My Two Wars: with an introduction by Page Stegner - Softcover
Moritz Thomsen’s My Two Wars describes the great battles in his life – one against a rich, tyrannical father; the other against anti-aircraft gunners over Germany in 1943 and 1944. It was completed shortly before Thomsen’s death, and with it he concluded the story of his unusual life. In this posthumously published masterpiece he returns to his youth growing up in a wealthy Seattle household with the father he despised, and goes off to war in Europe as a bombardier with the Eighth Air Force. In his introduction Page Stegner calls it “the best narrative account ever written of an imperfect and fragile human soul caught up in the air war over Germany.”
But it is Thomsen’s other war – his lifelong and monumental battle with his father – which begins and ends the book and makes My Two Wars one of the most outrageous and memorable father-and-son stories ever told.
But it is Thomsen’s other war – his lifelong and monumental battle with his father – which begins and ends the book and makes My Two Wars one of the most outrageous and memorable father-and-son stories ever told.
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Review:
Moritz Thomsen was born into a wealthy American family in Hollywood in 1915, but spent the last decades of his life living a mong the poor in Ecuador. He became known as a good writer with a small and devoted following. He passed away in 1993, but left behind this moving autobiography which focuses on the two colossal struggles of his life: one against a tyrannical father while seeking to escape his family and become a writer; the other against Hitler's Germany while serving as a bombardier on a B-17 of the fabled Eight Air Force. My Two Wars is an unusual and remarkable book, very much the reflection of an irascible but oddly charming man.
From the Back Cover:
"I read My Two Wars in an elegiac mood. It's sad to think it's the last new work to be read by Moritz Thomsen... I've come away from each of his other four books feeling exhilarated -- not because of what happens in them, but because the writing is so good." -- Larry McMurtry
Moritz Thomsen's My Two Wars describes the great battles in his life - one against a rich, tyrannical father; the other against anti-aircraft gunners over Germany in 1943 and 1944. Thomsen was a gifted and original writer and a genuine American rebel. In his late-forties, he cast his lot with the poor, joined the Peace Corps, and was sent to Ecuador where he lived as an expatriate for the next twenty-eight years and chronicled his life in four remarkable books that have been compared with the work of Thoreau and Joseph Conrad. My Two Wars was completed shortly before Thomsen's death, and with it he concluded the story of his unusual life. In this final book he returns to his youth growing up in a wealthy Seattle household with the father he despised, and goes off to the war in Europe as a bombardier with the Eighth Air Force. Thomsen's writing about the war evokes Joseph Heller's famous novel in its poignancy and hilarity, and in his introduction Page Stegner calls it "the best narrative account ever written of an imperfect and fragile human soul caught up in the air war over Germany". But it is Thomsen's other war - his lifelong and monumental battle with his father - which begins and ends the book and makes My Two Wars one of the most outrageous and memorable father-andson stories ever told. Even late in his life, long after his father's death, Thomsen can lament: "I begin to write about him and find my body trembling with fifty year old angers. Old emotions still cramp my fingers; old injustices still march through my dreams".
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- PublisherSteerforth
- Publication date2007
- ISBN 10 1586421476
- ISBN 13 9781586421472
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages336
- Rating
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