MY WAR

by Andy Rooney

Hardcover, 2000

Status

Available

Call number

940.54

Genres

Biography & Memoir

General Nonfiction

History

Collection

Your library

Publication

PublicAffairs (2000), Edition: 1st PublicAffairs ed, 333 pages

Description

My War is a blunt, funny, idiosyncratic account of Andy Rooney's World War II. As a young, naïve correspondent for The Stars and Stripes, Rooney flew bomber missions, arrived in France during the D-Day invasion, crossed the Rhine with the Allied forces, traveled to Paris for the Liberation, and was one of the first reporters into Buchenwald. Like so many of his generation, Rooney's life was changed forever by the war. He saw life at the extremes of human experience, and wrote about what he observed, making it real to millions of men and women. My War is the story of an inexperienced kid learning the craft of journalism. It is by turns moving, suspenseful, and reflective. And Rooney's unmistakable voice shines through on every page.

User reviews

LibraryThing member TimBazzett

Lately I've been reading stories about war, an unfortunate constant of human history, I'm afraid. Tales about WWII, or "The Last Good War" (a book I read many years ago), as Studs Terkel called it, abound, but I especailly recommend this one. My War, by Andy Rooney (yep, the same bushy-eyebrowed

old grump you see on 60 Minutes every week), is a true gem, full of his homespun self-deprecating bits of humor and wisdom, along with the expected grim and grisly stories about the carnage that is war. As to the importance of his wartime experience, Rooney says right up front, "My life was never the same again." As a young reporter (his army ID photo looks startlingly like Audie Murphy, who of course penned his own memoir, To Hell and Back) for The Stars and Stripes, Rooney got up close and personal with both the air and ground wars in Europe, and also traveled to India and China, rubbing shoulders with Ernie Pyle, Bill Mauldin and Walter Cronkite. One particular line from the book has stayed with me: "I laugh, bitterly, when I hear the phrase, 'He gave his life for his country.' No one gives his life. His life is taken." Rooney is a newspaperman and a reporter, but more than anything else he is a damn fine writer who simply tells it like he sees it. - Tim Bazzett, author of Soldier Boy and Love, War & Polio

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LibraryThing member meegeekai

I like Andy Rooney and found this interesting. Great 3rd person, objective view of the war.

LibraryThing member MrDickie

Andy Rooney was a Sergeant during World War II. He was detailed to the military newspaper, The Stars and Stripes. He reported from England, France and Germany. At the end of the war he spent a short time reporting from India and Burma. He reported the events when our forces captured the bridge at

Remagen and crossed the Rhine. I enjoyed reading his impressions of Ernest Hemingway, other reporters and some of the high ranking United States officers. He often comments on how people he met during the war made their livings afterwards.

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LibraryThing member Reimerra

You have to like his snarky, crotchety style to really enjoy this book. He relates an event where, as a member of a 155mm howitzer load crew during training in England, he disobeys orders from the artillery officer. He deliberately loads incorrect numbers of powder charges into the breech to ensure

that the shell misses it's target. Thus, the gun crew's inaccurate performace would reflect poorly on the officer he did't like and somehow damage this officer's reputation with the command staff. Andy seemed to find this incident humorous and crowed about it for a bit. As a veteran, I found this to be unconscionable especially under war time conditions. Nothing remotely amusing about it at all. This really jaundiced the rest of the book for me.

His experiences were real, many dangerous but his opinionated writing style wore me down. I couldn't wait to close the cover.

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LibraryThing member kslade

Good account of war days of an army reporter. Some editorializing about war and people. Worthwhile.

LibraryThing member dsha67

Any Rooney's My War was a short memoir which focuses on Andy Rooney's time in the Army in World War II, where he was assigned to Stars and Stripes. A Short read including the afterword 278 pages. A nice 3.5 star read of time in Europe the events he was part of D-Day, the Liberation of Paris, the

crossing at Remagen and his entry into a concentration camp.

A personal account which appears very truthful and honest if his journey including both his successes and perceived failures and the paths of some of the other great deployed journalist of the day. I would not place this at the top of the pile but a worthy addition to the literature to an observer of World War II from England to the end of the war.

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