Description
Book SynopsisLike so many soldiers of his generation, William V. Spanos was not much more than a boy when he went off to fight in World War II. Retrieving the singularity of the experience of war from the grip of official American cultural memory, Spanos recaptures something of the boy's life that he lost.
Trade Review“This is the most moving memoir of World War II that I have read, and the most honest. In a style lucid, powerful, and reflective, it gives the lie to any war being ‘the good war’ and discloses the fiery terror Britain and its U.S. ally rained down on Dresden and the terrible aftermath civilians and soldiers, on both sides, had to deal with. A masterpiece of the genre.”—Daniel T. O’Hara, professor of English and humanities at Temple University and author of
Visions of Global America and the Future of Critical Reading“William Spanos’s
In the Neighborhood of Zero bears uncanny witness to the historical trauma of the fire-bombing of Dresden. In so doing, Spanos’s counter-memory exposes U.S. history’s efforts to replace the traumatic referent of Dresden with the narrative of America, the Redeemer Nation. Humanity in the neighborhood of zero, William Spanos reminds us, results in the becoming flesh of the state of emergency. As the witness to what cannot be articulated in historical categories, it is this figure who speaks the silences in Spanos’s unforgettable testimonial.”—Donald E. Pease, Avalon Foundation Chair of the Humanities at Dartmouth College and author of
The New American Exceptionalism“Professor Spanos deeply impacted my views on literature and language when I was a student of his, but nothing prepared me for the power and emotion of this memoir. It is an amazing saga of one man’s journey through World War II—but it is also the story of the immigrant experience in America, of a soldier, of a prisoner of war, of lost innocence and the courage needed to move past that loss. Most of all, it is unforgettable.”—Marc Lawrence, writer and director of
Two Weeks Notice,
Music and Lyrics, and
Did You Hear About the Morgans?"Written by an accomplished author, this thoughtful and unnerving memoir unearths his experience as a US GI in World War II, who was taken prisoner by the Germans and shipped to Dresden, where he witnessed the impact of the Allied firebombing of that city."
—ForeWordTable of ContentsPreface
1. Departure and Border Crossings: Newport, New Hampshire, to Cheltenham, England, Spring 19431944
2. Captivity: Disintegration in the Ardennes Forest, December 10, 1944c. January 4, 1945
3. Arbeitskommando: RabenauDresden, c. January 5February 12, 1945
4. In the Neighborhood of Zero: Dresden, February 1314, 1945
5. Interlude: Dresden, February 18c. April 25, 1945
6. Persephone and the Beast: Brux, Czechoslovakia, c. April 26May 1, 1945
7. Love in the Ruins: Brux, Czechoslovakia, May 213, 1945
8. Return: Camp Lucky Strike, Normandy, to Newport, New Hampshire, May 13June 1, 1945
Coda: Main Street, Newport, New Hampshire, August 15, 1945
