As difficult as the subject matter is, I found the book to be without hope. That is what made it so difficult to finish.

While very well written, I had a difficult time with this book. I kept waiting for the fun 'boogie woogie bugle boy' attitude of the time to come through but it seemed that only one tragedy after another occurred. please know that it really was not what I thought it was going to be. I will try my best to not repeat what I consider to be an undesirable book for my book club again. I am sincerely embarrassed at some of it's content and the reviews were truly misleading to me. If you have not read 'Next to War' then I have to suggest that you just move on to a more pleasurable or desirable read. I also hope that my next selection is a better choice. As one club member who did manage to finish the book said (there were others who just stopped reading b/c they felt it so bad), she kept waiting for the 'light' and it just never came.