The Beardless Warriors : A Novel of World War II

Rating:
Summary: Teen angst like you've never seen it before
Review:
THE BEARDLESS WARRIORS

Richard Matheson is the perfect example of how certain writers get marginalized because they've been ghettoized into the 'genre' fiction category, and it really is an awful shame. Matheson is one of America's finest storytellers in the 20th century. Period. He'll take the most fantastic, implausible situation and, in the most imaginative way possible, suck you right into the story. To top it all off, he'll throw in the same grand themes that have been plundered many times before, by all the 'greats' like Steinbeck and Hemingway etc., and present it in a fashion that you just wouldn't expect, making it all the more pleasant and surprising. Like sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick and crime novelist Raymond Chandler, Matheson writes intelligent tales that seem to cater to a particular audience, but go way beyond that. He doesn't transcend his genre, he legitimizes it! This tale, however, is unlike any of Matheson's others. 'The Beardless Warriors' is about a troop of teenagers set out to fight the Germans in World War II. Appearently, this was Matheson's first novel, before he struck out into horror, sci-fi and fantasy, and it holds up as one of the most realistic war books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Matheson brilliantly depicts life on the front lines in WWII, capturing all the boredom and fear of a typical grunt. It helps that Matheson served on the front as a teen himself. The book's true genius lies in its main characters. He takes normal teen angst and amplifies it a millionfold, as baby-faced soldiers must become men very quickly or die in the process. Thought your adolescence was tough? Try never having so much as having slept with a woman, an 18 year old guy's favourite topic, and then having to face your own mortality every day. Another brilliant narrative device here is the choice of lead character. Private Hackermeyer, a dim-witted new recruit who doesn't have much in the brains department and hides his insecurity behind a humourless stoicism that no one can seem to pierce through. His rotating ensemble of supporting characters are superb, ranging from the religious and good-hearted, to the cynical and gruff, to the feeble and weak. The tale takes place over the course of two weeks and the boys literally transform and change into men within that short span of time. Lost is any notion of innocence, or the past or anything they once knew and believed about themselves. Hackermeyer discovers that he's surprisingly adept at killing, filling him with a sense of accomplishment that he'd never had before. He was never much good at anything. Slowly, he learns the value of life after being surrounded by so much death. Matheson is great at exhibiting war's horrific reality, especially as you just get to know and like a character, much like Hackermeyer, and all of a sudden they're blown to smithereens. Another great line from the book is when the Sergeant admits to Hackermeyer that killing can be 'fun' sometimes but that they can't let it overcome them. The typical trials and tribulations of teen-hood intersperse themselves throughout the novel. It's really like a demented 'young fiction' story...the guys all deal with insecurity, acceptance, frustration, fear, rejection....all the regular teen stuff, with all the drama that comes with being a teen. A great yarn about the realities of what awaits us in adulthood and an especially important wake up call to sheltered, impressionable North American kids who experience shellshock when they find that real life and world don't quite follow the idealized path that they set before themselves.






Rating:
Summary: Excellent writing documenting the feelings of soldiers.
Review: "The Beardless Warriors", by Richard Matheson, sub-titled, " A Novel of World War II". A Tom Doherty Associates Book, New York, May 2001, but first copyrighted in 1960.

According to the fronts piece, this is a work of fiction based upon the experiences of the noted writer, Richard Matheson, when he was shipped as an 18-year-old replacement into the European Theater of Operations in late 1944. Matheson portrays the development of Private Hackermeyer from a stumbling, inexperienced and frightened young soldier to a competent killer, who ignores the surrendering gestures of German soldiers. He has become so proficient in shooting his M-1, that Hackermeyer automatically registers on the target, pulls the trigger and then begins to scan for more.

Although written as fiction, there are two separate analyses of the wisdom of using young men as soldiers; these analyses are couched in dialogue among squad members. (Sergeant Cooley states, "I ain't running a rifle squad, ...I'm running a kindergarten.") There is also some discussion about life after death, resulting in Hackermeyer's introspection on that subject, on the death of his mother, and on life back in Brooklyn, NY.

The writing is excellent and Richard Matheson vividly establishes the range of feelings among the young soldiers, ranging from absolute terror to complacent acceptance, during the various attacks and defensive actions that take place in a very short calendar time. In my opinion, Matheson has captured day to day combat better than most writers.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent writing documenting the feelings of soldiers.
Review: "The Beardless Warriors", by Richard Matheson, sub-titled, " A Novel of World War II". A Tom Doherty Associates Book, New York, May 2001, but first copyrighted in 1960.

According to the fronts piece, this is a work of fiction based upon the experiences of the noted writer, Richard Matheson, when he was shipped as an 18-year-old replacement into the European Theater of Operations in late 1944. Matheson portrays the development of Private Hackermeyer from a stumbling, inexperienced and frightened young soldier to a competent killer, who ignores the surrendering gestures of German soldiers. He has become so proficient in shooting his M-1, that Hackermeyer automatically registers on the target, pulls the trigger and then begins to scan for more.

Although written as fiction, there are two separate analyses of the wisdom of using young men as soldiers; these analyses are couched in dialogue among squad members. (Sergeant Cooley states, "I ain't running a rifle squad, ...I'm running a kindergarten.") There is also some discussion about life after death, resulting in Hackermeyer's introspection on that subject, on the death of his mother, and on life back in Brooklyn, NY.

The writing is excellent and Richard Matheson vividly establishes the range of feelings among the young soldiers, ranging from absolute terror to complacent acceptance, during the various attacks and defensive actions that take place in a very short calendar time. In my opinion, Matheson has captured day to day combat better than most writers.

Rating:
Summary: Newsflash: War is Hell
Review: Before Matheson became a prolific writer of science fiction stories, novels, Twilight Zone episodes, and films, he served as a replacement infantryman in World War II. Some fifteen years later, he set down his experiences as a novel about a teenager sent to the front lines for the Allied advance into Germany. The story covers the first two weeks of Private Everett Hackermeyer's war, as he joins an understrength squad under the leadership of a grizzled Sergeant who acts as a father figure. But having been abandoned by his drunk father to be raised by his nasty uncle, Hackermeyer has no conception of what a father figure is, or really of what it means when people are nice to him. The result is that when thrown into the tight camaraderie of small unit combat, Hackermeyer is often confused, and retreats into his head to analyze the meaning behind every gesture and phrase directed at him.

He survives his initial baptism by fire, and accidentally discovers that he has an actual talent for killing the enemy. The question becomes, will he be able to operate as a good soldier, or will his inner demons lead him into increasingly risky and bloodthirsty acts? He's a bit of a stock character, the poor kid raised by wolves and never given a chance, who blossoms under a firm and wise guiding hand. But his mental issues keep him from becoming the kind of everyman hero common to World War II stories. His fellow privates are also somewhat stock figures: the sardonic joker/college boy from California, the bumbling idiot, the religious nut, and so on. The Sergeant is an incredibly cliche figure, who even offers Hackermeyer a job on his ranch, should they ever make it back home. These character deficiencies aside, the book is notable for its ability to put the reader in the middle of the terror and tedium that was World War II. The descriptions of shelling are truly horrific, and the chaos of small scale combat really comes to life. Matheson clearly pulls no punches in his description of what it meant to be on the front line, and the fear that inspired.

I read this at the same time as watching the "Band of Brothers" miniseries, and found it very complementary. Both do an excellent job at showing the mix of boredom and horror that infantrymen faced, however this book emphasizes how utterly alone each man is on the battlefield, while the miniseries (per its title), emphasizes the camaraderie. Ultimately the book is somewhat cliche across the board, but still well worth reading if you're interested in World War II.

Rating:
Summary: An honest book by an author who has been there.
Review: First let me acknowledge I don't recall liking "Red Badge of Courage" that much. The heart of this book are the battlefield experiences of the protagonist, an infantryman in World War II. They ring true, and are informative. The main character is reasonably well drawn, and there are two minor characters of some interest. I did not find any aspect of the book emotionally gripping, and I found the author's writing a bit heavy handed and repetitious.

Rating:
Summary: Infantry War at the Grunt level
Review: I first read this book in about 1965, and it served at the inspiration for me to serve in the United States Army (Infantry) for 24 years. The book captures the essence of being an infantryman, the misery, the terror and heroism. It demonstrates the true meaning of war at the lowest level. The soldiers fight not for the country, but for each other. If you want to learn about soldiers and the profession of arms, this is the book to read. The military books about the generals and admirals cannot convey real combat operations as Mr. Matheson does. Of course, they just order the deaths of young soldiers. This books makes you feel the deaths.

Rating:
Summary: Charnel House
Review: Matheson waited fifteen years after his experiences as boy soldier before he wrote this account. It recounts the conflicts--temporal and otherwise--suffered by an eighteen-year-old tossed into the butchery of the final assaults upon nazi Germany late in the war. The Germans are resisting nastily, and the Americans, before the days of thermobaric bombs and a Congress given to polls before strategy, are pushing hard to end the war. The results of such necessary (at the time) savagery are personified here. Young Everett Hackermeyer, a Brooklynite who knew neither love nor humor as a boy, is thrust into such horrors. He, a failure before donning the helmet and grabbing the M1, learns he is adept at soldiery--and, as the realities and blood pass, learns the true meaning of why he is, what he was, and what can be. Buy this.

Rating:
Summary: The Real Deal
Review: Penned by one of the greatest and most prolific writers of the 20th century and based in part upon his own experiences in one of the greatest conflicts of the 20th century, this is a novel that needs to be read -particularly by those in power anywhere who would send their troops to war. This is the most utterly enveloping account of front line combat I have ever read. The story is about a mere three weeks in the life of a young man named Hackameyer who participates in the latter offensive in Europe in the closing days of World War II. We are immersed entirely in the body of this introverted, easily confused kid who has sprung from a dead-end family that gave him nothing but self-doubt, only to find that it seems our one true talent in life is killing. While all the typical genre devices of the two-fisted World War II tale are here (the fatherly Sergeant, the pacifist religious guy, the incompetent private), this is NOT typical fare. We are THERE. We can feel the reverberation of the shells as they hit all around us. We are sick to our stomach at the squeaking sounds of the tank treads and the groan of the engines as they smash through the brush. We feel for the characters Hackameyer gets attached to, and we hate the ones he hates. We exhult in Hackameyer's accomplishments, even while we, as readers outside the character can plainly see the dangerous line he is treading between hero and maniac. We want desperately the same things Hackameyer wants - a home on a ranch with a real father. This should be read by anyone who wants to understand the experience of the soldier - ANY soldier on the front line.

Rating:
Summary: A Master Storyteller
Review: The great novelist (Somewhere in Time, I am Legend etc), film scenarist and short story writer Richard Matheson's novelized account of his WW II experiences. A superior and more accessible book then Mailer's The Naked and the Dead or Vonnegut's Slaughter House Five. And less manipulatively portentous then a Spielberg violins & tissue opus.

Rating:
Summary: A Neglected Classic
Review: This is a very impressive novel, and one that needs to be much better known. Matheson gives a very compelling look at one week in combat.

The novel is short and reads quickly. This would be a fine assignment in a class that covers World War II. It would give young readers a vivid picture of life in an infantry squad.

Matheson is unsentimental without being bitter. There are no big speeches on the horrors of war, or the unfairness of it all. Basically, his characters struggle to survive against the physical dangers and the psychological dangers that combat poses.

Very interesting to read this book now, in light of all the "Greatest Generation" talk. "The Beardless Warriors" gives a very clear picture of what WWII GIs faced, but it is not celebratory in the least.