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Originally Posted by Kyt  |
Well that didn't take long, and hmmmm.
I have to say that the book is nothing out of the ordinary. If you visit the above link you will see that Cy is well writer, presenter and actor. And he has written other books, including contemplations on race and colonialism.
The first section of the memoir is about growing, with a few interesting snippets. However, it is coupled with contemplations on race, colonialsim and the position of the black population in Guyana. From a sociological perspective this would be interesting but I found no real depth to his comments and recollections.
And then his period in the RAF is just leaps up, with little real contect. Answering his own question of why he joined the RAF, he just says it was for the adventure. Later in the book he hints at why, in hindsight, he didn't join because of the call of the "Mother Country", but it really is only a hint.
His travel to Britain, his training, and his OTU is covered in barely a dozen pages. His first two missions in barely two pages.
The rest of the book is about him being shotdown, his internment and his liberation. Though it is always interesting to read the memoirs of POWs, I was hoping and expecting a lot more about the fact that he was a black officer, and how this affected his relationship with the Germans and with his fellow officers. Afain, there are hints, but he seems to imply that it was all ok, and that everyone basically treated him the same as his white companions. This may, of course, be true, but for an author who seems to have written about the issues of race and ethnicity in other books, I'd have expected a lot more insight.
As far as i am concerned, the book is an ok read, interesting by the sheer fact that it is written by a veteren. But its core rationale of being a memoir of a black officer basically failed. I didn't learn anything, I didn't feel enlightened, and books like
Lest We Forget: The Experiences of World War II Westindian Ex-Service Personnel are much better at insights into what should have been a very interesting subject