Anna’s Comments (group member since Feb 10, 2015)

Anna’s comments from the Red Devils Reading group.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, "Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy." I loved the hopeful ending of the book (trying not to write a spoiler, here!), but at the same time, there are years upon years that Louie will never recover. Though Louie overcame tragedy, it did claim a significant portion of his life.

Agreed with all! Also, I think the running gave him something to look forward to after he survived the camps. He had overcome childhood illness to become a great runner, and perhaps he knew that whatever came at him in the camp he could handle.

I definitely agree to all of the above! Eastern culture is an enigma to us Westerners. Maybe the sheer brutality of the treatment of our soldiers in the Pacific theatre plus the cultural barrier made people put it out of society's collective consciousness.

This discussion reminds me of an article I read in grad school about deductive vs. inductive thinking. Apparently, sometimes in large organizations like the army, protocol comes first despite evidence that goes against the protocol. That's the only reason I can think of for the lieutenant's promotion and his ridiculously bad decisions. Otherwise, maybe he just really was a jerk who wanted to take out his anger on the troops. Either way, it is sad. :-(