A Review By Emma Sothcott
This has to be one of my all time favourite books. Sebastian Faulks has such a captivating writing style that is perfectly matched to the unimaginable horror that soldiers had to face throughout the First World War. His description is extremely powerful for a contemporary take on a time that almost no living writers can explain well enough to do justice. The protagonist, Stephen Wraysford, is not at all the typical hero of a war novel one would expect and he seems to display a curiosity, which the reader shares moving through the story, of how far the Great War will push the men submerged within it, including how far it will push him himself. This subtly uncaring aspect of his character makes his relationships with the other men seem more fractured and realistic than the comradeship and brotherhood we are used to reading about in war novels.
The novel begins in 1910 in Amiens, France where Wraysford is living with the affluent Azaire family as a guest, where he develops an interest in the new wife of Monsieur Azaire, the elegant Isabelle. Stephen is soon after flung into life as a soldier and he battles with the trauma of being at war, whilst simultaneously being strangely acquainted with feeling of survival.
There is a section in the middle of the book in which Faulks depicts the battle of the Somme, which I have to admit was one of the most evocative pieces of writing I have ever come across. With lines like, “He could see a long, wavering line of khaki, primitive dolls progressing in tense deliberate steps, going down with a silent flap of arms, replaced, falling, continuing as though walking into a gale” Faulks takes you through what Stephen sees almost as if you are sharing the battle thought by thought. It brought to light aspects of the war that were previously completely unknown to me, for example, fascinating yet terrifying detail of the tunnelling methods the army used. These details however, only make the moving story encompassing them more poignant. I will read it again in future if not simply for the satisfaction one gains in reading it, then in attempt to delve deeper into the level of understanding Faulks has presented on the page. Simply incredible writing.
