The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club

For both the members of the book club and the soldiers, reading represents peace, empathy, and imagination, and the soldiers clamor to read the books that the women bring them. Cadence tells Major Gilbert, “The men love them. Not one asked for a comic book” (125). The soldiers love the books because they offer an outlet for human capacities not valued in their military lives: emotional sensitivity, compassion, and the longing for freedom, among others. Major Gilbert initially contends that the books obstruct the men’s purpose. He tells Cadence, “Maybe you don’t understand what these men do, Miss Smith. They train to fight in combat. There’s no room in their packs for these” (126). In other words, the men are supposed to prepare themselves for deadly destruction. If they read books, they’ll become kinder and less accepting of brute violence. There’s “no room in their packs” because war is not an enlightening place.

The popularity of the ASEs and Major Gilbert’s revised opinion suggest that no soldier wants to lose touch with peaceful society. They want to carry the books with them; the books link them to a world not defined by violence. Major Gilbert tells Cadence, “I still stand by my belief that they can’t bring books into battle, but I have to say there have been many fewer fights among the men since you brought those books” (147).