Review of 'To the White Sea (Delta World War II Library)' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
When the critic Leon Rooke reviewed To the White Sea in 1993, he said of [a:James Dickey|31457|James Dickey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1422858070p2/31457.jpg] "Although he labors mightily to persuade us, it will be hard for most readers to view this misdirected novel as a significant morality tale."
True, perhaps. The narrator, an Air Force tail gunner who bailed out over Tokyo during the war, kills thirteen people as he wends his way to Hokkaido, Japan's northern island, where the cold climate and terrain will make him feel as though he's home in Alaska, where he grew up. Muldrow is not a likeable character; he kills more often than necessary and had done so before in the States in a way more like that of a serial killer. There have been cases of men enlisting to serve in the military to satisfy their blood lust more than their desire to defend their country.
In the novel's …
When the critic Leon Rooke reviewed To the White Sea in 1993, he said of [a:James Dickey|31457|James Dickey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1422858070p2/31457.jpg] "Although he labors mightily to persuade us, it will be hard for most readers to view this misdirected novel as a significant morality tale."
True, perhaps. The narrator, an Air Force tail gunner who bailed out over Tokyo during the war, kills thirteen people as he wends his way to Hokkaido, Japan's northern island, where the cold climate and terrain will make him feel as though he's home in Alaska, where he grew up. Muldrow is not a likeable character; he kills more often than necessary and had done so before in the States in a way more like that of a serial killer. There have been cases of men enlisting to serve in the military to satisfy their blood lust more than their desire to defend their country.
In the novel's defense, though, it goes fast with simple, declarative sentences that propel the action forward. Dickey, who died in 1997, was appointed the eighteenth United States Poet Laureate in 1966. There is some fine writing and imagery in To the White Sea, though some of it was lost on me, like a recurring description of deer heads.