My dad said the definitive biography of Audie Murphy was written in the early '80s, and has been out of print since the mid-'80s, so we're rolling with this more recent one. It's not a deep dive into Murphy's life - To Hell and Back was 100 pages longer - more a tour of Murphy's life. We learn a bit more about his childhood, the poverty, the abandonment by his father, Murphy's aptitude for shooting.
It's enlightening to compare the chapters on Murphy's military service with what Murphy himself described (although Smith quotes frequently from Murphy's memoir.) For example, while Murphy described becoming friends with a nurse during one of his stints in a rear hospital from malaria, he left out a nurse he actually proposed to while he was in the hospital dealing with gangrene from taking a ricochet in the hip (Murphy barely spends a page on his time in the hospital). Smith, of course, highlights which acts earned Murphy various awards, although he points out how uncomfortable Murphy always was about those and why that might be.
I'm not sure I buy the idea Murphy knew his actions were not done from some conscious decision to act despite the risks, but rather out of blind anger (Smith draws a comparison to something Aristotle said about courage). I do agree Murphy felt he simply did his duty as thousands of other soldiers did and was just lucky.
The longest stretch of the book is Murphy's post-war life. Smith covers Murphy's acting career, especially his inability or unwillingness to pretend to be someone he isn't, but also about Murphy dealing (or avoiding dealing) with his war experiences. If Murphy ever sought any sort of professional help for dealing with the nightmares that made him prefer sleeping with lights on, or the, paranoia maybe, that made him always have a loaded gun, there's no evidence of it here.
Murphy, if never exactly admitting his personal struggles, did discuss how the military helps un-train or retrain the dogs they used, but doesn't do the same for men. He's also quoted as admitting it was difficult for him to care about things, and he's always be looking for something new to engage with, only to quickly lose interest after the initial rush. He has temper issues, but seems patient with children and other veterans and takes seriously the notion of being a role model (he refuses to do any endorsements for alcohol or tobacco.)
The book probably serves best as a starting line for someone who wants to learn more about Audie Murphy, as there's a lot it only briefly references that a person might want to delve deeper into.
'In the future Murphy preferred to deflect attention from himself and deny that he was courageous - let alone a hero - partly because of his natural humility, but also because he understood that his courage was not something he consciously chose to do: it was nothing more than a natural reaction that did not seem overly praiseworthy to him and never would.'
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