New Travel Book: ‘Panther Soup’
Travel Blog • Frank Bures • 04.18.08 | 12:57 PM ET
Full Title: “Panther Soup: A European Journey in War and Peace”
Author: John Gimlette
Released: April 1, 2008
Travel genre: Blitzkrieg tourism
Territory covered: France, Germany, Austria
Promo copy: “In 2004, John Gimlette set off across Europe, following in the footsteps of one of the greatest armies ever assembled: the United States forces of 1944-45. His guide (emotionally if not geographically) was Putnam Flint, an eighty-six-year-old Bostonian who had landed in Marseille in the midst of World War II with his tank destroyer battalion, nicknamed The Panthers. With Flint’s help, Gimlette traveled back through the war to try to grasp the physical, social, and psychological realities of the smashed and sodden continent that Europe had become. Panther Soup is the heartfelt, keenly observed—and often unexpectedly humorous—chronicle of that journey: a brilliant hybrid of travelogue and personalized military history.”
Critical verdict, Zagat-style: “Gimlette has a gift for travel writing with details of the most intimate kind, the small change and ammunition of a soldier’s life.” (Independent) “Panther Soup (a euphemism for the sludge left in the wake of advancing armour) is an important book, reminding us of the links between old and new world, ideals and ideologies, war and peace in our phoenix-like continent.” (Guardian) It’s also “an original travel book, written in vigorous prose and exhaustively researched. Though contemporary impressions are sometimes less than convincing, it has at its heart a profound understanding of the ‘soup’—the chaos and madness—of war.” (Telegraph)
Podcast: An interview with Gimlette
Find it: Amazon, Powells, Publisher
Email to friend
Twitter
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! Buzz
hinduja 07.10.08 | 1:46 AM ET
This book, i have heard about it a couple of weeks before. But those publishers are rare to find in my place. I am going to get this book somehow and i am eager to find what is its content about. These information that you have given is useful for me, thanks.
Baked 07.10.08 | 10:57 PM ET
I think the information in this book will be interesting ,so i will buy this book as soon as possible and find out whats special..