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The Winds of War, by Herman WoukHerman Wouk, bibliography (selected works)
Selected awards
  sequel, War and Remembrance, are among the very best. The Winds of War is has been acclaimed by critics and readers for generations as one of the best books about World War II ever written.
The tale begins in 1939. The Nazis have taken Czechoslovakia and are now building up their forces and preparing for war. It is six months before Germany's invasion of Poland In the book we follow U.S. Naval Commander Victor “Pug” Henry and his family. Commander Henry has just been assigned to Germany as a Naval Attaché. He is joined in Berlin by his Rhoda. They have three grown children, Warren, Byron and Madeline. We follow them all, in their diverse roles and occupations, as they are each drawn into that horrendous whirlwind that was the Second World War, and which affected everyone in ways large and small. Victor Henry has great analytical skills. On the basis of his observations in Berlin, Pug correctly predicted the alliance between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. That brought him to the attention of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and cleared the way for Pug to become President Roosevelt's behind-the-scenes observer. And in the book, we follow him as he carries out observation missions on direct orders from President Roosevelt. His travels bring him to London, Moscow, Rome, Washington, and Pearl Harbor. Mixed into the text are “excerpts” from a book written by one of the book's characters, German general Armin von Roon, written while he was in prison for war crimes. Coming across the German version, a retired Victor Henry “translates” the volume in 1965. Through the family, and especially Henry Pug James, we experience the war – both viewed from a strategic and executive perspective, and as it affected the lives of ordinary people in so many ways. For instance, we witness the major political plays and learn to understand the arguments underlying the various political moves and maneuvers preceding the American entry into the war. It is all here – all the behind-the-scenes diplomacy, the spying, and the analyses, from the point of view of Pug – which is a pretty well-informed point of view – and occationally that of a German general, Armin Von Roon. The Winds of War has it all - the rumors, the uncertainties, the ambitions of the major players as well as betrayal, loyalty, tragedy, and love – all integrated into a masterful and truly brilliant novel. This novel has been hailed by critics as “grandiose,” “hypnotically readable,” “panoramic,” “kinetic” and “absorbing.” It is all of that. And more. It is almost 900 pages long, but it still felt as if ended much too soon. Herman Wouk makes history come alive. The Winds of War is simply one of the best historical fiction books written. War and Remembrance, by Herman WoukThe Winds of War (1971) told the story of the extended family of Captain Victor “Pug” Henry up to and including the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  Captain Henry, is a military man, to some extent a scholar, a translator, and an advisor to Franklin Roosevelt and other statesmen. War and Remembrance picks up the story seamlessly from The Winds of War. Together these two wonderful, epic works capture the tide of world events even as they unfold. It covers the period from after Pearl through the surrender of Japan in August 1945.
The very compelling tale of the Henry family, a North American family drawn into the very center of the war maelstrom, is a clever device for telling the story of World War II. The books capture the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of the Second World War better than any of books I know of. Herman Wouk is an exceptional writer. Wouk’s characters are real men and women – not larger than life as we find them in many historical novels. They live, breath and sometimes die. Wouk manages to cover virtually every aspect of the struggle for world dominance that World War Two was. We follow Victor "Pug" Henry, a stoic Navy captain; his duty-bound son Warren, a Navy flyer in the Pacific; his formerly wayward son Byron, a submarine officer who marries the Jewish woman Natalie Jastrow in Europe. And we follow the Jewish Jastrow family and see – perhaps experience – the hardships of Jews in Europe, as well as the Holocaust – with their eyes. And using a fictional memoir of an imprisoned German officer, Wouk also lets us see the war from the German perspective. Some of the reading is very chilling. Wouk's stunning descriptions of Auschwitz and the “relocation plans” for Jews throughout Europe are the most realistic and engrossing descriptions of the Holocaust I have ever encountered. The book is long and huge. Over one thousand dense pages. But I have rarely read a historical tale so moving, gripping and engrossing. At the same time it is very educational – I thought I knew a lot about the war but War and Remembrance told me how little I knew. And what a way to learn history! In a great, exceptionally well written and exciting book like this. I am glad these books were recommended to me. The are both rare gems. Perhaps War and Remembrance even more so than The Winds of War. They are based on exceptional historical research, have finely developed characters and intriguing subplots – all wrapped in a compelling language and told with great compassion by a master story teller. A very, very satisfying read, and one which touched me deeply.
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