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Title: Those Who Fall
Author: John Muirhead
Narrator: Robertson Dean
Format: Unabridged
Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
Language: English
Release date: 12-05-17
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 16 votes
Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs
Publisher's Summary:
As a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber pilot, John Muirhead led missions into northern Italy, Germany, and Bulgaria during World War II. Ultimately, he was shot down and taken prisoner.
John Muirhead's re-creation of those years is a breathtaking mingling of ravaging horrors and silent, surreal images; of raw, tumultuous memory and elegantly paced narrative; of lightening humor and measured reflection.
Seldom has a listener been made to feel terror so viscerally. Rarely has a listener ascended the skies so thrillingly. And never has one felt so close to the numbing fear, the boredom, the eerie beauty, and the dislocated sensibilities of war in the air as in Those Who Fall.
Members Reviews:
Only R. Dean Mars Sheer Perfection
Those Who Fall is an elegantly written memoir of fear, determination, friendship, courage, and the will to live. At its best, it's pure poetry.
Alas, I have to admit it: I'm not a big fan of Robertson Dean, and it's tragic that he's the narrator of so many fine books, all of which he fails to elevate or to deliver on in the manner which they deserve. Here, while he does a good job of dialogue (even tho' he's no master of accents), the narrative itself is delivered without much cadence, nearing a monotone most of the time.
Which is tragic because John Muirhead writes of the beauty of a child's voice, the desperation of a widow's loneliness, the unwillingness to get attached to the fate of the man beside you because that would make their ultimate and oh so likely death unbearable. He writes of the fear to run that next mission, the one that could be your last. He recounts riveting action of bombing runs on oil facilities, of airbursts of fire and shrapnel. He tells of trying to take care of the utterly shell shocked, of trying to find food and life within the confines of POW camps.
He writes of the misery of torture.
Those Who Fall has it all, and while Dean is less than sublime, he still can't turn this into a just-okay book.
It's brilliant! Not since Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier have I truly felt war, boredom, horror, hope, so much.
By the way. It does seem to end too soon, but that's only because you'll want to know more of Muirhead's story. You will indeed care that much...
Incomplete ending
The story ended with the Russians at some distance from the camp - no idea what happened next. I'm sure their arrival and the prisoners trip after could have been interesting. No luck.
Seemed odd to stop there.
Best-Written WWII Air War Memoir
What did you love best about Those Who Fall?
Excellent writing and descriptive ability. Memorable characters. Phenomenal accounts of bombing raids over Germany in WWII, the best I have read. Insight into life behind the scenes on the ground at air bases. Interactions with local Italian population. Have remembered this powerful and moving narrative since the first time I read it 25+ years ago, astonished and delighted to see that anyone made the effort to present an audiobook version.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Narrator and perhaps his commanding officer.
What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
The performance was pedestrian, but the content is very strong.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The first account of a bombing raid over Germany was much more than war porn.
