Finished: The Moon is Down (Steinbeck) A short, but very discerning book about the rigors of war on both the invaders and the invaded when a coastal town in an unnamed Northern European country is forcefully occupied by troops from another unnamed country. Steinbeck wrote this story, while he was heavily supporting the Allies in World War II, as a piece of propaganda for the Allies. Though the countries aren't named, the invaded town is in the thinly veiled country of Norway which was occupied by the Germans in WWII. The invaders never refer to Hitler, but refer to "the Leader". The coastal town is important for the fishing industry, but more importantly, it is a coal mining town. The Leader has sent down orders that the coal mine must be confiscated, railways built, and the coal shipped to their army for use. I don't really feel like writing a huge recap with all the characters because the book is still resonating very deeply with me. The colonel who is responsible for the attack is a war veteran from  World War I, so he's seen the travesty of his army being slaughtered, driven back in the snow, and defeated by Russia...yet he's still not willing to learn from any mistakes. Or, he just realizes that no matter what he already learned, he has no choice but to follow orders. His mindset, and the mindset of his men (and apparently The Leader) seems to be that if you cut off the head of the snake, the rest of the townspeople will fall into line. As they occupy the mayor's mansion, the colonel tries to use the mayor as a person who must deal out the punishment to his own town so that it's easier coming from someone they know rather than the aggressor. The mayor tries to explain that he's not an all-powerful person...that he was elected by the people and is, in essence, "the people" himself. One towns person is killed when he accidentally kills an officer while defending himself in the coal mine, and he is executed as a lesson. The colonel thinks this will quell the townspeople, but it only serves to make them a stronger unit as they subtly begin doing things to rebel and compromise the coal mining process. The months drag on and the mayor and the colonel have several meaningful talks, but the colonel's hands are tied and he never fully grasps that free people will prevail and win out over the ones trying to force them into servitude. At the end, the colonel listens to the advice of the one towns person who had been the spy and traitor in the beginning, making sure the town's security forces of a mere twelve men were out at a festival in their honor far from town on invasion day. This store owner tells the colonel that the only solution is to threaten the people, who are definitely hampering the invading army's progress, with the death of their highly respected mayor. So, though he is afraid of dying at the end, the mayor does get a message out that the people should prevail and keep showing resistance. He can't make the colonel understand that killing him will not weaken the people, but strengthen them and that more leaders will rise up from the multitude of men. It's just a very interesting and sad look at war...especially at the townspeople on one side and the enlisted men on the other, who are really nothing more than townspeople from their OWN towns thrown into the war like so many others. Not all are the officers with the mindset of the men who follow and revere the Leader. I really have enjoyed all the Steinbeck books I've read, as depressing as many of them are, they just dig deep and make you think about how things realistically were and sometimes still are today.