The Gospel Coalition

Well, I need to either begin or end the review with these words, so let’s get it out of the way right off the top: The Pacific just isn’t as good as Band of Brothers. It is an easy but inevitable comparison. As The Pacific finds its way to television screens in the form of a ten-part mini-series, it also makes its way to store shelves (and to the list of bestsellers) as a book. Written by Hugh Ambrose, son of Stephen Ambrose (who wrote Band of Brothers), it landed on the list just days before the airing of the first episode.

Now, I know that it may be unfair to immediately draw comparisons between the two but really it is inevitable. The publisher knew this, putting the words Band of Brothers right on the cover of The Pacific. If they can sell it to us on that basis, I think we are free to evaluate on that same basis.

Band of Brothers rose or fell on the strength of its characters and the growing (and declining) relationships between them. It was tightly focused on one small group of soldiers–E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne. It followed these men from boot camp all the way to the end of the Second World War. In men like Major Dick Winters it had heroes and in men like Captain Herbert Sobel it had villains. It was a fascinating story that was well-told and easily adapted into a fantastic mini-series. The Pacific, on the other hand, began as the mini-series rather than the book. Based on two famous Second World War memoirs–With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge and Helmet for a Pillow by Robert Leckie–the mini-series is a product of the same team that brought us Band of Brothers. Through one episode it shows great promise.

The book is a companion or an add-on to the series. It ranges much farther than Band of Brothers ever did, focusing on soldiers from different branches of the military–Army, Navy and Marines. It focuses on men who never encountered one another during the war. Therefore, it does not have the interplay and fraternity between the characters that helped make Band of Brothers what it was. Instead of the relationship between characters, we find tension between telling the story of the war and telling the story of individual soldiers and airmen within that war.

So, for example, Ambrose is constantly switching between what people actually did and saw and what they might have done and might have seen. In one sentence he’ll say, “He dove into the trench, cutting his foot on a jagged piece of shrapnel” and then follow it by saying, “He might have noticed the smoke from the explosion.” Ambrose continually switches back and forth between what the soldier actually saw, as recorded in his memoirs, and what he might have seen based on the historical record. Though it may seem like a small thing, I found it quite maddening as it showed to me that The Pacific doesn’t know what it wants to be–history or biography. In the end it becomes a bit of both but does neither with the excellent of Band of Brothers.

Is The Pacific a bad book? No, not at all. There is a lot to gain from it both in terms of history and in terms of learning about individual soldiers. At the same time, I just can’t help but feel that it’s not all it could be; that it was a rush job and one that lacks precision and focus. I wanted more of the men and less of the facts. I wanted to feel about the men in this book like I felt about Winters and Sobel and Guarnere and like I’m sure I’ll feel about the men in The Pacific mini-series. After all, the series has already shown that it will be more about the soldiers and less about the big picture of the war.

So here is my advice. If you have not read With the Old Breed, read that first. You owe it to yourself. It is one of the best books you’ll read on the Second World War. Then, if your appetite for reading about the war and about the Pacific campaign still remains, go ahead and read The Pacific. You will encounter Sledge again, but you will also encounter another set of characters that are worth meeting.

Verdict: Read it if you’re a World War II enthusiast and if you’ve already read With the Old Breed.