Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War, Goodbye

Since it was proven later that Mr. Manchester fabricated much of this story as his own experience, I was disappointed. It still would have been a great work if he had not tried to possess it as his own story and had just presented as a tortured look back at the Pacific war through his interpretation of the period and the people when revisited during the contemporary time of the book's release.

This book is recognized as the masterpiece account of the Marines efforts in the Pacific... and for a good reason. It is a painfully personal account of the horrors, some of humors and a lot of the happenstance of war... all from a brilliant, but quite human and humble man/child. A must read.

Tugs at every emotion. Should be read by every neo-con war-monger who's never experienced combat. His commentary on what patriotism meant then and now is inspiring. Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, or somebody should make a movie based on this book.

William Manchester elegantly describes his experience as a young Marine is several of the most horrific of the WW II battles in the Pacific campaign. Gripping, grisly, explicit A deeply personal journey as he returns to battle fields across the Pacific. A magnificent war memoir.

The author provides a gripping description of his service with the U.S. Marine Corps in battles in the Pacific islands during World War Two and his visits to some of the battle areas years after the war.

William Manchester was a wonderful writer--one of the best I've ever read. In this case, he makes his personal history so interesting, you can't put the book down. I've read Goodbye Darkness twice over the years and am ready to do it again.

An incredibly talented writer who, "tells it like it was", in the taking of
the Pacific. At times cathartic, mixed with vivid details of some of the battles
fought, William Manchester has written a wonderful novel about the sacrifices
that were made, by a rag-tag bunch of Marines. This book needs to be a part of
anyone's library who is interested in WWII.

Written some time after the events, the memoir still has value as a prime source historical record. Written from the point of view of a "grunt" (0311), it gives an insight of why "We" few, proud, still refer to the Corps as the "Crotch".

Although I read William Manchester's superb and moving biographies of Winston Churchill and Douglas MacArthur, I was never interested in reading his other works, including Goodbye, Darkness. Then Nathaniel Fick recommended it in his very well written "One Bullet Away." Manchester's reminiscences of the battles he and others like him fought in World War II's Pacific theater is first-rate, and should be read by anyone with the authority to send or direct men and women in battle.

Real war has nothing of the honorable sheen given to it by films (other than the soldiers'love for one another), and I am certain that no one can really appreciate the verity of Manchester's observation, repeating what his World War I veteran father told him, "that war is grisly beyond imagining." It is, to paraphrase J.B.S. Haldane, grisly beyond that which we CAN imagine.

Manchester understates it when he says that "half the evil in the world is done in the name of honor." In my view, *all* of the evil in the world is done in the name of honor. Further, he laments that those today who piously send others to war shelter their own, unlike, during World War II, when, according to Manchester, Roosevelt's four sons were in uniform, "and the sons of both Harry Hopkins, FDR's closest advisor, and Leverett Saltonstall, one of the most powerful Republicans in the Senate, served in the Marine Corps as enlisted men and were killed in action."

As I wrote in my review of Fick's book, despite all the sanctimonious genuflections to "service and sacrifice" of the children and siblings of others, why is it that the children of President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, and the others who led us into Iraq, cannot also at least serve at States-side veterans hospitals, helping to repair the wounded whom their fathers put into harm's way?

I hope someone gives a copy of Manchester's Goodbye, Darkness to President-elect Obama, and, more important, that he *read* it.

Goodbye Darkness is a must read for anyone with personal interest in the daily life of our foot soldiers in WWII. Excellent account of the "way it was" told from a very personal and meaningful perspective.

Great descriptions of fighting the Japanese and island fighting. Certainly leaves no doubt that our WWII casualties would have been unimaginable had we needed to invade Japan. Complete justification for the atomic bomb. They were not going to surrender!

Bought this book for my husband, nephew and niece. It is one of my husbands favorite books. He is an avid reader of WW2 memoirs and this is one of his favorites. The writing is succinct and remarkable in it's detail. Would recommend to anyone who loves history and enjoys memoirs of this time period.

For those interested in this genre, this book is a must read and will be one you don't want to put down. As graphic an insight into the extreme trials and few tribulations of the US Marines during the many bloody battles of Pacific Theatre of WW2 as you are likely to get and with some equally good insight into the history/topography of the many locations where these battles took place.

The best book I've ever read about the participation of U.S. Marines in WW2 Pacific battles in which U.S. Marines participated. Written by a marine who participated in several of those terrible battles.

A personal memoir of William Manchester, author of over a dozen classics of 20th century history. He journeys to the South Pacific in 1978 to revisit the battlefields he knew as a young Marine officer in WWII. He moves from personal battlefield memories to historical overview to a tourist's view of islands where signs of the war have, in some cases, completely disappeared.

Not only is this book exquisitely written as is Manchester's remarkable "Last Lion," it contains Manchester's personal account of his harrowing experience as a WWII Marine in the Pacific where he saw most of his fellow Leathernecks die. Narrated as a flashback when he revisits many of the Pacific theater's battlegrounds, this book explains why our country was able to fight and win as it did and what it meant to this
"Greatest Generation" to be an American. I recommend this book to anyone, particularly today's high school and college students who need to be taught from this perspective and learn to appreciate the spirit and dedication of those who were their age at that time. Freedom isn't free.

I purchased this after reading a few other 2nd World War Pacific Theater novels. I found this non-linear writing style much more difficult to follow than the other books of this genre, as he switched between the present and various points in the past.

The finest war memoir ever written--deeply personal, profoundly moving, and often painfully detailed in its honesty about what war actually is rather than the romanticized version that is often pandered to those who have not experienced it.

Well ... , if your name is William Manchester a lot, I guess. Many better books out there on the war in the Pacific from more 'seasoned' warriors, not to diminish Mr. Manchester's service at all. Spent your hard earned $$ on another book, but DO read American Ceasar!

This book is as much hagiography as it is history, personal reminiscences aside. it tells a great story and gives you a "you are there" feel. but given the fact that literary license was used proceed with caution.That said worth the read but not to be taken as history.

I have enjoyed many of Wm Manchester's books notably "A World Lit Only By Fire" which I read twice. I had no idea of his extraordinary military career in the Marines in the Pacific Theater of WW2. I love history, my favorite historical event is WW2 in which so many of my relatives served. Easily read over 100 books on the subject. This is among the finest. His first person narrative is extraordinary, his word craft skills among the best. He spins sentences and paragraphs that I, who enjoy writing and have edited two text books, could not author in a lifetime. His historical details both the big picture of the two pronged US Pacific strategy and the gritty minutia of protracted combat on a series of hell-like islands are the best I've read. For anyone interested in the WW2 island campaign that lead to the doorstep of Japan this book is un-excelled.

This author is nothing short of brilliant in his previous work on General MacArthur "American Caesar". In this book he is clearly trying to ward off the personal demons that had haunted him from the time of his being wounded and finished with war during the Battle for Okinawa. What is interesting is he follows the Second World War in the Pacific by chronologically attending to each major battlefield/island to which American Marines and Army service men fought. With other well written authors of Robert Leckie, and Eugen Sledge, William Manchester brings more information to light. Unlike Leckie and Sledge I did get a sense (or feel) that Manchester had some sexual hang-ups he never quite got over - this is evident in this book but not in "American Caesar". Later in 2013 I will be reading all three volumes of "Last Lion" as Churchill is a hero to me.

This book gets 4 stars because I think people unaccustomed to reading about the PTO during the Second World War will likely find it slightly confusing with all the island hopping (though Manchester does his utmost to alleviate this) and most Americans have more common knowledge of the ETO than they do the PTO. The PTO was a different war all together than what had been fought in Europe

This personal memoir of William Manchester's WWII years and experiences in the Pacific is very informative and entertaining. I've read about 200 books on WWII, and this is one of my favorites. He has a keen eye for personal observations of places and people he encountered, as well as a wonderful skill for colorful descriptions. The biggest surprise is Manchester's sharp wit and humor that runs through the entire book. He never takes himself or anyone else too seriously as he describes events and what he experienced, but that never detracts from the seriousness of WWII combat and its awful effects. This guy had a killer wit that had me laughing out loud at times. Highly recommended, and more interesting than most WWII memoirs.

Superb. It rates right up there with Helmet For My Pillow by Robert Leckie and With The Old Breed at Pelelieu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge. Manchester, a combat veteran of Okinawa, brings the horrible reality of war to life. He is nothing short of a master story teller and one of the premier biographers of his day.

Author William Manchester's "Goodbye Darkness" is a haunting memoir of his experiences as a young Marine in the Pacific during the Second World War. Strictly speaking, it isn't a straight work of history, as other reviewers have pointed out. Instead, it is an interesting and highly readable mixture of fact, imperfect personal memory, and generalized recollections about the war that are not necessarily Manchester's alone. Manchester served on Okinawa, and was wounded there; those pieces of the book are very personal. Some other portions of the book describing the unique role of the Marine Corps in the Pacific war are more like Marine Corps corporate memory, for lack of a better term. There can be little doubt in the reader's mind that Manchester was haunted by his memories of the war and that writing this book was a way to work them out. Recommended.

Not the usual Manchester treatment on a subject because he was there for some of it. He tries to combine a history of the pacific war and his own personal accounts of it as a Marine.

Several reviewers were extremely upset because it seems as though Manchester was involved in battles that he was not there to witness. Reading the book, I never got that impression. He states that he was on Guadalcanal after the major fighting.

His last forty pages are his best. But, it doesn't have the classic Manchester phrases and descriptions as in his other books. Interesting none the less.

Quite possibly the best book on the Pacific War I have ever read. I have more WWII books than my local library. I go to the bookstore hoping for something I don't own. In some sense, I am looking for the equal of Manchester's Pacific Memoire. I don't think I'll ever find it. He weaves in his experiences (now) 70 years ago with the present. He goes back to the battlefields of his youth and actually camps out in those killing fields of the early forties. The reader feels like they are there when he recounts hearing things in the jungle in the black tropic night. He spares no one's feelings when he talks about the gore and waste of war. He also shares the humor that occurs when humans are thrown together in ridiculous situations. From the heat of the Central Pacific to the clinging mud of Okinawa, you feel like you're there.
If you're looking for a book filled with arrows on maps, this is probably not the book for you. This is not a view from 30,000 feet. If you want a taste of what the Coconut Groves of Guadalcanal were like, you're going to love this. If you want to know what the oversized mortars on Okinawa sounded like, this is your book.

Manchester remains one of my favorite authors and I am sorry I never got a chance to meet him. This is really two interrelated books: One is his account of being a Marine in the Pacific theater, and the other concerns his struggle with post-war PTSD. This is not a Hollywood account of combat, but rather the raw, unfiltered experience of fear, courage, bemusement, sorrow and killing that is modern war. After reading this you will realize that some strange things happen in combat that are inexplicable in a peacetime context. I've had some former Marines read this book and they seconded Manchester's account, mixed with admiration for his courage, both on the battlefield and in facing his post-war problems.

Reading this also makes one extra disgusted with how shabbily the Kennedys treated WM in the process of writing "Death of a President", the work that first brought him national attention. Although he doesn't mention that sordid chapter in this book, you can feel it's presence as he tries to understand his feelings about the war, post-war society, and his inner thoughts.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand combat, the war in the Pacific, PTSD, and Manchester himself.

William Manchester was one of the country's best historian/biographers in the latter half of the twentieth century. Among his most noted books were "Death of a President", "The Arms of Krupp", and biographies of Douglas MacArthur and Winston Churchill. GOODBYE, DARKNESS is his most personal book and some think it his best.

In 1942, Manchester, then twenty, joined the Marines. Serving in the 29th Marine infantry regiment, Manchester participated in mop-up operations on Guadalcanal and Guam and in six-weeks of the fiercest fighting on Okinawa, which for him ended on Sugar Loaf Hill with near-lethal shrapnel wounds. He tried to put the War behind him, but for the next three decades it continued to haunt him and give him nightmares. In 1978, he decided to tour the major Pacific battlefields, including the places where he had served. Long-repressed memories were kindled, and waves of anger and sorrow periodically swept over him. But in the process, he seemingly was able to put to rest many of his nightmares. Hence, the title of the book.

GOODBYE, DARKNESS is in part a history of ground fighting in the Pacific: Corregidor, New Guinea, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Guam, Peleliu, Leyte and Luzon, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. By and large, that part is very good. Part of the book is a travelogue - an account of Manchester's tour in late 1978 of the above sites of battle. That part is interesting, but it is now rather dated. But the book is most significant, most memorable, as a memoir of one of the citizen-soldiers of "the greatest generation."

On Okinawa (as on Peleliu and Iwo Jima before it), the Japanese knew they were fighting a losing war, but their strategy - which dictated their battlefield tactics - was to impose such a "ghastly blood price" for the smallest American gain that the U.S. would be unable to stomach the human cost of an invasion of the Japanese homeland and would instead accept a negotiated peace. Consequently, the fighting on Okinawa was some of the most horrific in human history. It led Manchester to write, three decades later: "You think of the lives which would have been lost in an invasion of Japan's home islands--a staggering number of American lives but millions more of Japanese--and you thank God for the atomic bomb." (Paul Fussell later borrowed the last six words for the title of a controversial essay, included in his noteworthy book of the same title.)

This is the second time I read GOODBYE, DARKNESS. The first was thirty years ago. I then thought it one of the best books I had ever read. I now find a few points of Manchester's history somewhat suspect (it is likely that the historical consensus regarding some matters has changed over the past three decades) and much of his social philosophy far too simplistic. And for some reason I don't particularly like him. But GOODBYE, DARKNESS remains a five-star book. It is superbly written, and it is among the very best of a private soldier's World War II memoirs (the only ones I have read that might surpass it are E.B. Sledge's "With the Old Breed" and George MacDonald Fraser's "Quartered Safe Out Here").

While Manchester writes in a style that is somewhat too lucid to remain focused, and can be downright confusing at times, this author also provides one of the most complete overviews of the entire Pacific island-hopping campaigns. While by no means comprehensive, he at least touches on the importance (or lack of) of each island, and greatly details the peculiarities of each native population, landing areas, Japanese defensive positions and so on. This book initially begins with the story of his father, who was gravely wounded in "The Great War", and despite his physical handicap from his wounds, he leads a hardworking and perfectly normal life, and Manchester is unflinching in his feelings of inadequecy and shortcomings. He then details his basic training experience, and at the halfway point of the book ships off to the Pacific. It should be noted that the entire book is written after a return to the scene of so much carnage and slaughter, and he skillfully weaves his memories of then with the realities of today, as he hops from island to island (this time in civilian clothes, with locals as guides) reliving the hell so many brave American Marines had to endure and overcome.
The authors outfit was derisively called "Raggedy Ass Marines", and was a title soon adopted as their own. These were not your average front-line Marines, rather these were mainly Officer Candidate washouts, and many had Ivy League degrees, the likes of Colgate, MIT and Yale. Sadly, many of these men never returned.
Once again, I marvel at the endurance, tenacity, and sheer devotion of these Marines to the suicidally brave enemy they faced. No Marine with a temperature under 103 degrees was allowed "off the line." Could you try this policy today? A great read, and definitely recommended.

This is a moving, honest, well written memoir of a Marine in the Pacific Theater of WW2. There are many, many good things about this book and only one small caution. First it is a great idea for a book about the war in Asia. Here is a man, plagued by nightmares from his time as a sergeant in the Marine Corp during some of the most brutal jungle fighting of the war. In dreams his younger self challenges the now middle aged man about what it all means, and why so many died. Manchester knows that to quiet his own soul, to say "Goodbye" to the darkness, he must return to the islands where he fought and stand again when he stood, cowered, feared, fought and killed. He knows this will bring back many memories that he has tried to forget. But the only way past the darkness is through remembering. Like I said it is an amazing idea for a memoir and I was hooked, wanting to follow him on his outward and inward journey.
By all accounts it is an honest account. I do not know enough about the war or Manchester to critique his memory. He admits that it cannot be 100% accurate. He is not falsely modest but he is also not self-aggrandizing. That would be silly and would tarnish the memory of the courageous and not-so-courageous men who fought and died. And there is no need. He was a man of no real courage who did what he could to protect himself and fight for his country. In the end, anything courageous or heroic that he did was out of self preservation or loyalty to other soldiers. The narrative is full of affection, self revelation, criticism and history. He looks back and realizes that what motivated him, as with most infantry men, is loyalty and love for his platoon. What embittered him was the image of glorious warfare that sent so many into battles that ended in squaller, pain, and ignominious slaughter. He is proud of how his generation fought but can no longer see battle or the military as glorious. The one small warning is that Manchester can be a wordy fellow and he is a man of his time -- not ours. Give yourself some time to get into the book.

With the passing of William Manchester, history readers have lost one of their greatest treasures. Marine, gentleman, journalist, scholar, novelist, author, Manchester earned each of these and no doubt deserved them all.

If any writer had "the touch," it truly was Manchester. His narrative power would snare you and it didn't even matter what the subject was. Here was a writer to envy. His prose was that lyrical, that seductive.

"Goodbye, Darkness" is hands down, my all time favorite memoir of World War II. There is no idiotic flag waving in this book. Nor any preaching. Rather, we see a man struggling and finally coming to terms with the most visceral experience of his life.

You probably won't find a gorier book on the savagery of the fighting in the Pacific. From beginning to end, Manchester shoves the reader's nose into the mud, death and horror that was his war.

Yet, one also finds Manchester was clearly proud of being a Marine (though like many "former active duty Marines," he also has highly ambivalent feelings towards his former branch of service as do I), and in his nation's accomplishments during the war.

The book does have a complicated structure. So be advised. MANCHESTER ONLY FOUGHT ON OKINAWA. Any combat reminiscences in the book whether it be from Guadalcanal or Tarawa are reflected from Manchester's Okinawa experience.

Forget any negative reviews of the book you read here. Those who posted them are ignorant or worse, biased. Goodbye Darkness is a masterpiece of literature. It should be etched in marble.