Review: Max's War

Max's War: The Story of a Ritchie Boy

by Libby Fischer Hellmann

I am sorry to be giving up on this.  It occurs in a time peried that I've read tons of books about--World War II in German and Holland--and covers a subject I find intensely interesting--the resistance and the OSS.  But the writing is dull and stilted, even in the action scenes. You know how when you're writing action, you shorten your sentences and jump about to build excitement?  In this book, all of the sentences are short and choppy--they failed to pull me along.  After a paragraph or two, I kept finding myself wanting to put the book down.

The guy next to him pulled out a rosary and started to pray. Max recited teh Sh'ma. The plane abruptly ascended five hundred feet. Max was on the verge of panic. What was happening? Had they been shot at again? No. The unit leader made circular gestures with his arms, signalling that the jumps would begin. He struggled to pull open the plane's door.

Is this just me being picky, or did the paragraph about read like something I might read to my kids, in a "talking down" tone?  (Which I wouldn't do)   And another issue I had is that the emotional content just wasn't there. It read like a history book. Strange.

I'm really sorry, because I think the author did her research excellently well and came up with a cool story designed to bring history to life.  But for me, it didn't.