The End of It: A Novel

by Mitchell Goodman

Mitchell Goodman re-creates the italian campaign of the Second World War through the eys of an American artillary lieutenant who acts as a Virgil-like guide to the innermost idiocies of war. The Lieutenant, recognizing that he is merely a part of the huge war machine that America has constructed and sent to Europe, finds unexpected inspiration through his encounters with the Italian people and the Italian he discovers that he no longer knows what his own country is, what it thinks, or what its soldiers are fighting for. In probing the Lietenant's doubt, Goodman paints a moving, disturbing landscape of man at his most destructive and most elemental

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

287 pages, Hardcover

Published January 24, 2018

Reviews

[Genevra De Mond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although a novel, it seems to thoroughly bring to mind my experiences with G.I.s and their thinking about going to war. This takes place during WWII, and my experience has been with Vietnam soldiers, but the excitement about the big machines, even the killing and how the military is just like a huge corporation are all similiar, I assume, in any war. The fact that the government has to brainwash their soldiers to dislike everything about their enemies. This book is written in a third person narrative, following the Lieutenant very closely. Takes him from the beginning where he is excited to join the war effort to the end, where is thinking about killing have certainly changed.
Incidently, having just read the book, I googled the author and discovered he just died yesterday, when I finished the book. He was an active anti-war protest leader during the Vietnam war.

[Destiny Dawn Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

The language and imagery that Goodman used is powerful, evocative, and beautiful. The prose is highly poetic, without becoming pretentious and unreadable, which so often happens. Perhaps most impressively, he manages to marry the political novel with the poetic novel without losing the power of either.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young, American, artillery officer is unhinged when he witnesses an artillery strike he's called in on a German position. This book is about his coming back to life amid the history, the culture, and the people of Italy. It is as powerful an indictment of war as it is because it offers not one overt condemnation.