Official Review: The Ministry Communications Unit

[e-tasana-williams]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Ministry Communications Unit" by Gordon Smith.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Ministry Communications Unit: It didn't happen, but it could have! , by Gordon Smith

Remember the old newsreels that used to play in theaters before the feature film was shown? In The Ministry Communications Unit: It didn't happen, but it could have!, author Gordon Smith transports readers back to movie theaters during World War II, and allows the viewer of the newsreel to step through the projector screen into the reality of the crew creating the films.

The story centers around a specialized film propaganda unit (the first of its kind in Australia) assembled to create short films with the goal of relieving fears of a Japanese attack on Australia. The shorts were designed to help prevent mass exodus from the northeastern coastal cities and, as a by-product, convince the Japanese that this area would be too difficult to infiltrate to be worth their effort. The need to allay fears grew from the Japanese bombing of nearby Singapore, and the fact that trade agreements between Australia and Japan prior to the war gave Japan intimate knowledge of shipping channels into Brisbane.

The film unit adopted the name (Defense) Ministry Communications Unit, later abbreviated to MCU. Their headquarters was located in Brisbane, a strategic location on the northeast coast of Australia. Brisbane was also the headquaeters of the allied forces in the South Pacific, with the U.S. General Douglas MacArthur in the lead. The propaganda unit started with six members tasked with producing films as well as magazine and newspaper articles, and later grew into several teams. The book is set in several Australian locales, but mainly in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra. The reader is also taken to London, Los Angeles and San Francisco as the story progresses. It was interesting to read about media production during WWII. Although this was a work of fiction, there are actual historical elements included.

There are various things Smith could do to improve this work. For example, the smooth, rapid progress the MCU manager experienced in setting up a brand new media unit during war time, and the absence of impediments while securing items that were in short supply required the reader to suspend disbelief until the story got under way. The first 20 or so pages of the book were a bit slow-going due to the inclusion of a large number of military acronyms and the introduction of several characters in rapid succession. While the characters were realistic and they were given plausible background stories, I would have liked more dialogue, more interaction between them. Smith does include romantic interest and the development of friendships between members of the MCU, but it reads less like a novel and more like a tactical report, a telling of a series of actions taken by the film crew and people who worked with them.

Although improvements can be made, Smith did several things well in this book. He did extensive research in producing this work of historical fiction. True historical elements from the South Pacific theater of WWII include the Centaur hospital ship that was torpedoed in May 1943, coastwatchers employed by the Australian military, the 1942 African-American mutiny in Townsville, internment camps holding Japanese, German and Italian residents of Australia during the years of the war, and of course Cinesound Productions and Movietone Newsreel entities creating short propaganda films to be aired in movie theaters.

Readers more familiar with U.S., Japanese and European perspectives on WWII will enjoy learning of these events through the story, if they were unfamiliar with them prior to reading the book. Smith also organized his book into short chapters, which helps the story to move along at a nice pace. It was exciting to read about the different locales to which the crew traveled in order to film aspects of the Australian war effort, and Smith draws the reader further into the story with descriptions of the Australian land- and seascapes.

The Ministry Communications Unit: It didn't happen, but it could have! still requires lots of editing. The need for more editing necessitated that many of the sentences be reread at least once for clarity. After editing I would give this book a higher score, but as it stands I give it a score of 2 out of 4 stars.

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The Ministry Communications Unit
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Like Eatsleaves's review? Post a comment saying so!

[bookowlie]

Great, balanced review! I like that you gave constructive criticism while still highlighting the positive aspects of the story. Nice job.

[e-tasana-williams]

Thanks bookowlie! Writing this review was a challenge...there was so much I wanted to include, and the result was a review much longer than I would have liked. But it was a very informative read. I learned many new things about WWII from this one.

[rssllue]

Very nice job on fleshing out the basis of the story for us. Your review was very good in giving the good and bad of the book. It definitely sounds like one that would be interesting to read.

[e-tasana-williams]

Very nice job on fleshing out the basis of the story for us. Your review was very good in giving the good and bad of the book. It definitely sounds like one that would be interesting to read.

Thanks rssllue!

[gali]

Sounds like a book with a great potential. Good job on the review!

[e-tasana-williams]

Thank you! I agree there is great potential here, with some tweaking it could be 3/4 or higher. The author was clearly dedicated to presenting real aspects of history with a fictional cast of characters.

[rssllue]

Very nice job on fleshing out the basis of the story for us. Your review was very good in giving the good and bad of the book. It definitely sounds like one that would be interesting to read.

Thanks rssllue!

You are most welcome!

[Heidi M Simone]

I enjoyed reading your balanced and honest review! Too bad about the flaws in this book. It sounds like an interesting premise.

[kimmyschemy06]

That was a very honest review. I'm into historical fiction but not much into war. Still, this sounds like an interesting book. Great job on the review.

[e-tasana-williams]

I enjoyed reading your balanced and honest review! Too bad about the flaws in this book. It sounds like an interesting premise.

Thank you! Yes, with some more editing it would be such a good read.

-- July 1st, 2016, 1:25 pm --

That was a very honest review. I'm into historical fiction but not much into war. Still, this sounds like an interesting book. Great job on the review.

Thank you! It was interesting, and as far as war fiction goes, it was light on the combat scenes and descriptions of fallout in general.

[gordontraffic]

Thank you for your review,
I have re-edited the book and the latest version is now on Amazon. 3rd. July 2016
Gordon Smith

[e-tasana-williams]

Thank you for the opportunity to review your book. It was very interesting and informative. Best wishes!