Sometimes the truth can only be told via the anguish of Fiction ( )

En 1917, como tantos otros estadounidenses, William March se alistó voluntariamente en los Marines para combatir en la primera guerra mundial. De aquella experiencia brutal y absurda surgiría Compañía K, que terminó de escribir en 1933: una colección de 113 estampas —tituladas con los nombres y apellidos de cada uno de los soldados que formaban la unidad— en la que nos ofrece una visión de la guerra sumamente realista y humana; un retrato de la estupidez y la violencia a la que se ven obligados los hombres cuando son llevados a los límites de su cordura. En lo que supone un ejercicio de precisión admirable, March consigue retratar en esta novela la oscuridad del espíritu humano en toda su dimensión; algo verdaderamente insólito tratándose de un superviviente de la Gran Guerra, ya que su generación no tuvo el coraje de escuchar las sombrías verdades que los soldados trajeron de regreso a casa. Comparada a menudo con Sin novedad en el frente, de Erich Maria Remerque, y con Trampa 22, de Joseph Heller, Compañía K es una obra con una potencia artística fuera de lo común y ha sido considerada la gran antecesora de la literatura antibelicista que se popularizó a partir de la segunda guerra mundial y, sobre todo, a partir de la guerra de Vietnam.

William March's COMPANY K is definitely a forgotten classic of the Great War. I only heard of it recently when it was cited in an essay about war writing by Phil Klay, whose own story collection, REDEPLOYMENT, won the NBA a few years back.

COMPANY K is a novel in a unique form, told in the personal voices of the men and officers of the unit, which served in France in the last year of the war. There are over a hundred 'voices ' heard from here, each telling their story in a short statement or anecdote, seldom more than a page or two. There is little or nothing said of glory or honor of heroism. Instead we hear of fear and hunger, cowardice and theft, buggery and murder, and on and on. In the words of one Private who worked as a court reporter at regimental court martial hearings -

"I wish the lads who talk about the nobility and comradeship of war could listen to a few general courts. They'd soon change their minds, for war is as mean as poor-farm soup and as petty as an old maid's gossip."

March's serial, plain-spoken narrators being to mind other classics of American letters which have NOT been forgotten. Crane's RED BADGE OF COURAGE, of course, but K is also a kind of WINESBURG of war, or even, since many of the the men are speaking from the grave, SPOON RIVER.

Some of the stories here are from after the war, and PTSD, as yet unnamed and unknown, figures prominently, with some sad examples of mental illness and suicides. As a reader, I couldn't help but wonder if March himself might have suffered far-reaching negative effects of his wartime experiences. Indeed, the author (whose real name was William Edward Campbell) was highly decorated for his service with the Marines. COMPANY K, originally published in 1933, was his first book. He published several more, but is probably best remembered for his last, THE BAD SEED. He died soon after, in 1954. He was just 61.

Written in a very unique style, with piercing honesty, COMPANY K deserves a much higher place in the pantheon of war lit. The University of Alabama Press deserves kudos for bringing the book back into print for a new generation of readers. My highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA ( )

Goed boekje met korte episodes, allemaal vanuit het gezichtspunt van een soldaat of officier. Kan makkelijk worden opgenomen in de Oorlogsdomein reeks ( )

I didn't expect to really like this book, but it grew on me. It's about WWI, a company of men marching through France, little stories from each of them. Some only a couple of paragraphs long, others several pages. Often two paired together showing the same incident from their different viewpoints. The voices are not very distinct, but the individual responses to the horrors and senselessness of war are. Men befriending enemies and killing friends, injuring themselves on purpose to get out of fighting, searching for solace with women along the way, misunderstanding the locals in the countryside, insurgency and bravery and cowardice, pain and suffering and bewilderment. It's gruesome in many parts, in a straightforward, matter-of-fact way. Roughly chronological, although there really is no storyline to follow, just pieces here and there of each man's experience. Eagerness at the beginning when the men are first enlisted and training, the long slog, the growing horrors, the numbness and fear and everything else, what it was like for many of them to come home. Lauded when they didn't deserve or want it, others ignored when they had gone through the worst, the difficulties in making their lives again. Reminded me some of Strange Meeting by Susan Hill.

from the Dogear Diary ( )