

I can't really recommend it unless you're an older reader looking for a smaller unit WW II book though there isn't much action overall. Oh, and how could I forget the ending?!

(SPOILER)

They finally charge the farmhouse and the book just

[Olle Bergman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is our life but a walk in the sun towards a goal we know very little about? Our only meaningful purpose: to retain our dignity in the face of an unforgiving and unjust fate. This book is a true little gem!

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a thing for war books. This one was different than others I've read because the whole thing takes place in the course of a day. There are a lot of characters in this book. At first they seem to jumble together in your mind, but eventually, a few really stand out and you want to know more about them.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic! A wonderful little novella that tells the story of a U.S. Army platoon from landing on an Italian beach until they reach their objective, a farm a few miles in-land. Nothing heroic, just regular soldiers trying to get their assignment done. Follow the situations they find themselves in and banter between the men and you will swear you are walking down the road with them.

[Barfoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too soon to go over 3 stars (& star ratings overall...how do I feel?)

1944 publication date - it got past the censures how? I know lit. did not necessarily go through the same "is it good for morale & war bond sales???
'vetting film & magazines went through but still. '44 - we were optimistic enough about winning the war it was ok to say?

[Sandy May · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, but it was hard to get into. It introduced too many characters too quickly, and switched between them so fast that I couldn't keep track of them all. Then half of them ended up dying anyway. It was a good short read, but I wasn't blown away by it.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic of World War II fiction, very deserving of its high reputation. Immersive and experiential, you really feel that you are there. I recommend keeping a list of the characters! The movie version is great too, but read the book first.

[Gerald Garber]

Best yet.