10 war novels that will turn you into a pacifist

There is a great tradition of dissent expressed in literature. It is perhaps most obviously exemplified in the WWI poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. Their ambivalence about wartime sacrifice and the demands of nationalism made them famous. War is great fodder for art. It is visual, visceral and morally weighty.

Every novel here was written by somebody who had seen it. So was the warning Truman never got to read.

In fiction, particularly since WWII, the novel has been put to great use as an anti-war satirical device. Here are ten that ought to put anybody off the smell of napalm in the morning.

1. Catch-22, Joseph Heller (1961)

A WWII satire set on an American base on an island west of Italy. This piece of comic genius focuses on the absurdity of the waste of life. Characters like Yossarian, Major Major and Milo Minderbinder are literary heroes for the anti-war faction. Heller’s vision of organizational hell and endless suicidal missions finds its nearest non-war equivalent in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. It is not all played for laughs. The tragedy of pointless deaths hovers over the book.

2. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut (1969)

Centring on the fire-bombing of Dresden by the Allies during WWII, Vonnegut’s most famous text stars the time-travelling Billy Pilgrim. He is a fatalistic soldier who refuses to fight and is captured by the Germans, only to be bombed by his own side. A peculiar and often hilarious book, Slaughterhouse-Five uses postmodern self-consciousness and light comic relief to throw a spotlight on the murderous inhumanity of war.

3. The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien (1990)

A collection of linked stories that recount the war experiences of a group of US soldiers in Vietnam. Based in part on O’Brien’s own time in the war, The Things They Carried is a brilliant evocation of the lingering trauma suffered by soldiers who have been in combat. Many of O’Brien’s books hark back to Vietnam, but this one has an immediacy that is shockingly memorable.

4. Dispatches, Michael Herr (1977)

Herr’s fragmented account of his time as an embedded journalist in Vietnam for Esquire magazine is more non-fiction than novel. Stylistically, it is on a par with any literary pro. He creates a comprehensive account of the needless violence and confusion of that conflict. It is required reading for anybody with an interest in literature.

5. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer (1948)

Mailer is known as a man’s man, but this story of a company of soldiers on the Pacific front during WWII works hard to dispel the notion that war is a boy’s game. While his soldiers find a measure of brotherhood, the book is saturated by fear, loneliness and death. The dehumanization of soldiers within the war machine is highlighted throughout. It is a large book but worth the effort.

6. Empire of the Sun, J.G. Ballard (1984)

Ballard’s semi-autobiographical account of his time in a Shanghai prison camp as a child during WWII is sobering. The childlike perspective and a narration that is both poetic and matter-of-fact does not elide the horror of the situation. A kid who is struggling to survive by scavenging has no choice but to give himself up to the Japanese to be interred. It is compelling.

7. The Good Soldier Švejk, Jaroslav Hašek (1923)

A Czech classic by Prague-born satirist and anarchist Hašek. This text satirizes the notion of being a ‘good’ soldier and the bumbling bureaucratic incompetence of army officials. It is suggested that Švejk is an idiot, which says little in favour of soldiers in general. Hašek served in the Austro-Hungarian army during WWI. Joseph Heller claimed that if he had not read this, he would never have written Catch-22.

8. For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway (1940)

Robert Jordan is an American attached to a republican guerilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. In the fight against Franco, his main task is to blow up a bridge. He is up against the guerilla leader, Pablo, who does not want to endanger more lives. The book deals with the nasty nature of civil war and the moral ambiguities of killing for a good cause. It does not end well for Jordan.

9. Matterhorn, Karl Marlantes (2009)

A newer addition to the canon written by an ex-Marine. Matterhorn is an unflinching look at the brutalities of the war in Vietnam in 1969. It centers on US second lieutenant Waino Mellas and his young compatriots in Bravo company. They attempt to retake their base after its capture by the enemy. Based on Marlantes’ real-life experiences, this is gruesome and exhausting.