Product Description

George Tilson is an eighteen-year-old farm boy from Iowa. Enlisted in the Army during World War II and arriving in Normandy just after D-day, he is nicknamed Heck for his reluctance to swear. From summers of farm labor Heck is already strong. He knows how to accept orders and how to work uncomplainingly. But in combat Heck witnesses a kind of brutality unlike anything he could have imagined. Fear consumes his every thought and Heck soon realizes a terrible thing about himself: He is a coward. Possessed of this dark knowledge, Heck is then faced with an impossible task.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #548637 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-14
• Released on: 2006-02-14
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

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NICK ARVIN studied mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan and Stanford and has worked in a variety of positions in automotive and forensic engineering. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the recipient of the Michener Fellowship, he is the author of In the Electric Eden, a collection of short stories. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

From Publishers Weekly
This fierce, compact tale of one grunt's war takes readers to the same time and place—the woods of northern France in 1944—where Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim was captured by the Germans. George Tilson, aka Heck, is another awkward, uncertain American 18-year-old mobilized from America's heartland to the European theater. Disembarked in Normandy, he meets a struggling French family: a one-armed painter; his daughter, Claire; and son, Ives. Claire nearly takes Heck's virginity, but he fumbles her seduction in a fit of fear. He's then trucked off to battle, where he experiences real panic under bombardment: "The noise was like nothing he had ever experienced before, a noise such as might be used to herald the beginning of a terrible new world." Heck is halfway through his nightmarish advance through a forest peppered with German snipers and booby traps before he fires his gun in anger, and that's only to kill the company dog. His second shot comes when his company sergeant, Conlee, an ex-foxhole mate and one of many to mark Heck as a coward, enlists him in an unexplained but horrifying mission. Arvin's first novel is an elegant, understated testament to the stoicism, accidental cowardice and occasional heroics of men under fire.
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From Bookmarks Magazine
Arvin, inspired by his grandfathers’ service during World War II (one with American forces, the other with the German Army), captures the horrors of battle in his first novel. Leaving out the epic sweep of standard historical fiction, the author builds his narrative from one young soldier’s experience. Arvin is especially acute in his examination of the psychology of bravery when faced with devastation. His minimalist prose, which captures the panic, horror, carnage, and chaos of war, packs more emotional and descriptive punch than its simplicity would denote. Only the romantic subplot involving Heck and a French girl draws sustained critical fire, especially from The New York Times. But most agree that Articles of War is a timely, self-assured debut.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Should be Mandatory reading
by all who care about anyone who has ever experienced war. This is a rivetting description of fear and the degredation of war told through the eyes of a simple, everyday American. The definition of courage is a central theme that crecendos with a surprising event. Not a pleasant topic but the book is so well written that I couldn't put it down until it reached a very unexpected ending. Cudos to Nick Arvin. Excellant writer!

A gritty, graphic glimpse of the reality of the combat soldier
The Second World War has been portrayed as a heroic struggle against evil, and the soldiers who fought are hailed as heroes. Certainly many where courageous and even heroic in the face of the horrors of armed conflict. But it seems unlikely that there were no soldiers who found themselves paralyzed by fear, unable to perform even the simplest of soldierly tasks, wishing only to find a way to escape.

This is the story of one such soldier. After arriving in Normandy as a replacement, Heck is forced to wait for orders sending him to the front lines. While he cools his heels, he meets a local French family and has a brief, almost consummated, relationship with the daughter. Even before he can sort out his feelings about this he finds himself on a truck, headed for combat. Life on the front lines is beyond uncomfortable, living in the cold and mud, death always lingering, waiting for a chance to strike. The constant fear slowly changes Heck, and we watch as he becomes a different person under its influence.

Gritty and graphic, this book portrays the role of the common infantry soldier as anything but glamorous. It is a reality that is easily overlooked by those who have never seen combat, but one that should be considered by those in power when they make decisions that place other men's lives on the line.

[This review is based on an Advance Reading Copy]

A Gem
This story is a gem. It's compact, serene, and powerful. The writing is clear and sober. The main character is wonderfully complex, given the spare story and brief time we get to spend with him. I'd rank this up there with "Going After Cacciato" or "Slaughterhouse Five" for best war novels ever. "Articles of War" is a finely-crafted portrait of reluctance. Sample of prose: "It began to rain, and he wanted in his tent listening to the drumming of it. Idly, he tried to remember the songs his mother would sing in the kitchen, but he could recall only a phrase or two. He'd never been able to carry a melody himself. In the mess tent at lunch he sat alone. Then he pulled on a plastic rain poncho and set off to find Albert, Ives, and Claire at the chateau. While he walked the rain slackened to a misting drizzle, then tapered to nothing. Low wraits of fog rose from the hollows of the land, looking solid and sulky and unlikely to retreat before the feeble sunlight that filtered through the ashen clouds." When war comes, the writing is no less blunt or observant. When hard choices must be made, the interior thoughts of "Heck" are gripping and vivid. Just when you think you've got the sense of this novel, the plot takes an interesting and fascinating turn and you have to agree that war, as the book so bluntly makes clear, is a universe unto itself. I'm glad I own a hardback. Nick Arvin is a fantastic writer.