My Two Wars

""This is a book about my involvement with two outrageous catastrophes--the Second World War and my father."" So begins this final work from Thomsen (The Saddest Pleasure, 1990), who died only days after its completion. A late-blooming writer who published his first book in his mid-50s, the exquisitely talented author seems to have been capable of coexisting with war better than with his father. And no wonder: for while war at least has discernible rules of engagement, the elder Thomsen appears to have abided by only his own despotic code. No relationship was too sacred to be ruthlessly exploited, and no creature was too innocent to be spared his tyrannical rages. In one unforgettable scene, Thomsen senior methodically tortures to death the family dog, who has made the mistake of plundering the henhouse. Thomsen then attempts to distance himself from the abusive patriarch, but is endlessly drawn back, like a ""well-hooked trout."" A lesser writer would have difficulty adding the theme of warfare to such an intensely personal family memoir; yet Thomsen lays the groundwork early for transitions between the two. Thus war--which he experienced as a WWII bombardier --provides a psychological respite during which he views life ""as a stretch of time connected on both ends to eternity and boiling with noble possibilities."" (May)