Company K

William March's Company K is one of the original World War I accounts; published in 1933, it tells the story of the war from the viewpoint of all 113 men in Company K. And while Company K is fictional, the author March (a pen name for William Edward Campbell), served heroically in the war, earning such such distinctions as the Croix de Guerre, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Navy Cross. From the writing, there can be no doubt that March has been on intimate terms with the war, as well as how it feels to return from the fighting.

Unlike such classics as All Quiet on the Western Front or Over the Top where a single perspective dominates, the story here is entirely balanced; some men recount their piece in a few pages, others in only two or three paragraphs, all woven together in a single narrative. The result is that the reader doesn't have an opportunity to know any man individually, to feel any great attachment to him, to think of him as anything other than one more cog in the great wheel of war. The war, then, dominates, becoming the main actor - the mud, the blood, the misery. The effect is altogether powerful - and powerfully disconcerting.

Because of the style and organization of Company K, I found it interesting. Somehow, even though the subject matter is dark and heavy, the style was so refreshing that it felt like a "break" from so many of the incredibly long (and also war focused) books I've completed recently, from Shogun to North and South.

World War I buffs would have the greatest interest in this book, along with those who are looking for something different, or something from another era.