Just Literature discussion

An interesting question. The world is awash with post-First War literature, but novelists' responses to the second war seem to have been strangely muted, at least in Britain. Perhaps less so elsewhere; The Naked and the Dead, The Young Lions and The Caine Mutiny from the US, and from Germany, The Train Was on Time (wonderful) and A Time to Love and a Time to Die, by Erich Maria Remarque, who we associate with the first war because of All Quiet on the Western Front, but who had plenty to say about the second war too - in fact his later books may have been unjustly neglected in the English-speaking world.

But are there any trends here? In the US, maybe, as Norman Mailer, Irwin Shaw and Herman Wouk all went on to distinguished careers, but is there a recognisable "school" to which they belonged? Did Heinrich Böll and Erich Maria Remarque provide a lead for other writers in the new Germany, or were they just distinguished figures in themselves?

It'll be interesting to see how a new "post-war" period develops, now that modern wars are unconventional and of a different type than wars in the past. The influence of culture strange allegiances in these forms of warfare in the "Global War on Terror" will make for interesting reading.

Mike wrote: "An interesting question. The world is awash with post-First War literature, but novelists' responses to the second war seem to have been strangely muted, at least in Britain. Perhaps less so elsewhere ..."

Mike, do you think the Second War is depicted more in the movies than in literature – at least in English? There seems to be no dearth of Hollywood productions as responses to that war, including the recent Tom Cruise blockbuster Edge of Tomorrow.

LG wrote: "Mike wrote: "An interesting question. The world is awash with post-First War literature, but novelists' responses to the second war seem to have been strangely muted, at least in Britain. Perhaps l..."

It does seem that way. There seems to have been a reluctance to write literary fiction about WWII in English (though I'm not sure that applies in other languages). And yet loads of popular films. Maybe the Nazis are still a bit too box-office...

I've just finished Charlotte Gray (Sebastian Faulks) which is a great book and I guess counts as WW2 literary fiction, though it doesn't go into post war experiences. A good trilogy of novels about WW2 Vienna and the post war experience of occupation was written by Sarah Gainham, the first of these being Night Falls on the City, which was a best seller in the USA in the 1960s when it was first published, recently reissued as a paperback. These are intelligent, very readable and informative books and books 2 and 3 are post war, though these 2 now out of print on paper, but available as Kindle books.

Clive wrote: "I've just finished Charlotte Gray (Sebastian Faulks) which is a great book and I guess counts as WW2 literary fiction, though it doesn't go into post war experiences. A good trilogy of novels about..."

I have just checked out Sarah Gainham and think I would like to read this trilogy. She sounds an interesting woman herself, in fact.

It's an odd fact that there is not much literature in English, fiction or non-fiction, about postwar Austria and Germany or about the UK and US occupation zones. They'd have been fertile ground for the novelist. I've just been reading In Darkest Germany by Victor Gollancz - a no-holds-barred description of the state of the British zone of occupation in Germany in late 1946. It raises quite a few questions.

Have just started 'The Aftermath' by Rhidian Brook, which is about relationships between British occupying forces and Germans in Hamburg, based apparently on a true story. It is quite good, but not all that gripping so far, though am only on page 76 out of 300 or so.

It does seem to have divided the critics a bit. Will be interested to read your review, if you post one.