Richard Hillary
By: PIMLICO (RAND)
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
A well-written Spitfire pilot's story 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.
This is a beautifully written account of one pilot's participation in a crucial WW2 battle. The book does not fall flat because the author spent only a relatively brief period in action; his description of his privileged period at Oxford, and of fighter training at the beginning of the time, are worth reading in their own right.However, the real subject of this book is the recovery (sadly incomplete) he made from the horrific burns suffered after being shot down on the War's first anniversary. Burns treatment was crude before the outbreak of WW2, and shot-down pilots were the guinea pigs who enabled huge advances in this field to be made. (Hillary's plastic surgeon was the great Sir Archibald McIndoe.) Hillary's courage in fighting his way to this recovery, and the candour with which he describes it, make this book the best memoir I have read of the War.
A review of Last Enemy 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.
Richard Hillary's experienced voice reverberates in The Last Enemy, his memoir about life as a Spitfire pilot during World War II. Hillary details his battle encounters while recounting the events he witnessed, and the emotions he felt. Like other war memoirs, the author concludes with revelations that display his maturation in the crucible of conflict. He enters the RAF as a spoiled Oxford undergraduate, filled with youthful selfishness; by the end, however, death and violence have awakened him to the folly of his past egocentrism. More important, his role in the Battle of Britain and his death in action in 1943, although not included in the book, augments the work's importance.
Despite Hillary's devotion to literature, The Last Enemy's historical value supercedes its literary qualities. His descriptions of the general mood of London and its citizens during the Blitz, for example, are as close to a primary document as the average reader will probably come. Moreover, interspersed throughout the narrative are journalistic, almost indifferent reports of the deaths of his comrades. His account of pilot training and midair dogfights may also arouse excitement in World War II buffs. And when he writes that "to love one's country is vulgar, to love God archaic, and to love mankind sentimental" (126), he expresses the apathy of many spoiled youths from his era. Essentially, Hillary's personal account fulfills the criteria of an effective memoir.
His book is imperfect, however. A self-proclaimed dilettante, Hillary's prodigal upbringing allowed him to dabble in many leisurely pursuits-from literature to rowing. This eclecticism manifests itself in the digressions that often plague his writing. Yet the book's greatest flaw perhaps lies in the unrealistic dialogue, on which much of the book is founded. In a heated discussion after a mutual loved one's death, for example, a woman complains to Hillary about his "intellectual subterfuges and attempts to hide behind the cry of self-realization" (189). A reader must ask: "How often does a person's speech resemble such a phrase?" And the ideological discussions between Hillary and various others can be twice as highfalutin. Thus, Hillary occasionally abandons an exact, truthful rendition of events for the sake of a good yarn.
Despite any flaws-which are, to an extent, the reader's own bias-The Last Enemy offers itself as a compelling addition to the canon of valuable WWII memoirs. Concise and personal, it could both introduce some readers to RAF fighter pilots' lot in the war and reinforce other readers' preexisting knowledge of the topic. War not only lessens Hillary's smug, selfish ways, but ultimately reveals to him the importance of such ancient values as courage and camaraderie. If his story were to do the same for any reader, it would be worth the investment of time.
