Resurrection, a war journey

"Before us, several thousand yards of open fields...we were to cross, and historically, the great cavalry battlefields of several remote and now absurd wars." For Robert E. Gajdusek, these fields represent the first step toward resurrection as he retrieves a lost personal past through a writing catharsis which refocuses the vast battlefields of history into a singular voice. Resurrection is Gajdusek's dramatic account of a single week in mid-November 1944 which has taken him more than fifty years to wrestle into words. Part of Patton's Third Army in World War II, Gajdusek's unit was chosen to spearhead the first assault on the impenetrable fortifications of Metz, France, held by the Germans. Uniquely structured, Resurrection intertwines a variety of narrative forms to give voice to experience. Gajdusek's war memories awaken in his own poetry, short stories, discursive reflections, and sometimes abortive essays, as well as in borrowed historical fragments. Resurrection is a strong anti-war statement stemming from the only honest indicator, personal experience.