The Lieutenants: The Brotherhood of War

The Lieutenants: The Brotherhood of War by W.E.B. Griffin

The first of nine books in the ‘Brotherhood of War’ series. Initially, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy such a book, or such a series.  I can’t honestly say that I’ve ever given “war novels” much of a chance.  I love History books about some of the major wars, and a great love story seems to go rather well with something as unfortunate as a war as part of its background.  But books that seemed to put most of their emphasis on the coming and goings of the military , I feared, might be somewhat different.

This book was different.  It was quite technical.  There’s tons of military jargon thrown in here that really doesn’t seem that important.  Yet author W.E.B. Griffin has this skill mastered in that it doesn’t take anything away from the story.  Unlike some Tom Clancy novels (which I do enjoy), Griffin doesn’t spend 8 pages describing something inane like what the inside of a bomb looks like.  Instead, he gives us just enough detail (even though there is quite a lot) to help us understand a bit of the background, and then quickly moves on with the story and the characters.

Speaking of characters, this really is a ‘character’ book.  This story focuses mainly on people and not that much on the events that surround them.  The story takes place as World War II is winding down, spends the bulk of book taking place during the late 1940s, and ends right around the time the Korean conflict begins. (remember there are 8 more books to follow.)  As the title implies, the story focuses on characters that are, or become, Lieutenants. 

There are four such characters in this book, although the time spent on each is not dispersed equally.  We see how and why such individuals become officers in the United States army.  The book is brutally honest, and sometimes a bit scary when one ponders that such incidents probably happen in the actual armed forces.  Example: One of our Lieutenants starts off as a Private. He’s a young spoiled rich brat who only joins the army because he was kicked out of college.  It seems this young private knows a lot about the sport of polo.  Well, a general, who is a polo nut, needs this kid on his polo team. Since only officers can play on the team, the general “has” to make the kid a lieutenant.  So the spoiled brat is made a officers as he’s barely out of his teens.  This doesn’t go over well with many others in the army, and we have a nice setup for a story.  Generals obviously have quite a bit of power.

The paperback is 400 pages, and I was surprised how quickly the 400 pages zoomed by.  I loved reading this book (as soon as I was done, I immediately started reading the second of the series).  I would definitely not consider this book ‘classic literature’ by any source of the imagination.  It’s not in the same league as a Herman Wouk, for example.  That’s o.k. though. I loved reading this book and would highly recommend it.  I’m hoping the remaining installments in the series are somewhat comparable in terms of quality.

Today’s reader might find much of the book to be racially offensive.  Although the minorities in the book ‘prevail’, we read about a lot of hostilities towards people who aren’t White Anglo Saxon Protestants.  To be fair, though, this isn’t the author’s fault – this is how people talked back in the 1940s.  We must also remember the book was written in the early 1980s, and political correctness wasn’t a requirement then, either.  Perhaps I’m a bit sensitive.  One of the other lieutenants is a rather unattractive Jew.  Every time the guys walks into a room, the author states something like “The General then saw a Jew walk into a room” or “He then saw a Jew standing by the doorway.”   This puzzles me.  What exactly does a ‘Jew’ look like?  Again, though, this was how a lot of people talked during the particular time.

So, yes, heavy on the technical descriptions, but still a great story.  It’s always a pleasure for me to discover a new author.  Highly recommended even though the book was written quite some time ago, and a good introduction to how the military actually operates – good, bad and ugly. Fortunately, mostly good.