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September 25, 2022

New From Pulitzer Winners - Hapless Author Embarks on Wild Road Trip, and Unique WW II Football Game Underscores War's Toll

Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer. Readers first met gay novelist Arthur Less in Greer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Less. In that book, Arthur chooses to deal with the impending wedding of his former lover Freddy - and his upcoming 50th birthday - by not dealing at all and instead attending a series of half-baked literary events around the world. Arthur is something of a lovable loser, with his travels being a series of near and actual disasters that, in Greer’s hands, are at turns wildly funny and surprisingly poignant. And best of all, in the end, Arthur is reunited with Freddy. 

In Less Is Lost, things start off slightly better for our beleaguered protagonist. Arthur has achieved some success as a writer and he and Freddy are living contentedly together in San Francisco. But when the death of an old lover provokes both an emotional and financial crisis, Less again takes to the road in an attempt to raise money and, conveniently, avoid dealing with Freddy (again). Alas, road trips are not Arthur Less’s strong suit, and his cross-country travails and interactions are, well, let’s say eventful (hapless is another word that springs to mind). Let me also say that I haven’t laughed out loud this much reading a book in a long time. Greer is a genuinely funny writer who also uses language beautifully - there are short descriptive sentences that beg to be read twice throughout the book. My only complaint was that the book ended rather abruptly for me, leaving a few unanswered questions. The good news is that Less Is Lost is billed as The Arthur Less Books #2, making it seem likely that we may treated down the road to more of Less.

The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bissinger is perhaps best known for Friday Night Lights, his classic account of a high school football team in Odessa, Texas. With his new book, he combines history, war, and sports in the re-creation of a little-known event that occurred during World War II - a pickup football game among two Marine Corps regiments that included some of best college players of the day. 

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, young men from across the spectrum signed up or were recruited to fight an expanded war, including players from one of the country's most popular sports - college football. As it turned out, the top choice for those athletes was the Marine Corps (perhaps a reflection on their coaching staffs?). Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war - the invasion of Okinawa - their ranks included an extraordinary pool of football talent. There were former All Americans, captains from Wisconsin and Brown and Notre Dame, and nearly 20 men who were either drafted or would ultimately play in the NFL. Boys being boys, Christmas carols were replaced by trash-talking, and the arguments between the 4th and 29th over who could assemble the better football team reached a fever pitch. The result was The Mosquito Bowl, a bruising football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal.

Not a football fan? Not to worry. The Mosquito Bowl is much more than a recounting of of this unique pick-up game. Bissinger uses it as a stepping off point to introduce these soldiers and how they got to that point in time, and then follows the lives of several of them moving forward. Unfortunately, some of those lives were quickly lost - within a matter of months, 15 of the 65 players from that contest would be killed at Okinawa. Bissinger did extensive research for the book, talked to children and grandchildren of players and interviewed the one remaining (at the time) survivor of the game. The result is a narrative that, while focusing on a few, tells a larger tale of lives inalterably changed by the tragedy of war.