My Fathers Son CL

In May 1940, 19-year-old Farley Mowat ( A Whale for the Killing ) joined the Canadian Army, enlisting in the same infantry regiment his father, Angus, belonged to. By mid-1943, his unit was part of the British 8th Army; for the next two years he fought in Sicily and Italy. His letters home and his parents' replies from Ontario (especially those from his father) reveal their extraordinary familial bonds. The elder Mowats report on friends in the service and encourage their son to pursue a writing career. From Italy, Mowat describes the horrors and inanities of war; as the conflict wears down, he expresses his uncertainty about his future. He has a final, madcap fling collecting German armaments (including a V-rocket) for the Royal Canadian War Museum. This correspondence is a fine portrait of a young man's coming-of-age. Photos. (Jan.)