Not So Wild a Dream

A difficult story to read at times but unable to put it aside without finishing it. Its not one you can read in a short time but continue to again pick it up and start reading again till you finish. Highly recommended.

Eric Sevareid (1912 - 1992) was a third generation Norwegian-American born and raised in a small town in northern North Dakota. His book of memoirs Not So Wild a Dream, published in 1947, is mostly about an action-filled 15 year period from high school graduation in 1930 (age 17) to the end of World War II (age 32). During that time Sevareid professionally and personally went through a number of adventures that typify his "Greatest Generation" and events of the world at large.Sevareid was one of the pioneering "Morrow Boys", a team of radio journalists who filed daily radio journalistic pieces from Europe during the war. This allowed him to travel to many places and get up close to the front and fighting. Sevareid is at his best narrating his adventures, the book is episodic and some of the best include: Bombings in London during the Battle of Britain; the plane wreck while going over "the hump" into China; his experiences in Paris during the "phony war" and "Exodus"; the horrors of war on the Italian front; the D-Day invasion and subsequent Battle of the Rhine; the mutiny on-board a Liberty Ship in NY harbor. His accounts of the Great Depression, when he tramped around as a hobo on a train are really excellent, as is his description of a 2500 mile canoe trip, which is covered in more detail in his 1935 book Canoing with the Cree. These two books, written while still a young man, would be his most popular, and last real literary output - although he always considered himself a writer first, most of his later career was on television..Sevareid was known for writing "think pieces", for example in one transcript, aired late in the war to popular acclaim, he talks about the unknowability of the experience of combat for a soldier, the impossibility of words to describe the immediate and often irrational emotions and thoughts of a soldier. These "think pieces" became a trademark of his later in life as a TV reporter, and Not So Wild a Dream often goes off on a thinking tangent. If there is a theme to the book, Sevareid is seeking the essence and spirit of his time and generation, what we might call the "Zeitgeist", and he often comes very close to capturing the immediate feeling of change. It is why this book is so important as a primary source for documenting the times and his generation. One of the more profound moments for me is when he sees a change in his generations attitude towards war: "Our own men, whose cult was antimilitarism [in the 1930s students were highly anti-military], whose habit is to identify themselves merely as civilians in different cloths who detested soldiering, now subtly changed. There was a dash and verve about them that I had rarely observed before, and young boys would frankly say: "In Italy all i used to think about was going home. Now I kinda hate to quit before we get to Berlin." It was if they suddenly realized they were soldiers by profession, with the honest desire to complete this masterpiece of their skill down to the last detail."Sevareid is right, during WWII the American military went from a small and and unpopular enterprise to a large beast that to this day is a major force in American culture, the consequences of which Eisenhower predicted in his military-industrial complex speech. Another area Sevareid muses on is the waning power of Britain and the ascending power of the USA - which given the events post-Cold War and the "Rise of the Rest" of the world, also has a prophetic tone. To get an idea what the US will be like as it becomes less relevant in the world - with the rise of China, India and the rest - one only has to read Sevareid's account of the waning power of Britain in the last chapters of the book.

Overall it was worthwhile to read but as it got past the halfway point the book became repeatedly insensitive to the realities of war as he felt necessary more and more backhanded criticisms of American leaders, culture, and even the soldiers. He led an interesting life up thru the war years and some of his exploits were captivating. Mostly however the interesting stories were about his personal struggles versus his take on matters around him. One came away with the impression that the politicians and war managers of the times felt he was a threat to the goals of the war and they placed him away from the main (relatively) battles and out of the way to keep him occupied and quite (without impact) (Burma and Italy). He seemed to want to tell the readers why whatever opinion he had was the correct one. It was not enough to portray opposing viewpoints, he seemed to have to denigrate opposing views and criticize and several times to self-declare that he was right and they were wrong. It came across as self-serving. His early years and struggles were interesting stories of growing into manhood. Quite incredible tales of hiking. Some stories about his reporting years were interesting (when the airplane went down and survival), yet others were bizarre and head scratching: going to Mount Vesuvius during a volcanic eruption, What was the point!. It also came across that he focused too many times on the minority of events and situations versus the majority without making that distinction thus leading many readers in a misguided direction. He didn’t seem to recognize that sometimes decisions, leaders, strategy were not the optimal but this was a war not a controlled situation. The reader often times comes away thinking that the author didn’t understand the relativeness of war and situations and the concept of the lesser of two evils that war very often represents. He seemed to want to emphasize the things that may not have been representative and likely were not. Sometimes he came across as being vicious in characterizations. Many times he demeaned woman repeatedly referring to them as whores and essentially looking down on them, however when he came across one military man who frequented a certain woman he relayed a made up story to not only discredit the man but he tried to mock the man. He later laughably stated he knew the story to be true because “the whore” told him so. One of the authors weaker moments. In the end it was refreshing to be done with the book. Fortunately it was very near the end of the book that he insulted and dis credited and tried to take away the dignity of the soldiers and their families when he wrote that the soldiers were actually slaves. This is not a book you want to pay full price for however.