If the author bemoans that the term Greatest Generation has become a 'tired bromide,' the mission of his book is to restore the hard-won honor of that designation by focusing at length on what these men endured and how so many lived and died. He succeeds brilliantly, interweaving rich back stories of a few superior college football players whose sports careers and lives were upended and often ended by war. The brutality of the conflict itself is described in unstinting detail, unfathomable numbers and profane frankness. It’s not a book I could read straight through — the accumulated carnage was too painful — but it changed the way I thought about World War II.

While not as entertaining as Lights, or as fly-on-the-wall intimate as A Prayer for the City,’ The Mosquito Bowl’ adroitly resurrects a long-forgotten episode to explore American values across the generations..

Bissinger employs the familiar narrative-nonfiction device of focusing on a few of the characters involved in a larger story and immersing the reader in their lives, sharing their thoughts, their fears, and their dreams of what their lives might be like if they were to make it home. This well-researched and impassioned book not only chronicles a little-known moment in sports history but also offers a poignant snapshot of the tragedy of war. Bissinger says of these brave men who sacrificed everything, 'They deserved so much more.'.

Fans of Bissinger’s previous books will find a rich character-driven narrative about two of the dirtiest and deadliest battlefields of World War II.

... uniquely focused.

Bissinger effortlessly combines sports and military history in this gritty account of a football game played by U.S. Marines on Guadalcanal in December 1944.