Okay, this wasn't a bad book, but as far as providing a readable biography of John Basilone, it just wasn't good.

I guess the biggest detraction was that is written in the first person, as though Basilone himself was telling, or had told his own story to others, even up to and including the assault on Iwo Jima. The authors spent a large amount of time delving into what Basilone was thinking about so many different aspects of his life and I wasn't sure if they were making it up or expanding greatly beyond what he may have spoken of himself to others.

The story jumps directly into the landing at Iwo Jima and then jumps back to his childhood. It goes back and forth several times, such that I was not sure if the story was a flash back or flash forward. After alternating a few times, it settled into a chronological stream of consciousness-type telling of his life, with much delving into his feelings.

I was just not impressed with the book. I began to skips parts paragraphs, especially when the authors were stringing us along too much talking about what he was thinking and feeling about things. I was often wondering "how did they know?" I almost put it down a time or two but managed to slog through to the end.

No maps and a few photos. Some were too small to easily distinguish what they were a picture of.

6/10 Okay for the bookshelf, won't encourage others to read. ( )

Purchased June, 2017

Written as a biography but really a novel; it does not work. Sgt Basilone deserves better. ( )

I absolutely could not get into this book. It's creatively written from the imagined first-person, but however painstakingly and attentively done, I could not surmount the cognitive frame that I was reading historical fiction--the author's well-intentioned, historically researched but, in the end, made up story.

I could not imagine Basilone having sat himself or even with an experienced ghost-writer (had he survived) and produced a narrative like this.

It was a courageous and creative idea, but executed in a way that drew me away and distracted me from what may have been its redemptive feature--the story. ( )