Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As an aged reader of histories, I often wonder at my seemingly insatiable appetite for more accounts of more events in more detail. Just can't get enough. We experienced pursuers of what's past pretty much know how "things," be they prominent persons' lives, or battles, or natural cataclysms, or whatever, turned out, that is, we know who won the battle, invented the whatever, caught the miscreant, etc., but we always want to know more. How many books can one read about, say, World War I, and not be completely sated? Well, it turns out, at least in my case, to be just about every one that comes down the pike. No historian can ever adequately describe the convoluted causes, the military missteps, the human suffering, the nation-changing results. But they continue to try, and we continue to be fascinated by their efforts. I guess if my memory of relatively recent readings had served me better, I would have passed on Author Wheatcroft's latest effort in view of my reaction to his 2005 work, "Infidels." As with that earlier effort, "Enemy" gets off to a decent start but trails off in unsupported observations and uncertain conclusions. Two failings stand out in my mind. First, Mr. Wheatcroft possesses a distressingly dry and unimaginative writing style. If an author can't invigoratingly portray the inherent drama and human terror and suffering of the Siege of Vienna, then I don't know what other event could propel the effort. I understand that it was long ago and that the implicit sprawl of a siege does not lend itself to concise and engaging descriptions. One could say the same about 16th century sea battles, but as Roger Crowley demonstrates in his marvelous "Empires of the Sea," it is possible to tell a very complicated and diffused story in a manner that excites and engages the reader and makes him wonder as he anxiously turns the pages whether he really does recall how "things turned out." Crowley succeeds; Wheatcroft does not. Secondly, and as other reviewers have mentioned, the book just cries out for even the most rudimentary maps and diagrams to aid understanding of the geographic and fortification challenges for both sides in the sieges of Vienna and Buda. Instead, the author includes several pretty, and pretty much worthless, romantic portrayals of the action. There simply must exist illustrative documents that would enhance the reader's appreciation of the action, but if there are, you won't find them here. Very frustrating. The late, and very great, film director, John Huston, was once asked what he looked for in auditioning an actor for a particularly obscure and demanding role. He answered, "A quality so fragile that it would die in the description." Precisely. That's what we history buffs always desire but so seldom find. "The Enemy at the Gate" is a worthy and obviously deeply researched effort which ultimately comes up short. Our search continues.