I have mixed feelings about this audio book. Only a relation of one of the flag raisers could have told this story, but that is also the problem with the story, in my opinion. Bradley does a lot of commendable work to correct a lot of myths and misinformation that have surrounded the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima and the flag raising. It is often the minutiae of battle that gives the story its heart, and there were several points where the narration brought tears to my eyes.

However, the book was also suffused with an attitude of awe and self-importance that I found off-putting. Barry Bostwick is the narrator, and while I love Barry Bostwick (dammit, Janet!), this might have added to the aura of self-importance. Many of his roles have taken advantage of Bostwick's ability to be a bit pompous, and I think that in this case the combination of the author's awe at his father's actions and Bostwick's aura of self-importance was not a good one. It was also slightly surreal to occasionally hear the voice of Brad Majors while I was listening to the history of the Battle of Iwo Jima. I didn't realize this recording is an abridgement of the full text version when I bought it, and while I usually try to avoid abridged versions, in this case I didn't really mind.

Int'l Bookray

Thanks for participating in this bookray. I request that you complete the following four steps during this bookray. I'd enjoy it if you posted an entry once you've finished the novel with a book rating and your thoughts, but that's certainly not required.

1. Journal when you receive the book and PM the next person in line to get their address so that you'll have it when you're done.
2. Read the book promptly - ideally, within a month of receiving it. If it's taking longer than you'd planned to get through it, make a journal entry to let myself and the other ray members know that you haven't forgotten it.
3. Journal when the book leaves and is traveling on to the next reader.
4. Last person in the ray is free to do whatever they wish with the book.

Smurphie (UK) - Int'l
bluecat07 (Germany) - Int'l
QueenSissi (Portugal) - Int'l

I sent this to Smurphie this afternoon.

Arrived yesterday morning. Just about finished an Audiobook Ray so as soon as I am I will get straight on to this.

Well I learned something today about that enigmatic photograph and the history behind it and those who took part.

Waiting to hear from the next participant.

RELEASE NOTES:

Heading off on the next leg of it's journey.

The audiobook arrived here today safe and sound. Thanks for sending it, smurphie!

Finished listening to this audiobook last night. Was quite interesting as it was a bit different than the movie. Thanks for this ring, katintheboots!

It is now on its way to QueenSissi in Portugal...

Arrived on Friday. Thanks!

Still haven't finished but already organizing a Bookray:

Sterile UK
cambridgelass UK
booklady331 US

This also gave me mixed feelings. First of all, I don't deal well with war descriptions and being recently prgnant and having a vivid imagination - i almos puked. The story, the rest, was light and I wished he could have explored more the life of his father, who seemed a very interesting person.

Keeping it as a ray, travelling today! Thanks

I came home from a weeks holiday tonight and the audiobook was waiting patiently on the dining table! Thanks for posting it out and will listen and pass on asap!

I started to enjoy listening to this audio only after I got used to the voice of the narrator. He could have been reading a self help CD - How to beat Insommnia would have been a great one as he could have put me to sleep!!

I agree with the points of the story that the real heroes were the people on the battlefield who, like John 'Doc' Bradley gave unerring stoicism under such conditions. The public seemed to get a kick out of just praising them for raising the flag. Whilst this did indeed give a much needed boost of morale for the relatives back in the USA, it was taken as a indisputable sign that all was going well....

One part that made me laugh and say to myself 'Oh, OK then if you say so' was the narrator saying that the marines that ended up in Japan could have been 'sent to help when we liberated Paris'

I have actually seen the sculpture of the USMC War Memorial near Arlington Cemetery in D.C but never really knew the story behind the depiction - now I know a lot more, Thank you for that.
PMing CambridgeLass to get an address with a view of posting on the 28th.

RELEASE NOTES:

Passing to Cambridgelass via Royal Mail 2nd Class 28th January 2008

thankyou i recieved in the post this morning. i will get listening this evening.
I am soo excited

*im having to listen to this on my dvd player as the sound is not picking it up on my cd player.

5 out of 5

what a moving story i sobbed my little heart out (unusual for me).
I have to say i didn't know about this story until the movie, but the audo version is a billion times better as the emotions of all the boys and families (not just the flag raisers) are portrayed.
A truly memorable story about men serving their country and uniting together not as flag raisers but as human beings.

will pm the next person and get it on its way

Just got it, thanks cambridgelass. I'll get to it soon.

I always enjoy audio books since they give my eyes a rest and let somebody else do the reading, in this one I found that the introduction by the author was a waste of time and served no other purpose than a shameless self promotion.
As for the story itself, there are actually two of them, the one about that amazing photo and the one about the taking of Iwo Jima, both appealed to me very much.
That photo, even though it was a fluke, is a powerful image and the media and the US government knew it right away and used it (and abused it), as they usually do, for all the wrong reasons. The power of an image and its manipulation rang a few loud bells and I couldn’t help drawing some comparisons to that infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech that we heard uttered (or should I say stuttered?) by GWB while prancing around in an aircraft carrier.
About the war story, well it is quite impressive, those men were in fact heroes, and I don’t mean just the flag raisers but all the marines who landed on that tiny beach in the middle of nowhere under brutal fire, it takes some unimaginable courage and discipline to keep pushing on when landing on a beach covered with the dead bodies of your comrades.
The research was very good and it must have been very exciting for the author to do it. The unsung heroes this story tells us about make a dry historical episode come alive in a new light that renders it more “real”.
It’s really no mystery why John Bradley, Ira Hayes and Rene Gagnon (someone should have told the narrator of this book how to correctly pronounce this name, it was atrocious the way he Americanized it) didn’t feel like talking too much about the whole episode, any normal person that had experienced such carnage wouldn’t want to go bragging about it either.
It’s a tragic story and I couldn’t help but feel saddened by the death of Sgt. Mike, even though I knew before hand it was coming.
There’s a lot of food for thought here, if you care to listen between the lines, about war, about Man, about the manipulation of public opinion and about the cruelty of a government at war (the resending of Ira Hayes to the battle front is such a blatant example of this, it’s creepy).
I’d like to finish by saying that in History, and in journalism, some times the facts don’t really mater, it’s the interpretation they’re given that counts and the story of Rosenthal’s picture is certainly very illustrative of that.
I’ll be passing it along to daisyflower123 today (13.05.2008).
Thanks cambridgelass for the chance of listening to this one.

The audiobook arrived today. I'm looking forward to listening to it.