Memo to writers: Don't send a publisher your document backup file. They might publish it.

That's the only explanation I can think of for one of the oddest characteristics of this book: the fact that parts of it are repeated with variations. Take this example on pages 12 and 13:

Churchill pressed Roosevelt harder to act immediately. The situation was becoming more urgent because the Germans had gained the entire French coastline from which they could launch U-boat and air attacks on the United Kingdom and on the desperately needed convoys coming from America. In the last ten days of July....

That's from page 12. Five paragraphs later, we read on page 13 that:

Churchill pressed Roosevelt to act immediately. The issue had become more urgent because the Germans had gained the entire French coastline from which they could launch U-boat and air attacks on the United Kingdom and on the desperately needed convoys coming from America. In the last ten days of July....

Not the same text, quite, but very nearly, and with no additional information in either version. It's just a repetition with variation. One way to fill out a book, I suppose -- but a good way to either bore a reader or drive the reader nuts.

Most of the book isn't that messed up, but it still drove me half bonkers. It's full of staccato sections with a Big Blaring Headline ("England too Weak to Repel Germans"; "Fishermen Solve American Problem"; "Unprepared") followed by a very short section that doesn't really demonstrate the point. It's very choppy; it makes it hard to concentrate.

And there is no index. Authors, I don't care if you're writing pop history (which this clearly is); even pop history needs an index! Sometimes we need to go back and figure out who you're talking about.

And then there are the crazy ideas. Germany invading Newfoundland? Sure, there were staff plans for everything -- that's what a staff college is for. And, yes, it would have been easy to occupy Newfoundland if the troops could get there; there were no defenses until the Americans moved in. But the only way the Germans could have gotten the troops there was by knocking Great Britain out of the war (since it blocked the sea lanes they would have needed to supply the invaders) -- and if they'd knocked Great Britain out of the war, then why bother invading Newfoundland, which was not known to have any natural resources Germany needed? Sure, the idea of a German invasion would have stirred up the Newfoundlanders, and no doubt made great propaganda, but there is too much time spent on it.

And the skipper of the submarine that sank the coastal ferry Caribou was not "Captain Ubric Graf"; he was Oberleutnant Ulrich Graf.

I write way too many cranky reviews. I don't like sloppiness! There is some good and interesting stuff here -- Jack Fitzgerald talked to some of the Newfoundlanders who fought in the Second World War, and tells their stories here. If you want those sorts of tales, you may find something you like in this book. But, whatever you do, don't trust it!… (mer)