Title: Hell, Heaven, or Hoboken by Christmas: An American Soldier in the First Gas Regiment
Author: Robert Lambert
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-5434-2083-8
Pages: 172
Genre: History / Social History
Reviewed by: CC Thomas
Pacific Book Review Star
Awarded to Books of Excellent Merit
While there are, literally, hundreds and hundreds of biographies, autobiographies, and fictionalized accounts of WWI, Robert Lambert’s Hell, Heaven, or Hoboken by Christmas: An American Soldier in the First Gas Regiment offers something a little different. In this book, Lambert delivers a mix of diary entries and memoirs from an actual soldier of the war, as well as remembrances and stories delivered by the soldier to his grandson, the author. While true historians and academics might shun away from such a study, those of us who love reading about the past will find this mixture the perfect way to understand our history; as a story that happened to real people and is colored by their experiences and backgrounds.
Most of the story is told through diary entries of a young solider, the son of a farming family from the Midwest. The boy’s naiveté and innocence is both charming and heartbreaking, considering the situations of the times. The narrative story is reflective and shows a man looking at his life in consideration as events unfold. The story is told in such a way the reader feels an immediate connection with the characters, almost as if they were our own family, friends and neighbors.
While fictionalized accounts of the past are often short on facts, this is not the case with Lambert’s work. An overview of the events of the Great War are included and the narrative also contains enough factual information to satisfy even the most hard-core history buffs. What Lambert’s work adds, though, is that personal touch. There are things within the book which just can’t be researched because they have to be lived. Descriptions of food, clothing, games, and even figures of speech are so real and relevant – they aren’t just inserted to give the reader a sense of history because….well, it is the history. Lambert isn’t inventing and putting in little nuggets; rather, his grandfather lived the events and related them as he knew them in his diary. This makes the reading so much more interesting and captivating. The period and personal photographs make it more so.
Robert Lambert’s Hell, Heaven, or Hoboken by Christmas must be a treasure to Lambert’s family and admiration must be given for the author in so painstakingly transcribing his grandfather’s words. To the average reader, it’s a different kind of treasure, but not one less valuable. In picking up the story, you’ll be immersed in the time period of the Great War and will not be disappointed in the trip. Not to give anything away, but readers can rest assured the young soldier is closer to Hoboken by the end of the story than either of the other two options in the title.
