Book Review: The Monuments Men

The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History is an interesting look at a largely unknown group of World War II heroes. I first became interested in the story because I vaguely knew about the upcoming movie, then I read The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes and realized the movie was based on real life. It wasn't just some story George Clooney made up!

While there were many times I found it difficult to follow the story -- jumping back and forth between the Monuments Men made it difficult to keep up with any one road to art recovery -- I was fascinated by the men and women that were involved. I think I would have preferred it to be broken down into the path each MFAA officer took to recover the art, but that probably would have been just as tricky because there are so many moving parts. (Plus my biggest issue with any book that deals with war battles is that I become lost in the terminology and trying to keep 1st Army something separated from 3rd or 7th in my head.)

I'm very interested to see how they make this work as a film. I imagine they'll make them more of a cohesive group rather than the disorganized "group" the MFAA was. Either way, art history, true stories, WWII, combined with George Clooney, Matt Damon, moving pictures in color -- can you really go wrong there? It'll be like Ocean's Eleven meets the greatest art history story never told. - Melissa (Downtown)