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Location: United States

Member Since: July 06, 2013

John Conlin

Smashwords book reviews by John Conlin

Lingering Casualties of Love and War on Nov. 26, 2013

Lingering Casualties of Love and War is a horrifying, compelling and mind blowing book that won't be forgotten by anyone who reads it. It is the story of a Nazi officer named Franz Clough who leaves Germany with his pregnant wife at the end of World War II to begin a new life in Argentina and escape retribution from the allies. He is not an evil man, but he does a lot of evil things. The book shows how this can be true, as it undoubtedly was for other Nazis that survived the war and then went into hiding. This is an important book that should be read. It is a good read, and it tells a story that needs to be told about how human beings can lose everything, and do terrible things, but still retain at least some of their humanity. The story begins in 1943 in Hamburg, as the city is bombed mercilessly, and is eventually enveloped in a firestorm of unimaginable horror. Yes, the Germans deserved what they got, but you can't help but feel for them as they and there city is destroyed. Men, women, children, dogs, cats and everything else is swept away as the city burns and they are immolated…and then things get really bad! I happened to watch the incredible Russian movie "Come and See" while reading this book. That movie, which I also highly recommend, tells the true story of Belarus (part of the USSR), and the 600+ villages that the Nazis burned to the ground, along with the residents of those cities. The movie is horrific, and a must see for anyone who cares about what happened in World War II, which should be everyone. The book depicts a lot of violence and inhumane acts and having just seen that movie added to my imagination as I read the many vividly depicted scenes of savagery. Franz Clough loses his wife on the voyage to Argentina, but his new son is saved, and now he must make a life for them. He is setup as a pimp, and given a new identity and a new life, which he dedicates himself to in order to provide for his son, who is his main reason for living. He grieves for his wife, but his new life and occupation eat away at his humanity, and he does many terrible things as he becomes a pimp and runs a brothel staffed by women of a wide variety of ethnicities, including a lot of Jewish women forced into prostitution. Some of the characters are quite memorable, and the many prostitutes that the book depicts are certainly a motley bunch of women who have been forced to sell their bodies to survive. Franz does well as a pimp, and falls very far as a human being as he builds up his business. Much of what is described must have been what it was really like in that country at that time, with Nazis who now had to build a new life anyway they could. At one point Franz brokers a deal invoking stolen uranium, and becomes very wealthy. But by this time he has become addicted to his life as a pimp, and it consumes him. Numerous whores, pimps, corrupt police and other characters run the gamut of human behavior as Franz lives out his life and his son grows up. There are times in the book where the author uses expressions that I believe are not totally in sync with the way people talked back then, but this does not detract from the story. Franz becomes a character that the reader will like, despite his many despicable acts that he resorts to as he attends to his business as a pimp. The book will make the reader ask themselves what would they have done? At times the book is difficult to take because of the unrelenting violence and inhumane acts, but it vividly tells a story that will leave the reader with an unforgettable memory and mental picture of what it must have really been like for the people that survived the great war and had to make new lives for themselves away from their home country. These are stories that must be told and must be read. We must never forget the people who lived through the war, and their stories must be told. This book does just that, and I highly recommend it to anyone that cares about the lives of others, and why people can be so cruel and also so kind to each other.