Rating: 
Summary: A few great anecdotes but it just falls short...
Review: There is no question that Manchester is a great writer and his knowledge of historical events and the players involved in excellent. Goodbye Darkness, however, is very inconsistent. Manchester tries to use a return trip to the south Pacific as a vehicle to weave in and out of flashbacks to his experiences in WWII. He doesn't really pull it off though. The result is a little jerky with melodramatic reflections of "the old sargent".There are a few spots in the book that are excellent (his retelling of certain battles and the incredible strain placed on American troops), but much of the book it is just annoying (see his story about having the sexual fantasy with some symbolic whore in a muddy mortor shell hole...I'm still wondering what that was supposed to be about beyond just being creepy). He discusses his fellow combatants "The Raggedy Ass Marines". Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems he was trying (and failing) to create some mythic portrayal of a group of soldiers who weren't all that outstanding (I'm referring to his small enclave of "raggedy ass marines" not all of the US soldiers over there at the time). Manchester himself comes off as a bit of a squish throughout the book. Goodbye Darkness was OK, but definitely not one of the best war memoirs ever written as some say. Any memoir junky out there needs to get a copy of George MacDonald Fasier's "Quartered Safe Out Here"...The best memoir I've ever read, hands down (about the WWII and the troops in Burma -- awesome).
Rating: 
Summary: A cathartic work by a brilliant historian
Review: Never have I read a book where a "man of words" reveals so much about both himself and the sheer hell of war. You get the sense that Manchester NEEDED to write this book to ease the pain of those battles in the Pacific. If you ever had any lingering fantasies of war as romantic, this will end those fantasies
Rating:
Summary: The most gripping personal account of WW-II in the Pacific
Review: In Goodby Darkness, the great historian and biographer William Machester has taken his readers inside his mind and his memory to the most compelling moments of his life. Manchester, the young Marine, is seen through the eyes of Manchester the historian. The historian tells the reader the significance to the outcome of World War II, and the Marine tells us the significance to himself and those with whom he served.
This is the best World War II memior I have ever read. It is as compelling as a novel, but as real as a recurring nightmare.
Rating:
Summary: Read and weep for the young men lost.
Review: Awesome story of youth lost to war. Tragic yet I found myself not wanting to but the book down. Very personal. Made you feel like you were there
Rating: 
Summary: Makes you understand what a WWII veteran understands.
Review: This personal account of WWII duty in the Pacific is moving and gives those who were not alive then a real feeling for what the environment was like. Very readable; shows the sacrifices made that few seem to remember today
Rating:
Summary: A MUST
Review: Manchester captures the feelings the combatant feels better than anyone I've ever read. This book isn't just for men or the military. It is one of the most gripping accounts of one's journey to self-understanding. I've read this book more than once and passed it to friends and family who share my impressions of the book.
Incredibly, Manchester survived just about every major battle the Marines fought in the Pacific. The book has excellent history and yet if you don't like war stories, don't be turned away from this book. It is not just about war, but about the human spirit.
Thank you, Mr. Manchester, for the book and your service.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Not the typical WW2 memoir. Comes at things a little sideways, but the writing is suberb. One of the finest memoirs I have ever read, and I've read a ton of them. To have a writer of Manchester's caliber relate his personal experiences is truly unique. Highly recommended. And a great overview of the Pacific Theatre.
Rating:
Summary: From naive to educated...
Review: First off I'm going to quote: "No infantryman fought on all, or even many, of the Pacific islands. Deployment of troops, casualty figures, and tropical diseases laid down impossible odds against that". That being said, the author does a very good job of describing living and dying in the jungles and battlefields of the Pacific. There is no definite timeline, dates and battles move around as the author travels island to island recalling or retelling events that happened. His own action was in Okinawa, of which the horrors are recalled toward the end of the book.
Let me also mention he is not the poster boy for the Marine Corp. If you want the "U-Rah: Gung Ho" version from a solider, look elsewhere. That's not to say he's a coward, just educated and placed in a small outfit of misfits with other intellectuals. You'll read no stories of him pulling grenade pins with his teeth and throwing them while Thompson blazing down Jap's all the while yelling preposterous things. Nope. Courageous actions of others - absolutely. Not only that, you get a great dose of geography, history, weapons, tactics, and anecdotes. Very light on the comedy, as some other veterans have wrote absolutely hysterical lines (Bloody Skies: Melvin McGuire).
There is lot of death, let me restate that - there is more death here than in any other book of war I have read. Here I thought Iwo was the bloodiest conflict - nope. There are countless stories of friends and other Marines who met their end. You think you know what war's like - wrong (Unless of course you were there - and I salute you if you were, on any front). Manchester gives you the gritty and awful scope of a battlefield. 250 Men charge up a hill and two come back. That was Okinawa. Until I read this book I never had any idea just how many men met their fate on those islands -abhorring by today's standards. Okinawa was 52X as costly as 9-11. Well he was there and he's not over it yet - that's to say he's definitely bitter and although he never mentions it, he certainly has PTSD. That being said, I can't say it's exactly a good read, or you'll really like the author, but it is his story. Bitter always and himself complicated to the core, it is at least a noble course to read and understand history.
Four Stars - Everyone loves a Hero.
Rating:
Summary: Another 5-star Winner from the late Mr. Manchester!
Review: First, there is nothing by the late,great Mr. Manchester that is not absolutely top of the line! This is his most personal book, a memoir remembering the tragedies and horrors of his experience fighting the Japanese in the Pacific, and in the Philippines. There is some autobiography here in the beginning, when the author remembers his father and his early life. This is pleasant enough, but the harrowing sections after about page 40 are real shockers, including some unbelievable horrors committed by Japanese soldiers in the Philippines (including atrocities against babies), and mass suicides by the natives on Tarawa. Mr. Manchester also tells of a certain movie actor who played soldier roles getting booed off the stage in a Honolulu theatre by hundreds of hard-bitten marines (relevent today!). His essays on death rituals in most world religions are worth the price of the book! So another grand slam by this great author, among the very best popular historians ever!
Rating:
Summary: Literary Memoir
Review: This book struck me as more than just another war rememberance. Manchester is a definite wordsmith who tells the story of his life through the use of literary beauty. I can never imagine being a young man of this time. Maybe that is why I keep reading these type of books. These men were amazing citizen soldiers. This book is one of the best memoirs bar none I have read. It is not just about his war in the Pacific, it is about how he has fared since then. Great book!
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