I have contrived to obtain myself a copy of "I Heard You Paint Houses". I have just started it this very morning.
I was, though, shocked by the allegations of attrocities committed by American soldiers under Patton in Sicily, the murder of busloads of prisoners and other awful shit. Call me naive, but not only did i have no knowledge of such, but would not have suspected. I know fucked-up things happen during war but i never would have expected they happened at that particular time & place. I guess i had thought Patton and his troop's to be ...shit, i dont know. More honourable maybe? My naievity (spl?)
And 411 days of combat? He'd seen some shit. Your right, Lilo, you can almost feel the cold indifference of his words when he descibes death & killing. Its a little creepy.
Anyway, im up to Chapter 8, Russel Bufalino, and am digging this book.
Still a good book, of course. Russel Bufalino is an interesting man.
Glad you like the book so far, MMD.
Yeah the war time stuff was a little unsettling but the historian Stephen Ambrose talks about similar stuff in his books. For example, after news of the SS led massacre at Malmedy got out, some Allied units didn't take prisoners for a week or so. That extra motivation aside, an officer that's been given an objective to reach by a set time, doesn't want to slow his advance down by taking large numbers of prisoners. And then there's just the basic human element of turning off the kill switch. Someone who just killed your best buddy in the squad runs out of ammo, throws his rifle down and NOW wants to surrender?
But Patton was a strange one..
