Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization

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jraoul, September 1, 2011 (view all comments by jraoul)
Nicholson Baker's no stranger to controversy. Although his first couple of books were modestly well received, he made a much bigger splash with Vox and The Fermata, both mixing explicit sexuality with finely crafted prose and high concepts you'd never find in a paperback smut novel. Since then his career has continued to careen all over the map, from The Anthologist, a poetry primer disguised as a novel, to Double Fold, a non-fiction diatribe lamenting the decline of the modern library.

In Human Smoke, Baker recombines his many varied skills in yet another configuration. It's non-fiction, yes, but it reads like a novel, almost like one of Vonnegut's later works: four or five interlocking narrative threads, each told in short chapters, often just paragraphs. And his penchant for stirring up trouble is in full force: I believe his premise could be loosely paraphrased as "Yeah, Hitler was a schmuck, but so were Churchill and Roosevelt." He contends that World War II was avoidable, that all the high-minded justifications offered for it were smoke and mirrors (and offers specific examples where opportunities for real humanitarianism were missed, deliberately ignored, or bafflingly and tragically sabotaged), and that all the principals involved were dead set on a major -- and profitable -- military operation.

Of course, this view has not sat well with any number of parties, and a debate has raged in the pages of literary and political journals. But I feel that Baker makes a strong case, and his brave and unswerving commitment to pacifism in the face of such scorn deserves to be heard.

Oh, and don't confuse this book with his more recent House of Holes, which I haven't read yet but looks like a return to the explorations he began with Vox and Fermata.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9781416572466

Author:

Baker, Nicholson

Publisher:

Simon & Schuster

Subject:

Military - World War II

Subject:

Modern - 20th Century

Subject:

World War, 1939-1945 -- Causes.

Subject:

Jews - Persecutions - Europe - History -

Subject:

Military-World War II General

Copyright:

2009

Edition Description:

Trade paper

Publication Date:

20090331

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Pages:

576

Dimensions:

9.25 x 6.125 in