For a book about war, Point of No Return has an oddly gentle pace. It follows a US infantry battalion in northern Europe in the later stages of World War Two.

We see their privations and boredom, the cold, the harsh conditions and their camaraderie, alternating with bursts of battle and brutality. Soldiers are killed then replaced and the cycle begins again.

The main characters are Lt Col Smithers and his new driver, Jacob Levy. Smithers has almost mythical status among his men because he has never been wounded. Levy has been injured three times and hopes his proximity to Smithers will afford him some protection. Smithers, though young and from an ordinary background, has risen through his skill but the responsibility weighs on him as he is caught between his troops and the orders handed down from the faceless higher ranks.

Both Smithers and Levy dream of home and try to imagine a future after the war. They know that war has changed them, that they won’t be able to fit easily into their old life. Levy gives much of his time to daydreaming and falls in love with a woman in Luxembourg. Even though they lack a common language, he imagines she will share his plans for the future.

The end is jarring, deliberately so, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. There is an afterword from Martha Gellhorn where she says she wrote the book entirely for that ending and this somehow undermined my involvement in what I’d read before. Still, it’s an interesting and thought-provoking read and definitely worth a look.

I rarely read war novels, maybe because I think that the reality itself is enough raw for not looking further to fictional war stories. However, the recommendation of the author - Martha Gellhorn, a much praised war correspondent - was an encouragement to make an exception. Gellhorn herself was one of the first to report about Dachau, shortly after the discovery of the camp by the US Army, and this experience is shared through the eyes and dramatic challenges encountered the Jacob Levy, an American Jew who for the first time in his life is facing serious questions followed by a radical decision after spending time at the recently liberated Dachau.
Simply written and with long static paragraphs describing the smallest details of the fights and set-backs of the fighting, this book is a valuable reference for the WWII literature, for its realism and focus on identity transformation and personal challenges.

I always enjoy reading historical fiction and have a special interest in stories set during or around WWII. I’m actually quite surprised I hadn’t heard about Point Of No Return before, especially since Martha Gellhorn is considered to be one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. The story was actually first published in 1948, only a few years after the war ended, and has been republished last month. There is no doubt that Point Of No Return is a powerful read and I admire the author for her courage and what she was able to achieve during her life. The plot itself is intriguing and follows an American Jewish soldier during the war up until his ‘point of no return’. The story is without doubt well written and well researched, although it did read a bit slow and I personally thought there would be more focus on the concentration camps… There was a little too much focus on the romance to my taste, but that might just have been me. The final part also felt a bit rushed, especially since it’s the part I felt would have been most interesting. Still, there is no doubt this is a very solid WWII historical fiction read.

I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The book was initially published in 1948 under a different title, republished in 1988 under the title the author wanted, and now the digital version released in 2016.

I think some background for the author is important for this book. Specifically, because I think many people who read books like this would question a female author. Martha Gellhorn was one of the first journalists in Normandy on DDay. As she couldn't get press credentials (her ex-husband Hemmingway got it for their magazine) so she hid in the bathroom of a hospital ship. From then until the end of the war she was AWOL from her news agency with risk of deportation back to the US. She traveled as a journalist with different regiments, staying clear of the Americans so she wouldn't get caught. She was in Dachau the week after it was liberated and heard about the ceasefire while there. She wrote this book to try to free herself from the horrors of Dachau. She's a badass and this book deserves an audience.

This book has 3 distinct acts. The first 2 are a solid 3 stars and the last act deserves 4.5. The first act involves romance in a town that's been freed by the Americans. It's a bit slow to say the least. It develops characters, but it's been done better. Remarque, Erich Maria's A Time to Love and a Time to Die is a book I'd recommend for that. The battle in the 2nd act is a bit lacking. But the 3rd act which involves Dachau, the reason Gellhorn wrote this book, is fully fleshed out and disturbing. I can see why she wanted it out of her mind. Reading the news and watching interviews, I've seen people say things like "maybe the Nazis had the right idea" or "it wasn't too bad in the long run". Have we learned nothing?

There's a unique writing style used here in that different characters will have POVs in one scene, but there won't be any notice given. If you don't pay attention to what you read, you'll get lost.

While the characters are distinct in their back story and motivations, they tend to have similar thought processes. It's somewhat offputting. Or perhaps it's an example of like attracting like. What is interesting about the book is while the male characters are sexist within their time, the female characters are more "progressive ". I hesitate to use the word progressive, as they are regressive compared to modern times, but their inner dialogues do have more of a bite than you see in books of this genre from this time period. I do think that is the benefit of having a female author.

It's a 4 star book, brought up because of the last act. Not only with how vivid it gets, but asking moral questions and asking you to think.