Once There Was a War

I am currently reading Once There Was A War by John Steinbeck. This book is a collection of articles that Steinbeck wrote in 1943 from the front for a New York newspaper. What sets this book different from most others, is its writing style. It is written like a diary, and therefore the development of the story is unknown to the writer. Of course, now we know how WWII went, but at the time Steinbeck was accompanying the troops, he had no idea how things would turn out. Even though he is a newspaper reporter, he writes as a writer, leaving aside the hard facts to focus on the emotions and how its feels to be in a war situation. Sometimes it seems that there is no purpose to the story, just random rambling. Because the articles were published during the war, many details of locations and troop information are left out, he couldn’t give out the location of the American troops. The book is very interesting and very easy to read. It shows an unprecedented view of the war, very realistic, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes angry. I would recommend this for anyone looking for a quick read and a short amount of time to read. Prior knowledge of what happened could be useful to better understand the situations.