I just finished reading the forty-second book since I started riding the UTA bus in mid-April 2008. I’ve averaged a book a week. That’s pretty good if you ask me.
Flyboys has been on my list for some time. I read Flags of Our Fathers by the same author several years ago and enjoyed his writing style. He made history come alive. In fact, reading that book was a turning point in my reading diet. Previously, I read mostly fiction. I didn’t particularly care for history nor historical books. I didn’t care for biographies. And, most certainly, I didn’t care to read books about economics. Because I enjoyed Flags of Our Fathers so much, I realized several things:
- The historical books I had previously read were textbooks. Textbooks are not compelling reading. Not even!
- Authors of textbooks are not concerned about the craft of writing. In fact, word smithing is nonexistent in textbooks.
- Biographies from yesteryear (the dark ages of my childhood) were not compelling reading either.
- The writing of historical and biographical books have matured.
- So have I.
I decided I needed to branch out. I’m glad I have. I have read some of the most fascinating books. And Flyboys is one of those.
Flyboys is about a group of U.S. pilots that were shot down during their mission to bomb two radio towers on the island of Chichi Jima. It explains what happened to them. But a whole lot more was included. I learned:
- about Japanese history and culture
- about the foundational meaning of kamikaze and how it evolved into suicidal kamikaze pilots
- why the Japanese were so cruel and vicious to prisoners of war
- about the development of the airplane for fighting
- that in some ways America was just as barbaric as Japan
- that I don’t respect General MacArthur as much as I used to
- that deciding whom to prosecute for war crimes after WW II was quite a farce
I would highly recommend this book. It was a fascinating read. But, you have to have a strong stomach as you read about the horror of what happened.