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The Eleventh Man (Two Medicine Country #8)

3.34 of 5 stars 3.34 · rating details · 636 ratings · 162 reviews

Driven by the memory of a fallen teammate, TSU’s 1941 starting lineup went down as legend in Montana football history, charging through the season undefeated. Two years later, the "Supreme Team" is caught up in World War II. Ten of them are scattered around the globe in the war’s various lonely and dangerous theaters. The eleventh man, Ben Reinking, has been plucked from p...more

Hardcover, 406 pages

Published October 13th 2008 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published September 4th 2008)

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Dec 11, 2008 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Eleventh Man, by Ivan Doig (finalist for 1979 National Book Award and nominee for 2008 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award), was heartbreaking. Mr. Doig tells the (fictional) story of the eleven starting members of the 1941-season undefeated football team of the (fictional) Treasure State University of Montana. Each and every one of them volunteered for service in WWII in some form or another, and the best writer among them, Ben Reinking, is plucked from his pilot duty to become war pr...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Steve Howes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ivan Doig's books always seem to end too quickly for me. They are so well-written and the characters are so real, it is sometimes hard to believe I am reading a work of fiction. This one is no exception. It is the story of an Army Air Corps officer assigned to document the military experiences of members of an undefeated Montana university football team (of which he was also a member) during World War II. He is assigned to focus on each team member in a specific order which leads him to various...more

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Apr 20, 2010 Paul Aslanian rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is my favorite genre: historically accurate fiction. This is a story about a Montana College (I think it is Bozeman) football team that goes undefeated for two years winning a couple of national div II?? championships. Then after the 1941 season the entire team, after Pearl Harbor joins the service. The story is told through one of the ream members who father owned and printed the local newspaper. The kid grew up around the news writing business and was gifted in this area.

The 10 other guys...more

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Oct 14, 2009 Tim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Sure, you could believe for all you were worth that you were too young and fit and lucky to be chased down by death, but all of accumulated history yawns back, 'Why not you?'" — from "The Eleventh Man"

Ivan Doig's previous novel, the terrific "The Whistling Season" (2006) casts a long shadow, and "The Eleventh Man" never escapes from it to soak up some sun, but that doesn't make this World War II tale a bad one. It's Doig, so of course it's good. In the "The Eleventh Man" the starting 11 from a...more "Sure, you could believe for all you were worth that you were too young and fit and lucky to be chased down by death, but all of accumulated history yawns back, 'Why not you?'" — from "The Eleventh Man"

Ivan Doig's previous novel, the terrific "The Whistling Season" (2006) casts a long shadow, and "The Eleventh Man" never escapes from it to soak up some sun, but that doesn't make this World War II tale a bad one. It's Doig, so of course it's good. In the "The Eleventh Man" the starting 11 from a legendary (fictional) Montana college football team (!) are upset — big time — by the law of averages on the homefront and in war-torn areas of the globe. The U.S. military propaganda machine picks Ben Reinking, son of a newspaper editor, to chronicle the wartime exploits of his 10 former teammates in puff pieces designed to appear in small-town newspapers across the country, an effort to boost morale. The odds say the vast majority of these men will make it through alive, but there are no oddsmakers at the end of a gun or flying a plane or on a ship when a kamikaze pilot attacks. Ben chafes against his superiors as he travels forth and back to his former teammates: on the U.S. West Coast patrolling for Japanese submarine crews seeking fresh water; in battles in Guam and the Battle of the Bulge; flying ships from Montana to Alaska to hand over to the Russians. All the while Ben pursues a relationship with a female pilot — a WASP — married to a soldier serving overseas.

Like nearly all of Doig's work, Montana is central to the tale. And although there are several exciting battle scenes, this isn't an action/adventure book at its heart. Doig goes small instead of big; Ben's struggles of conscience and the gut-punch horror of these men's deaths, one by one, are the focus, not battle-hero stuff. Ben thinks, "The damned odds again. Why can't the numbers just behave and quit giving out coincidences like card tricks?" And the deaths of so many men with one common tie does seem like a tremendous stretch, the dramatic license of a novelist. But in the acknowledgements at the back of the book Doig reveals that 11 starting players from a Montana college apparently did, in fact, die in World War II! Truth as strange as fiction.

Doig's writing here, while of course good, doesn't seem as evocative as it was in "The Whistling Season." And "The Eleventh Man" suffers a bit from the bouncing around from man to man as Ben follows the teammates at home and abroad. At just over 400 pages, and with 11 players and a host of other characters, we simply don't have enough time to get to know everyone. The novel would have worked better much longer, more detailed. A more epic treatment with the same real-person tone would have been more moving. But, hell, Doig's 70 years old! He probably just wants to make sure he finishes!
(less)

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Dec 15, 2008 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the latest novel by one of my favorite writers, Ivan Doig. He writes out of Seattle, but -- as an author -- is a Montana man. That is where his heart remains. This novel involves Montana, but unfolds in Europe and the South Pacific during World War II. The protagonist is a journalist.

Candidly, at page 55 I laid this book aside as not suiting my fancy, but picked it up again a couple of days later and wondered why I had not enjoyed it. It was headlong reading from that point on, and by t...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Linda Prieskorn rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved every word. Ben, the main character, has been given what he feels is a cowards assignment in WWII. Yanked out of pilots training days before earning his wings he is assigned to communications. His college football team had won national acclaim and at the onset of the war every member volunteered for service. Ben has been given the task of writing about each one of them and their assignments as the war progresses. The war stories he writes are entwined with football team lore and personal...more

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Sep 10, 2009 Alan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ben, the hero of this World War II drama, was a member of a Montana college football team that went undefeated in 1941. Because his father is a small town newspaper editor, he is plucked from pilot training to become a military reporter at the service of a shadowy but all-powerful propaganda outfit. His assignment is to write profiles in courage of all the other team members, now fighting the war in different theaters.

Ben also falls in love with Cass, the hard-bitten female pilot who is helping...more Ben, the hero of this World War II drama, was a member of a Montana college football team that went undefeated in 1941. Because his father is a small town newspaper editor, he is plucked from pilot training to become a military reporter at the service of a shadowy but all-powerful propaganda outfit. His assignment is to write profiles in courage of all the other team members, now fighting the war in different theaters.

Ben also falls in love with Cass, the hard-bitten female pilot who is helping fly planes from Montana to Alaska where they can be handed over to the Russian air force. Trouble is, Cass is married and her husband is busy somewhere in the Pacific fighting the Japanese.

The premise and set-up for this book are promising and the leading characters are engaging. One quickly starts rooting for Ben and Cass, who grab precious moments away from their assignments for energetic coupling. These scenes have a gritty "film noir" character that is very compelling.

(SPOILER ALERT) As Ben pursues his assignment, his teammates are afflicted by terrible luck. One by one, they start dying, even the ones with apparently safe assignments. We learn that at the heart of the winning season lay an awful secret. Is the dream team cursed?

It is completely unrealistic that the military would proceed with Ben's dumbass assignment once the deathtoll starts climbing. It would have been a morale-buster on the homefront. And Ben's smarty-pants correspondence through telex messages with his superiors started to with this reader cloy pretty quickly.

My biggest criticism of this book is that it doesn't bring us enough of the terror and also the exhilaration of war. My father was in World War II (see Guarded By Angels: How My Father And Uncle Survived Hitler And Cheated Stalin my memoir of his experiences.) The war scenes in this book don't feel real to me. Neither is Ben's grief convincing at the death of his teammates. The only one we really get to know is Jake, yet his death happens offstage and is tossed off as an afterthought. Ben is full of feeling for Cass -- yet is soul is full of emptiness for his football buddies.

It feels false, as if the author did not go deep enough. This book works well as a love story but falls short as a war story.(less)

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Jan 07, 2009 Audrey rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book has an interesting premise, but I'm finding it a bit of a challenge to keep reading. Ivan Doig is one of my favorite authors. I've thoroughly enjoyed other books I've read by him, so I'm determined to finish The Eleventh Man, although it will be in small increments.

I finally just finished The Eleventh Man. It took me a long time to read it, but I think it will become one of those books that I enjoy the story more after reading and reflecting on the book.

Basically, it is the story of...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a somewhat historical Fiction about the captain of a football team in Montana who enlists in the air force in WWII, only to be assigned as a journalist reporting on his fellow team mates, who all had enlisted in the war also. I found the story to be heartbreaking as each member found himself in different parts of the world fighting in a war truly world wide and awful. Ivan Doig's description of each conflict, ranging from the U.S. West Coast, the lend lease program with Russia, Guam and...more

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Jan 08, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 2 of 5 stars

Critics agree that Ivan Doig

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Mar 15, 2012 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm tempted by a 2.5, but not sure it's as low as a 2.

The key issue in the book, Why small population, Western states make the largest human sacrifices in wartime, might have been powerfully handled. And, Doig backs away. So, what might have been powerful, ends up weak.

Also, to rename places I know well, like CMR, Malmstrom, and other Great Falls locations, and turn them to imitations which are not particularly different, just changed in the most minor way, didn't work. I was very distracted b...more

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Jul 04, 2010 Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a human interest story about a group of high school seniors on a football in the 40's who have a perfect football season, Then they go off to fight WWII, One of the men has been assigned to report on the war activities of all the others. It doesn't sound too exciting but the main character is a compelling guy who is constantly questioning what the hell he's doing. Ivan Doig writes this story beautifully and if you stick with it, it will draw you in as the story unfolds about events befor...more

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Jan 28, 2010 Aaron rated it 3 of 5 stars

Here's the situation, if it had been possible to start this book smack dab in the middle, say page 200, I think I would have enjoyed this book a little bit more. Of course the book wouldn't make sense but I think you get the point I'm making.

Obviously this book started off a little rough for me. As always when I have this problem with books I come to the age old dilemma of "do I stop reading it, or carry on?" Well, if you've read some of my previous posts you know that I can't stand not finishin...more

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Dec 22, 2009 Julie marked it as abandoned

Not even Ivan Doig, WWII and female pilots can make American football interesting.

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Apr 06, 2013 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

3.5 star book. I enjoyed the writings of Ivan Doig, this being the first novel I have read by him. The fictionalized story of World War II and the links of old teammates now scattered throughout the theaters of war was a nice read and I enjoyed the detail, description and realism that was given. Overall the story was a good read and at times heavy and heartfelt but to me it wasn't very amazing and I found that then ending came very abruptly with, to me, almost no sense of real closure on behalf...more

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Apr 24, 2012 Jo Deurbrouck rated it 3 of 5 stars

Doig's 'This House of Sky' went off in my brain like a bomb some twenty-five years ago. Back then I didn't think I liked nonfiction. It was boring. And memoir equalled biography equalled 'shit you have to read in school.' And I especially didn't know that nonfiction prose could be as sculpted and lovely as poetry.

So 'The Eleventh Man' had a tough act to follow for me. As a writer of fiction Doig has never knocked my socks off. It has always felt to me as though he doesn't quite know how to get h...more

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Nov 18, 2009 Dianne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another wonderful book from Ivan Doig. This time, our hero is a war correspondent all over the Pacific and Europe in the period 1942-1944. He covers the assignments of all the members of his college football team, the Supreme Team, including the deaths of the fallen.

As usual, Doig gets inside the head of our main character very well. Yo have such a good sense of his experience as you read...from hometown visits to mom and dad, through an affair with a married pilot, to his remembrances of pre-wa...more

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Dec 04, 2008 Mary Etta marked it as to-read

Library
Foundation
582-2426
Paula Beswick,
Foundation Director
Library Publicity
and
Newsletter
The Library Book Club meets on Wednesday,
December 3 at 7:30 p.m. to discuss The Elev-
enth Man by Ivan Doig. Library Journal says,
“This inspiring World War II novel features a
large cast of skillfully drawn characters and
celebrates the many sacrifices made by
anonymous soldiers during the war; fans of
Doig will welcome his characteristic warmth
and generosity.” from Bozeman Public Library

Looks like...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Larry Hoffer rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm a big Ivan Doig fan, especially of his "English Creek" trilogy. But this book was different than his others--in my opinion, this read more like a movie. Ben Reinking is one of 11 starting players on a Montana college football team, and in the wake of WWII, the players are being used as a symbol of America's bravery, the "Supreme Team." Ben's orders are to cover the adventures of his teammates for local newspapers across the country. And while the book proceeds in much the way I expected, the...more

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Apr 18, 2011 Doug rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book appeared to have it all: football, Montana, World War II, a beautiful romantic interest for the leading man, and, most of all, Ivan Doig, who has long been one of my favorites. Yet somehow this book managed to fall a little bit short. The story just never really took off and engaged me in the same way that some of Doig's work has. The characters were a bit flat and lifeless, and the whole thing just never seemed to completely "work." Not a bad read, just not one of the finest from an a...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Realistic war scenes, intersperced with family drama, and desperate romance are all handled deftly and compellingly in this story of a Montana college's 1941 dream team, and their subsequent war experiences. Assigned by a war commission to tell the individual stories of his teammates, Ben quickly learns that the law of averages, that states that one of the team will not make it, is soon to be blown to smithereens. A touching tale of war, with characters drawn with 60 year ago sensibilities, and...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Kani rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really like Ivan Doig's writing. This must be my 7th or 8th book by him & I love his simple stories & descriptive narrative of the country he obviously loves. This one is an anti-war story about WWII as experienced by a football team who were champions & all went to war. Armed with statistics, love affairs & little known true stories of women pilots & Montana's war dead, this book takes you in & holds you there: like being underwater until you can't stand it anymore! Lu...more

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May 25, 2011 Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ben Reinking was part of the Supreme Team – a small Montana University football team that had a perfect season in 1941. Each member enlisted in to serve in World War II. Even conscientious objector, Dex, did his part to serve on the home front. Ben is assigned to Threshold Press War Project, or TeePee Weepy, to cover the Supreme Team and how they served. One by one, the Supreme Team defies the law of averages and the members fall. Ben continues to survive through Guam and the Battle of the Bulge...more

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Feb 06, 2009 Lucy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sometimes, I know exactly how I'll review a book and can hardly wait to get my thoughts down. Other times, like, this time in particular, a book is so lost in that foggy middle between good and bad, that my thoughts never seem articulate. I've avoided writing about The Eleventh Man, by Ivan Doig, for over a month now. I've got eight books dammed up behind it, waiting their turn for review.

I grew up looking at Ivan Doig titles in my parent's living room. Surprisingly, it wasn't until a few years...more Sometimes, I know exactly how I'll review a book and can hardly wait to get my thoughts down. Other times, like, this time in particular, a book is so lost in that foggy middle between good and bad, that my thoughts never seem articulate. I've avoided writing about The Eleventh Man, by Ivan Doig, for over a month now. I've got eight books dammed up behind it, waiting their turn for review.

I grew up looking at Ivan Doig titles in my parent's living room. Surprisingly, it wasn't until a few years ago that I finally read the first of his Montana trilogy, Dancing At The Rascal Fair. That experience taught me that Doig is in no hurry to entertain his readers. Rather, a lot like growing up in Montana, he rewards those who endure.

With this in mind, I began The Eleventh Man, Doig's latest novel. Ben Reinking grew up understanding how the world of journalism worked as his father owned the local paper in Gros Ventre, Montana. With a degree in journalism from Treasure State University, where he was also a member of "The Supreme Team" 1941 championship football team, he enlists in the armed forces as a pilot. Before he is finished with his training, however, he is given an assignment a war correspondent for the Threshold Press War Project. When the war department learns that the entire eleven members of "The Supreme Team" are enlisted in the war, they propagandize the situation into a opportunity to create war heroes. Ben travels around, visiting his old teammates where they are serving and writes a regular column, spinning tales of bravery and American pride. While waiting for his different travel assignments, he spends his time at East Base outside of Great Falls, Montana. There, he falls in love with Cass Standish, a married female pilot in the Women's Airforce Service Pilot (WASP. There really were female pilots. I had no idea!)

When his columns turn into obituaries as teammate after teammate falls, Ben is forced into understanding that nothing is fair in love and war.

An interesting enough look at WWII, but there is something almost too planned about this book to make it satisfying. It's almost as if I could see his brainstorm page lying somewhere on a table - "I'll have one guy serving in Italy. This guy in the Pacific. Another one in London and another storming Normandy. I need a few to be stuck in the states to highlight what went on here, though. I know...I'll put one guy in the coast guard and another will be stuck flying back and forth to Alaska where I can write up the Russia angle. To tie them all together, I'll make them all old friends....no...teammates! Even better. And one will know what's going on with everyone else and he'll mainly be in Montana so I can still write about the area I know best!" A jaded opinion, but it felt that way.

If you love all things WWII, then you'd probably enjoy this book as well. If not, then read Doig's other books instead. They're better.(less)

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Jan 30, 2009 Sandy T rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, historical-fiction, wwii-era

After absolutely loving The Whistling Season, I was anxious to read Ivan Doig's latest book. It sounded interesting: After a championship season in the 1940's, eleven college football players enlist in the service following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. One of them is chosen to be a war correspondent and is assigned to follow the stories of each of his teammates throughout the war.
I almost quit this book I don't know how many times. I just kept thinking it was a dud. Too much war and football--su...more

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Jul 16, 2009 Alden rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-authors-i-have-interviewed

Since the publication of his beautiful memoir of growing up in Montana, The House of Sky (1979), Ivan Doig has been hailed as a great Western writer. That reputation was burnished by the publication of his marvelous Montana trilogy, English Creek (1984), Dancing at the Rascal Fair (1987) and Ride With Me, Mariah Montana (1990), which masterfully portrays the lives of four generations of the McCaskill family in Two Medicine country, Doig's lovingly invented landscape near the Rockies in Montana.

B...more

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Dec 05, 2009 Katherine rated it 3 of 5 stars

When I lived in the Pacific Northwest Ivan Doig was one of the best known of the region's authors. I liked some of his early books a lot then lost interest. His latest book is about war and football - not two of my favorite subjects and I have to say drew me in. It seemed a bit far fetched as one after another of the team was killed but according to the acknowledgments this actually happened to at least one starting team and Montana had much more than it's share of casualties in both world wars....more

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Oct 17, 2012 Suzanne Vincent rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: didn-t-finish

Very nice writing, but it just didn't suck me in. I did not finish it.

I mean, it starts with a bus ride in which the main character spends the entire time musing. And while I'm on this bus with him, I'm thinking of all the things I could be doing on a long bus ride OTHER than musing.

Not a good start.

I gave it about 40 pages. That's all I could do. Every time I looked at the book I'd think of something else I'd rather be or should be doing.

Not a good sign.

I chalk it up to a lack of in-depth char...more

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Dec 02, 2008 Maria rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-fiction

One of those books that makes you sad to be finished when you turn the last page. Full of great info about WWII that I never knew, including the WASPs (women pilots who flew planes for the US military in non-combat roles). I only had one quibble: it tied up a little too neatly at the end, sort of like a 1940s black & white movie. Appropriate, I guess, but I expected something a little more complex. I'm definitely going to read more of this author's work.

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Feb 13, 2013 Deon Stonehouse rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-in-montana-wyoming-colorado, books-set-in-germany, books-set-in-canada, books-set-in-pacific-northwest, books-set-in-oregon, books-set-in-se-asia, great-writing-general-fiction, historic-fiction, wwii

The Eleventh Man centers on the members of an undefeated Montana college football team. They end up in different branches of the service.. Ben is plucked out of the fighting by the war department to follow the exploits of his teammates. TPWP, the propaganda machine for WWII, thinks it would be a fine idea to release stories about the legendary undefeated teammates. Ben is the most qualified to write the series, his Dad is a newspaperman. He zips around the globe from the Washington coast to Guam...more

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About Ivan Doig

Ivan Doig was born in White Sulphur Springs, Montana to a family of homesteaders and ranch hands. After the death of his mother Berneta, on his sixth birthday, he was raised by his father Charles "Charlie" Doig and his grandmother Elizabeth "Bessie" Ringer. After several stints on ranches, they moved to Dupuyer, Pondera County, Montana in the north to herd sheep close to the Rocky Mountain Front.

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“Every soldier in the course of time exists only in the breath of written word.” — 2 people liked it

“The nature of love is that it catches you off-guard, subjects you to rules you have never faced, some of them contradictory.” — 2 people liked it

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The Eleventh Man (Two Medicine Country #8)

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