Book Review

Now the Hell Will Start (2008)

Details Writer: Brendan I. Koerner; Genres: Nonfiction, War; Publisher: Penguin

 WAR IS HELL Now the Hell Will Start looks at questions of race and prejudice in the U.S. military in... Now the Hell Will Start
WAR IS HELL Now the Hell Will Start looks at questions of race and prejudice in the U.S. military in WWII through the case of a private who shot an officer

One of many African-American soldiers in WWII, Pvt. Herman Perry was forced to toil in the Indo-Burmese jungle on the Ledo Road, an ultimately pointless rural highway into China. Unlike his compatriots, an emotionally fragile Perry shot a belligerent officer before twice escaping the clutches of the U.S. government — and became a folk hero in the process. Intricately researched and entertainingly told, Brendan I. Koerner's gripping account of a little-known manhunt in Now the Hell Will Start details the brutality of jungle life while also illuminating larger issues of race and prejudice during the war. A-

Originally posted May 23, 2008 Published in issue #994 May 30, 2008 Order article reprints

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