Book Review: The Rising Tide
Brian D. Laslie - Air & Space Power Journal
Apr 03, 2008
The Rising Tide: A Novel of the Second World War by Jeff Shaara. Ballantine Books, 576 pages, $27.95 (hardcover).
Author Joseph E. Persico has said that Jeff Shaara has the ability to "make literature read like history and history read like literature." Shaara has done so again in The Rising Tide, his latest novel. In my opinion, Shaara is the master of American military historical fiction. His ability to blend fact into fiction and breathe life into historical characters places him in a genre all his own. He first completed a trilogy on the American Civil War begun by his father, Michael, with The Killer Angels (1996) (the inspiration for the film Gettysburg). Shaara put us into the thoughts and actions of Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and common soldiers of the Union and Confederacy. He then wrote a book on the Mexican-American War and a two-volume set on die American Revolution that can only be called visionary in depth and scope. To the Last Man (2004), his epic of World War I, focused on the actions of American commanders.
With The Ruing Tide, the first installment of a three-volume set, Shaara now turns his attention to World War II, focusing here on the campaigns in North Africa and Sicily. The second book will resemble The Killer Angels by concentrating entirely on one batde-in this case, the historic D-day invasion. The third volume will pick up sometime after the Normandy invasion and take us through the end of the war in Europe.
As with all of Shaara's other works, The Rising Tide begins with an introduction to the main players, including not only those with familiar namesDwight Eisenhower, Mark Clark, Erwin Rommel, and George Patton-but also unknown frontline soldiers. This time the latter group includes a gunner on an American tank crew and a new breed of warrior: the paratrooper. Excelling at this point of view, Shaara places us in the thick smoke of Kasserine Pass and high in the sky as the 82nd Airborne makes the first of its combat jumps into Sicily.
This book may in fact be better than any of the author's other works. Shaara's methodical research enables his obvious flair for bringing historical characters to life. In The Rising Tide, however, he seems to overlook the role of airpower somewhat, mentioning Jimmy Doolittle and Carl Spaatz only in passing, for example. He does, though, introduce us to the pilot who, on more than one occasion, transported General Eisenhower around the Mediterranean in the B-17 Flying Fortress known as The Red Gremlin-that flyer was none other than Lt Col Paul Tibbets. In response to my question about whether he felt that he ignored the role of airpower in this book, Shaara replied,
My approach to the World War II trilogy is to focus on a variety of characters, in a variety of roles. In every story I do, the greatest challenge is what to include and what to leave out. In To The Last Man, the contrast between the experiences of pilots and Marine grunts was very poignant to me, and made for what I thought was a very contrasting story line. I've caught grief from sailors because I seem to have ignored the Navy in every book I've done. In the Atlantic alone, there are volumes of great naval stories, from the submarine war to the Bismarck. I barely mention any of that.
Fair enough. After all, Shaara writes historical fiction for general consumption-not to satisfy the desires of a few airpower advocates.
Readers who wish to take a break from the usual fare found in ASPJbut who don't want to read fiction for fiction's sake should take a look at Shaara's latest effort. The Ruing Tide brings the story of World War II to life in an unparalleled way, making it living history.
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