Best 1942 Adventures (6)
By:
January 10, 2017
One in a series of 10 posts identifying Josh Glenn’s favorite 1942 adventure novels. Happy 75th anniversary!
John Steinbeck’s WWII adventure The Moon is Down.
Taken by surprise, a crucial mining town in northern Europe — presumably Norway — is overrun by an invading army. Colonel Lanser, the head of the invading battalion, seeks to rule the town under a veil of civility and law; but when a citizen is executed by firing squad, the townspeople begin to resist. (Although the text never names the occupying force as German, they’re from a nation at war with England and Russia.) The mine’s railroad and electricity generators are sabotaged; and occupying soldiers are picked off, one by one. English planes parachute-drop small packages containing dynamite sticks, to aid the resistance. The occupiers take the popular mayor hostage — but the mayor, inspired by the example of Socrates (which he remembers from a high-school play), is willing to be martyred in the name of freedom.
Fun fact: A translation of The Moon is Down was circuited illegally, by the French Resistance, in Nazi-occupied France. Numerous other editions were secretly published across all of occupied Europe during the war.
Let me know if I’ve missed any 1942 adventures that you particularly admire.