A Soldiers Song: True Stories From The Falklands in Around the World in 80 Books

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Feb 25, 2015 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: military-non-fiction, falklands

This is an odd little book. There are probably some that won't like Mr Lukowiak's style (good old English name, wot?) or his irreverent and unorthodox attitude toward the military and war. In my opinion, this is either the best or worst military memoir I've read. I'm going to lean toward best because, once started, I could not put this book down.

At the time of the incidents referred to in the book, Lukowiak was a Private in 2 Para. He relates, more or less lucidly, his involvement in the Falklan This is an odd little book. There are probably some that won't like Mr Lukowiak's style (good old English name, wot?) or his irreverent and unorthodox attitude toward the military and war. In my opinion, this is either the best or worst military memoir I've read. I'm going to lean toward best because, once started, I could not put this book down.

At the time of the incidents referred to in the book, Lukowiak was a Private in 2 Para. He relates, more or less lucidly, his involvement in the Falklands conflict from the time that the news of the Argentinian invasion hit the telly right up to the time he disembarks on his return home. And although he unavoidably mentions incidents of armed conflict, this is no armchair general's adventure-type war story: this book is decidedly and profanely anti-war.

Lukowiak's sentences are short and crisp, and his chapters are brief and to the point, often a couple of pages in length. He shifts back and forth chronologically, but leaves one thinking that this is more the result of "fog of war" rather than carelessness on the part of the author. He manages to get the story told quite efficiently and, I believe, as truthfully as the limitations of human memory permit. He tries to relate the effect of the war on himself, and how it affected him in later years. (He didn't write the book until 10 years after the war.) Everything is related to the reader in simple terms, no dictionary required, with the possible exception of a British to English dictionary.

Surprisingly, this book about morbid topics is hilarious! Lukowiak has a dry and sarcastic sense of humor that had me laughing out loud, and I mean that literally. The chapter describing a sniper duel entitled Maggie's Insane, Organic Killer was particularly side-splitting. In the end, though, Lukowiak's humor serves to emphasize his underlying point: war is a wasteful and hypocritical endeavor best avoided if at all possible. If you want a war book that is unlike the majority of the military histories out there, I heartily endorse this one.

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Aug 18, 2018 Terri rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: world-history, memoir-general, military-history, british-history, argentinian-history, british-falklands-war-history, military-leader-biographies

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Around the World in 80 Books