Kokoda (by Peter FitzSimons)

By: Peter FitzSimons

Narrated by: Lewis FitzGerald

Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

For Australians, Kokoda is the iconic battle of World War II, yet few people know just what happened and just what our troops achieved. Now, best-selling author Peter FitzSimons tells the Kokoda story in a gripping, moving story for all Australians.

Conditions on the track were hellish - rain was constant, the terrain close to inhospitable, food and ammunition supplies were practically non-existent, and the men constantly battled malaria and dysentery, as well as the Japanese. Kokoda was a defining battle for Australia - a small force of young, ill-equipped Australians engaged a highly experienced and hitherto unstoppable Japanese force on a narrow, precarious jungle track - and defeated them.

©2005 Peter FitzSimons (P)2013 Audiobook recording produced by Evan Croker.

Awesome book

What did you love best about Kokoda?

The overall story

What did you like best about this story?

How the soldiers hate to fight in such horrible conditions

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The book made me realize how difficult life is for the military

Fair Dinkum Tough

A powerful historic tale of the heroism vs despotism. The story, which is of a war more than a battle, is well read and moves from misery to triumph many times. I think I now better understand why Truman decided to drop Little Boy and Fat Man rather than fight a ground war on the Japanese home islands. The respect veterans I've known have for their Austrailian counterparts makes more sense now. What these fellas did should live in memory beside Thermopoli, Gettysburg, the Battle of Britain, and Stalingrad.

New Guinea is never easy!

Excellent narrative of harrowing battles in terrible place. Good picture of this not from US point of view. Incompetence at the top in Australia and US.

Well written and intriguing with just a bit too much John Wayne

This is a wonderful account of Australia’s wartime experience in PNG. I am only a bit frustrated by the fact that the author, while repeatedly commenting on the horror and absurdity of it all, still defaults to some of the old school tropes and attitudes about the individual soldier experience. Occasionally Japanese deaths are very personal but usually it feels more like watching a John Wayne movie with tough guy one-liners from strapping and fearless Aussie blokes, the narrator embellishing with seemingly ridiculous tropes that ultimately end up glamorizing the conflict more than is necessary. The conflict is inherent ‘glamorous ‘ (read: relevant, important, heroic, terrifying, withering…) by dint of how awful and astounding it was not to mention the madness of it all, it doesn’t need a narrative voice to push the story into the realm of chest-thumping propaganda.

That said, it becomes a valuable reflection of how Aussies want to feel when they read about their troops: they want to feel pride and honor. The thing is: we can do all that without overlooking the fact that this wasn’t a movie or a game. There’s no shame in the small defeats from either side. The whole thing is tragic and heroic on its own. The reason this sort of presentation is a problem is that it robs is of a chance to truly gain what is most valuable from these lessons: a personal reminder of how destructive and senseless wars are and why they should be avoided. The author does this for the most part, but can’t seem to help himself sometimes. I suppose that’s not a terrible offense when it comes down to it, but it’s worth mentioning.

Deserving Tribute

It seems appropriate to write a review of this title on Australia Day. FitzSimons tells a familiar historical tale of the misuse of Australian troops by persons far away and without adequate appreciation of the facts as they were at the battleface. Like many stories of former gallantry, there is a sense of the inevitable and of the unnecessary. FitzSimons captures all of this and more. He is unflattering in his condemnation of criminal negligence, whether it was Blamey's or McArthur's. He is patriotic to a fault and respectful of the Digger and the Digger's duty to his mates. He tells the story, often in the first person, relying on interviews with survivors, diaries and other contemporaneous records. It reads like a novel in parts and a documentary in others. At times it choked me up, but it often made me smile. It is a strange thing that one can be proud of some much bloodshed. That said, if the book has a failing, it is that it is a wee bit too empathic for me and, I suspect many Australians, preferring as we do to let the result speak for itself and not boast about it. Of course there are exceptions, and FitzSimons might have found a valid one here.
As for FitzGerald's reading, I thought it an outstanding performance from an accomplished artist. He captured the fervor, the frustration and the brutality, and his nuance was pitched perfectly. I loved the use of the 1940's Australian idiom (now, sadly, dying) but I thought the use of an echo on many of the quotations was an unnecessary dramatic device. I liked the Chapter divides military segue. I note that the new edition of the hardcopy contains an Afterword that is not in this production, but which is short and could be read in the bookshop waiting in line!
I think this is an important read for most Australians. I was heartened to see from the reviews on this site that it struck a chord with many others, too. I would be interested to know how it has been received in a Japanese market because, although critical of Japanese brutality (to themselves and others), it is respectful of those unfortunate men of both sides that gave their lives to hold or take a sod of mud in a jungle far from their homes.

A must for all Australians

A fantastic story of courage and the deprivations of war. Well told with a great narrator. A great book to demystify the Kokoda Legend and raise it to a new level.

How the Aussies stopped the Japs

The gritty fight by a vastly outnumbered Aussie militia to stop the Japs from crossing one of the worst jungles in the world to threaten Australia is one of the smaller battles of WWII. The day-by-day, person-by-person accounts from both sides keeps up interest in an obscure historical event. The Aussie fighters are occasionally portrayed a bit too heroically, bordering on wartime propaganda, but the scorn for distant and bungling military command rings true. Both sides lost more than half their men fighting for a tiny outpost on a footpath in the middle of New Guinea, a awesome example of men at war.

Should be compulsory reading to all Australians.

Would you listen to Kokoda again? Why?

Yes, worth listening to again.

What other book might you compare Kokoda to and why?

Batavia. Australian history at a personal and factual level.

Have you listened to any of Lewis FitzGerald’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

At times humorous and sad but not to the extreme.

beautifully written and heartbreaking

A gripping tale wonderfully narrated that tells of the valiant efforts of the young Australians to stop the Japanese advance against Australia and reveals how they were poorly served by their senior commander and grossly underrated that foolish American Emperor Doug out MacArthur. Best story I have listened to this year.

Brilliant

An absolute must for any Australian. Gritty, tragic yet heartwarming. A superb story and performance.