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Title: The Last Enemy (Classics of War) by Richard Hillary ISBN: 1-58080-056-4 Publisher: Burford Books Pub. Date: April, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.1 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A pilot's story: beyond the gunsight.
Comment: This is not simply the story of a Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain. It is an account of dawning self-realisation in a twenty year old man, experiencing battle, injury and loss.
Hillary takes us from the rarified air of pre-war Oxbridge priviledge, into the Battle of Britain. It is during this period that Hillary is shot down in flames, suffering disfiguring burns to his face and hands. For many months following, Hillary undergoes agonising facial reconstruction. As we find from his book, whilst enduring this bodily transformation, and experiencing the loss of his closest pilot friends, he is also reconstructing his psychic self.
The Last Enemy is an invaluable read as a personal account of air warfare, and as a social commentary on the Oxbridge Volunteer Reservists. However, it is Hillary's exploration of himself, in the face of tragedy, to make sense of his suffering, and that of wider humanity, that marks this (sometimes uneven) read out as a truly profound article of wartime literature.
Rating: 4
Summary: An RAF pilot's account of combat and recovery
Comment: The Last enemy is a contemporary account written by an RAF fighter pilot who flew Spitfires during the Battle of Britain. Prior to the war, the author led a comfortable upper class lifestyle; he was attending Oxford, had numerous friends, rowed and fancied becoming a writer. Moreover, he had an interest in flying and was a member of the University Air Squadron. When the Germans invaded Poland, he and his friends in the Air Squadron were, after a short delay, sent to training units, and after Dunkirk, were hurriedly sent to operational squadrons. Hillary, given the choice, chose No. 603, a Spitfire squadron in Scotland. During the Battle of Britian, the squadron was sent south into the thick of battle; shortly afterwards, Hillary was shot down and severely burned. Divided into two sections, the second half of the book details his ordeals as he recovers and undergoes reconstructive surgery. The Last Enemy is by no means propagandistic tripe; it is a sincere and timeless account of life disrupted by war, and therefore a very rewarding read.
Rating: 3
Summary: A review of Last Enemy
Comment: Richard Hillary's experienced voice reverberates in The Last Enemy, his memoir about life as a Spitfire pilot during World War II. Hillary details his battle encounters while recounting the events he witnessed, and the emotions he felt. Like other war memoirs, the author concludes with revelations that display his maturation in the crucible of conflict. He enters the RAF as a spoiled Oxford undergraduate, filled with youthful selfishness; by the end, however, death and violence have awakened him to the folly of his past egocentrism. More important, his role in the Battle of Britain and his death in action in 1943, although not included in the book, augments the work's importance.
Despite Hillary's devotion to literature, The Last Enemy's historical value supercedes its literary qualities. His descriptions of the general mood of London and its citizens during the Blitz, for example, are as close to a primary document as the average reader will probably come. Moreover, interspersed throughout the narrative are journalistic, almost indifferent reports of the deaths of his comrades. His account of pilot training and midair dogfights may also arouse excitement in World War II buffs. And when he writes that "to love one's country is vulgar, to love God archaic, and to love mankind sentimental" (126), he expresses the apathy of many spoiled youths from his era. Essentially, Hillary's personal account fulfills the criteria of an effective memoir.
His book is imperfect, however. A self-proclaimed dilettante, Hillary's prodigal upbringing allowed him to dabble in many leisurely pursuits-from literature to rowing. This eclecticism manifests itself in the digressions that often plague his writing. Yet the book's greatest flaw perhaps lies in the unrealistic dialogue, on which much of the book is founded. In a heated discussion after a mutual loved one's death, for example, a woman complains to Hillary about his "intellectual subterfuges and attempts to hide behind the cry of self-realization" (189). A reader must ask: "How often does a person's speech resemble such a phrase?" And the ideological discussions between Hillary and various others can be twice as highfalutin. Thus, Hillary occasionally abandons an exact, truthful rendition of events for the sake of a good yarn.
Despite any flaws-which are, to an extent, the reader's own bias-The Last Enemy offers itself as a compelling addition to the canon of valuable WWII memoirs. Concise and personal, it could both introduce some readers to RAF fighter pilots' lot in the war and reinforce other readers' preexisting knowledge of the topic. War not only lessens Hillary's smug, selfish ways, but ultimately reveals to him the importance of such ancient values as courage and camaraderie. If his story were to do the same for any reader, it would be worth the investment of time.
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Title: First Light by Geoffrey Wellum ISBN: 047142627X Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 14 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Fatal Englishman : Three Short Lives by Sebastian Faulks ISBN: 0375727442 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Not the Germans Alone: A Son's Search for the Truth of Vichy by Isaac Levendel, Robert O. Paxton ISBN: 0810116634 Publisher: Northwestern University Press Pub. Date: June, 1999 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: My Father's War by Julia Collins ISBN: 1568582609 Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Which People's War?: National Identity and Citizenship in Britain 1939-1945 by Sonya O. Rose ISBN: 0199255725 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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