A Second World War Book For The Twitter/Snapchat Age....It Doesn't Work

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

When I borrowed Voices From D-Day edited by Jon E. Lewis from the library. I'd expected to be riveted by the accounts of people who were in one of the most momentous events in the history of the world. The D-Day landings.

Mr Lewis had taken interviews, writings, diaries on the subject from all the military services (including Germany) and then proceeded to edit this book. Not I'm sure an easy task.

Which he did badly.

This book is a triumph of style versus substance. Not though in what the phrase normally means. For instead of a glossy style covering a flimsy substance what we have here is a flimsy style covering an important substance.

What we have is something like this:

We get a recollection from Person A of about three paragraphs.

BAM: We move to Person B's recollection of One paragraph.

BAM: We move to Person C's recollection of two paragraphs.

BAM: We move back to another recollection of Person B of two paragraphs.

And so on.

When I started counting the most (and this was rare) a recollection would get would be about a couple of pages. For the most part it would be this relentless/quick shift from one person, nationality, different part of the armed services to another in a few paragraphs....and it doesn't work. This does not make for settled reading

This is a book which makes an assumption about people who use Twitter/Snapchat etc. It assumes that users of social media do not have the attention span capable of reading longer accounts of important conflicts. In this case it insults such people. For regular social media users are more than capable of reading beyond a few paragraphs from the accounts of those who lived through the conflict and who for the most part deserve our respect. Respect which I would argue Mr Lewis does not give in the way he has styled this book.

Until the next time.