Another great Gimlette travelogue, topsy-turvy with his usual obtuse perspectives and a fractured structure which recalls his excellent At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig. His way of looking at the American experience in this theater of World War II is one you will not encounter elsewhere. Gimlette's great qualities are a tremendous power of observation, an equally strong ability to record these observations, and most importantly, the bravery and willingness to follow his own path not only in terms of actual travel but in terms of the extraordinary angles at which he comes to the things, cultures, and people he meets.

At some point I'll gather my thoughts sufficiently to write a review worthy of the book, but for now I'm content to just share one of the many wonderful lines, so representative of Gimlette's writing style, from a drive through France:

After this change of driver, the horizon steadied. For a while, it glowed with wheat but then the land began to swell and bulge into slopes of meadowland and oak. Everything seemed bigger up here: big cattle, giant dogs, enormous children weaned on beef, hydrangeas the size of trees, and villages carved out of bright red rock. Even the names sounded mildly outlandish, like search engines or bizarre diseases suffered by rabbits: Darney, Vannexy, Nomex and Dombrot.

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Shortly after this, I learned of a pitched battle between the combined French and American forces vs. the Nazis at a town called Bitche. Looking Bitche up in Wikipedia yielded the following:

Bitche (German and Lorraine Franconian : Bitsch) is a commune in the Moselle department of the Grand Est administrative region in north-eastern France. It is the Pays de Bitche's capital city and the seat of the canton of Bitche and the communauté de communes du Pays de Bitche.

The town belongs to the Northern Vosges Regional Nature Park and is rated 4-flowers at the towns and villages in bloom competition. As of the 2013 France census, the town's population is 5,225. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Bitchois and Bitchoises.

Yes, I'm immature, but I am jealous of females now because I'd really like to say I belong to the Bitchoises.
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