Genre: Nonfiction—History & Art History
Completed: 3 April 2016
Summary & Review:
During the Second World War, the Nazi leaders of Germany conducting a continent-wide pillaging operation that captured the artistic and cultural treasures of Europe. Coupled with the fact that major ground battles were taking place among the architectural treasures of Western Civilization, the need to protect the cultural patrimony of Europe and the West was pushed by a small group of American and British scholars, curators, and artists. These pioneers formed the backbone of the Monuments, Fine Art, and Archives section of the US Army and were imbedded with the combat units to protect, find, and return the artistic masterpieces the Nazis had stolen.
This book is right up my alley—the Army, Europe, art history, etc.—so I really thought I would have liked it better. Edsel and Witter’s writing style just wasn’t to my liking, especially early on in the book. The narrative thread was very strange and would make random jumps between events and people. It took me a long time to really get into the book, but by the last 150 pages or so I was more into it. Thankfully, the true story presented in the book was enough to keep me reading. In fact, despite not being to keen on Edsel’s style, I think I’ll probably still read his Saving Italy about the Monuments Men’s work in Italy during the war.
Rating: 6.5
So this is one of the rare examples of a movie being better than the book I take it!
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