Book Review: Shambling Towards Hiroshima

Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow is a laugh out loud funny satire of Hollywood and the American military set in the waning days of World War II.

Premise:

The year is 1945 and war rages in the Pacific. Our brave boys have beaten back the enemy but the Japanese Emperor refuses to surrender. Invasion of Japan would result in catastrophic loss of life… But America has a secret weapon!

No, not the bomb.

B-Movie actor Syms Thorley! The fan-favorite actor will don the most convincing rubber suit tax dollars can buy and convince the Japanese to surrender unconditionally or face the wrath of All-American fire breathing lizards!

For Syms Thorley, it’s the role of a lifetime!

I don’t normally seek out comedy. Comedy is hard and it’s very subjective, but with a premise like this one, I could not resist Shambling Towards Hiroshima.

I suppose it’s most comparable to Catch-22, but, confession, I didn’t like Catch-22. It had a few good jokes, a few good satirical jabs, but it overstayed its welcome and gets repetitive.

Comedy is hard. Shambling is funny! It’s also short, smart, and fun!

Don’t expect all sunshine and rainbows. This is, after all, a book about one of the darkest moments in all of human history and Shambling respects that. It has emotions about that. It has poignant things to say, and, if you don’t mind, a little bit of dark humor woven throughout.

Also, a trigger warning for suicide. The framing device for this novel is that the main character is sketching out a quick memoir in anticipation of killing himself.

And yet most of the book will have you grinning, as it leaps nimbly from wit to slapstick to situation comedy to that dark humor that I promised.

Look, if you’re not hooked by that premise, I don’t know what to tell you. Do you even feel joy anymore?

But I will say that, in my opinion, Shambling Towards Hiroshima is more than just the witty premise. It respects its dark subject matter while being laugh out loud hilarious. I highly recommend it.