Steinbeck never ceases to amaze. This was an excellent short novel illustrating the struggle of mankind against oppression. Simply told, the story of what happens when a small town in Europe is invaded by Nazi oppressors. The invaders come in with the mindset that the villagers will be willing to assist in operating the coal mine and supporting them. Wrong! As quoted by the mayor in the book "the one impossible job in the world that can't be done is to break men's spirit permanently." As the soldiers learned, they were like "flies conquering the flypaper."
The Moon Is Down is a deceptively powerful little book given the context in which it was written in 1942 by the incomparable John Steinbeck. It has been described by him as a "celebration of the durability of democracy" and was written to support the people struggling under the oppression of the Nazis. It remains the most acknowledged piece of effective propaganda in Europe during WWII. It is a testament to the power of words. John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, and was lauded at that time for his "keen social perception." He ranks at the forefront of my literary heroes.