Bomber (Penguin Modern Classics)

Open this book and step into the maelstrom of World War II in the air - the air over Nazi Germany. This is the story of one day in the lives - and far too much death - of a Lancaster bomber squadron on the mythical date of June 31, 1943. Several planes and their crews are experienced close up, with one plane and its crew in particular. The good do not always survive and the bad do not always perish. Even the very best pilots are at the whims of fate. Too many people are sucked into the vortex of terror. I first read this book many years ago and this second time it was more immediate and in-your-face than before. Len Deighton wrote about his research for this blockbuster. He is right up in the pantheon of all-time best historical novelists.

This is the author's portrait of a British Lancaster squadron, several of its crews and a night when a series of events and mishaps lead to a mission of chaos and misdirected bombing. The lives of the crews, their families and misguided leaders reveals the hidden desperate tragedies of the Bomber Offensive. The Bomber Offensive was brutally unfair to everyone touched by it: driven by unrelenting and impersonal forces made worse by leaders and limitations on both sides. Readers will experience a vivid reconstruction and come away both haunted and angry: does anybody win in a war like this?

I have to confess, I first listened to this novel via audible. I enjoyed it so much that I bought a print copy because it is the kind of story that really needs more than one read. About a year later, I gave it a third read. This is not the Hollywood version of war. This is the real thing. The scope of the novel is both broad and narrow. Events are confined to a single 24 hour period, but dozens of characters are introduced, some more important than others. What I found of particular interest was the view from the ground inside a bombed city. You don't see that very often. Deighton is an excellent author and historian and he definitely knew the smallest details about life within a German town during the War. Some writers like to show off their research skills by dumping large amounts of information totally irrelevant to the plot. In this case, it never seems forced and adds to the story by giving it an authentic feel. I cannot recommend this novel enough, but be warned, it gives a graphic depiction of what happened in a town hit by explosives and incendiaries. The whole story builds towards a tragic, gut wrenching climax.

 Here in 2009 Mr. Deighton's famous novel sits beside Slaughterhouse-Five on many bookshelves as well as in the esteem of readers and scholars. The book needs no more reviews. I write only to point out a surprising technical error unexpected from someone like Len Deighton. Bomber is historical fiction narrated by an omniscient third party in the contemporaneous present tense. This style, a common one for this genre, keeps the reader very much involved with the plot as it unfolds. Then, on page 272 of the Jonathan Cape Ltd. edition, appears this sentence, "Today's pressurized, high-speed, high-altitude, jet-propelled traveller might find it hard to imagine the very different experience that flying was to these men." Reading this I felt as if someone a row back had interrupted me during a really good movie. Tracers had just curved by my cockpit and splashed into the sea. What rude person was intruding with this inane editorializing? Mr. Deighton's entire novel is like an editorial on the horrors of war, but the genius of the book is how understated this message remains. Of course it does nothing to diminish the book. It is simply an interesting example of how difficult it really is to keep disbelief suspended and readers personally involved in a story.

A novel of the British bombing by night campaign by Bomber Command, Royal Air Force against the Germans in World War II. It was a truly desperate battle of the British crews in their 4-engine d Lancasters against German ground radar which directed both the famed '88' mm anti-aircraft artillery ("Arms Of Krupp") and the lash-up but excellent in-board intercept radar equipped aircraft [Heinz Schnauffer, #1 German Ace of the Night, nicknamed by British crews the "Ghost of St. Trond", scored all of his 121 air-to-air kills against British bombers] Omniscient point Of View is concentrated on the British crews, trying to live a somewhat normal existent during the day and flying long missions in the dark in an atmosphere of fear tempered by incredible sense of duty. Author LEN DEIGHTON is perhaps better known for his espionage novels (IPCRESS FILE, FUNERAL IN BERLIN, many many others) is very well-learned in this history {Deighton was a schoolboy when the Battle of Britain raged over London} of this incredibly suspenseful story woven together from many individual British lives. In my 60's and downsizing everything, most of library given to Goodwill, but the books that I KNOW I will read again I am purchasing newer copies. That's about the best recommendation that I can give this book. There is NO magical happy Hollywood ending folks - some survive, many die as the war rolls on implacably in this grim, tight recounting of life and death in the air in the darkened skies of night.