Vessel of Sadness - Hardcover

Woodruff, William

4

71 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809308754 ISBN 13: 9780809308750

Publisher: Southern Illinois Univ Pr, 1978

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The title, which hints at thepoetry that breathes life into this true story of the Allied invasion of the beach at Anzio, Italy, in 1944,comes from a passage within the book told by a man assigned burial duty: “Quickly, the mound of earth disappears. A friend has gone. He has drunk his vessel of sadness. His battle is stilled.”

Woodruff’s technique is to show that bloody struggle through the eyes of sol�diers, statesmen, and civilians involved. Privileged viewers from afar, we see officers shooting pool before a major conference; we come close, peer into the thoughts of a corporal just before a bul�let takes the top off his head; as if we were walking past, we stop for a mo�ment to watch a poker game among enlisted men; we see an ambassador fretting over artifacts and men riding headlong into a German machine-gun nest.

In Woodruff’s war there are no hu�man villains, only madness, an abstract insanity, a waste of such huge propor�tions as to sober even a giddy man. A war.

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Review:

It has the same gritty authenticity as THE ROAD TO NAB END (The DAILY MAIL)

Book Description:

A terrifying true-life novel about the 1944 Anzio landings in the tradition of BAND OF BROTHERS.

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