Stories and Storytellers discussion

This is a great story told in a questionable way. The author gives a fascinating (and often biased) account of several areas in which Macarthur overcame considerable political obstacles in the rebuilding of Japan. But other elements of the book seemed like they are "tacked on" to the story and had questionable relevance including:

-How Macarthur might have handled the occupation of Iraq
-Possible germ warfare scenarios involving Japan's biological weapons research
-A "counter-factual" argument describing how communists could have swept into power in Korea and Japan with the help of sympathizers in the US State department.

I am definitely interested in reading more books about the US occupation of Japan, but I'm not sure I want this author's perspective.

Sounds interesting. I have a book on my to read priority list called "FatherlaFather Robert Harris. I love most of Harris' books.

It's an alternate history story told from the perspective of Germany winning WW2. Normally I might feel the topic too far fetched and silly. But Harris' is a heckuvan author. And the book has an over 4 star ranking with a lot of reviews.

Sorry, book is called Fatherland.

What in particular do you like about Harris's writing ?

I like his research. And that he's obviously a student of history. But I also like how he's not shy to take a subject, such as ancient Rome and Cicero, that obviously all that is known is the 30,000 foot view. And he digs us in, and writes dialogue, tastes, likes and dislikes on things as benal as food or music. As if we really know what Cicero liked to eat or what he thought about specifics? But if you read Harris you would think he'd interviewed him!

And he's one of the more versatile authors out there today. He's written historical fiction about WW2-both Nazi's side of things, and allied codebreaking (overrated but one of his most popular), The Dreyfus Affair, Cicero, Pompeii, Stalin's lingering influence in modern day Russia, modern brokers of emotion, Lenoardo Da Vinci, and my very favorite...The Ghost. Which was made into a bad movie called The Ghostwriter, which strayed so far from the book, it wasn't recognizable. The Ghost played with my emotions and the end stunned me.

Harris is an author for an intelligent reader. I've described myself as having a "breadth of knowledge," and Harris is the same. However, he also has depth on subjects that I know the names only.

Lots of fun to read. And to me the best historical fiction author going along with Steven Saylor. But Saylor doesn't delve near as much into real people. His characters are usually fictional, although Cicero, Caesar, Marcus Crasus, and the mysterious Catalina do show up. Some others crop us, and when they do he takes his liberties with their tastes just like Harris does. His Roma series is more about real people, I forgot about those two. But the Gordianus the Finder books (Roma Sub Rosa), are mostly fictional people.

I'll tell you Barry, I know very little about most of my favorite authors. This group and our discussion has inspired me to find out more! I want to know where Harris is coming from and what makes him tick. I highly recommend his books, and my two favorites were The Ghost and An Officer and a Spy.

Barry Eisler is also a talented and multi-faceted author. He writes 85% about the southern US mysteries. But his forays into WW2, are both very good. With Black Cross, being my all-tiime favorite historical fiction book. The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva is great too, but Black Cross blew my mind.

While I have not read SUPREME COMMANDER or any other book by Seymour Morris Jr, I have read a lot about General MacArthur and also used his character in many of my time travel books that covered World War 2 and the Korean War periods. In my opinion, it would be hard to do better than William Manchester did as a biography of MacArthur in American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964. That book includes MacArthur's period as a ruler of Japan in nice detail, among other periods of his life.

From what I see in the previous comments, the fact that Morris tried to speculate about various possibilities concerning Korea and Iraq is definitely a point that would tend to annoy me.

Thanks so much Matt !

Thanks Michel. Did you feel that Manchester's Book was fairly objective ?

I believe that Manchester was honest and balanced about his biography of MacArthur. I must say that MacArthur is quite a difficult subject for a bio, being a man with both great qualities and great flaws. Some could not smell MacArthur, seeing only his narcissism and egomania, while others gloated about his prowess as a military commander and strategist and papered over his flawed personality. I think Manchester portrayed him just right. The one thing that I felt was papered over by Manchester was about MacArthur's relationship with his son later in his life (the son seemingly went his way and broke all contacts with his father, supposedly even changing his name, but little is said about that).

I went and read the reviews of American Caesar. And it got added right to the top of my priorities. Almost every one is 5 star. And some say "best biography ever!"

I was impressed with the comments. And on such a debated character who nobody agrees on his legacy.

I'm glad there is a good and comprehensive bio on Macarthur. His life seems to warrant it (love him or hate him).