Goodbye, Darkness
William Manchester's memoir of his time as a Marine in the Pacific, interwoven with a pilgrimage to the.
The Verdict
The most literary memoir the Pacific produced, and the most haunted. William Manchester — later Churchill's biographer — was a Marine sergeant wounded on Okinawa, and three decades on he went back, island by island, to the places that had nearly killed him. The book braids the young Marine's war with the older writer's pilgrimage, and the prose is extraordinary: lush, elegiac, and shadowed by survivor's grief. It is less a campaign history than a reckoning with memory and the men who did not come home.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The most beautifully written Pacific memoir
- Readers drawn to memory and aftermath, not just combat
- A pilgrimage back to the battlefields decades later
- Admirers of Manchester's prose
Look elsewhere if you want
- Strategy and operational detail
- A strictly chronological combat narrative
- Readers wanting unvarnished reportage over lyricism
Why We Rated It 4.6
Historical Context
Manchester served with the Marines in the Pacific and was wounded on Okinawa in 1945. Written in 1979-80, the book interleaves his wartime experience with a return journey through Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Okinawa, and other islands. Manchester also wrote the multi-volume Churchill biography The Last Lion.
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Collector's Corner
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0316501118
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Other Books About the Same Events
More by William Manchester
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Goodbye, Darkness a straight combat memoir?
- Not quite. It interweaves Manchester's Pacific service with a later pilgrimage to the islands, and is as much about memory as about battle.
- How does it compare with With the Old Breed?
- Sledge is plainer and more documentary; Manchester is more literary and reflective. Many readers value them as complements.