Castle Keep - Softcover

William Eastlake

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0304358657 ISBN 13: 9780304358656

Publisher: Cassell Military, 2001

Synopsis

It is December of 1944, and a detachment of American soldiers has been assigned to guard an ancient castle in Belgium inhabited by an elderly aristocrat, his young wife, and countless valuable artifacts. The soldiers virtually wait out the war--indulging in various hobbies, exploring the castle's excesses (including a replica of Venice, complete with canals and gondolas), in other words, trying to do something other than war--until a German counterattack puts them in the fray. Semi-autobiographical, ?"Castle Keep"?was the first major novel to use the real language of the soldier, uncensored and true-to-life. Inventive and brilliantly comic, this novel is the quintessential portrait of man at war.

About this title

About the Author:

William Eastlake was born in Brooklyn in 1917. He served in World War II, was a correspondent for the Nation in Vietnam, and moved to New Mexico in 1954 to take up cattle ranching. He is the author of numerous books including The Bamboo Bed, A Child's Garden of Verses for the Revolution, Jack Armstrong in Tangier and Lyric of the Circle Heart.

Review:

"The challenge to the novelist would seem to be to write fiction which has a real bearing on present-day concepts and values and, ideally, does something about them, while not descending into secret form and language. This is a tall order. But William Eastlake's new book, Castle Keep... goes a long way toward filling it.... It should, in a crowded field, hold its own with honor. For it deals not with the bewilderment of the usual snafu of war. Its bewilderment is about life, with war but one of the many cosmic snafus in the human condition." -- Hans Konigsberger, New York Times Book Review

"The strength of Eastlake's design is in the massing of details and moments--bizarre, farcical, obscene, recondite, but always vividly pictured--into a whole that is truly tragic. There are drunk scenes that spin with laughter and nausea. There are battle scenes crackling with the unreality of sudden death.... Gothic mystery, savage modern satire, heroic epic--Castle Keep interweaves all three to create a surreal small masterpiece about the horrors and grim humors of war." -- Time

"William Eastlake is a fast man with a symbol, all right, but he's even faster with a gag line or a knockabout comic situation.... His ultimate destination may be classically tragic, but the way to it lies through the twisting corridors of a carnival fun house.... He is a superb technician, but there is more here than flashy technique. Eastlake has a gift for creating unforced comic situations and boldly outlined yet subtly shaded comic characters--he ranks here with his finest competitors in the proliferating genre of the comic novel. More important, he does not lose sight of the fact that the classic subject of the novel is human growth and change.... One's response to a trip through Eastlake's castle is rather like one's response to a guided tour through one of those imitation castles American millionaires were fond of throwing up at the end of the 19th century. At first you can't believe your eyes.... But amazement soon gives way to delight.... About Castle Keep there need be no ambiguity. We got the castle and it is well worth keeping!" -- Richard Schickel, Life

About this edition

• Publisher: Cassell Military
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0304358657
• ISBN 13: 9780304358656
• Binding: Paperback