Ice cream man found covered in hundreds and thousands.Police think he topped himself.
Ice cream man found covered in hundreds and thousands.Police think he topped himself.
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I have read several books and poetry on the First World War but Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks stimulated my interest and affected me the most in this terrible period of the twentieth century.
Birdsong opens in France in 1910 with the arrival of twenty-year-old Stephen Wraysford at the house of the Azaire family. He is there to study the textile industry at the factory owned by Monsieur Adaire, who is a cold fish and a snob. His wife Isabelle is younger and it is obvious it is a marriage of convenience. The young Englishman is immediately attracted to her but she is more reticent and keeps her emotions in check. This slow but persistent courtship by Stephen has an explosive and stirringly erotic element that influences young Stephen throughout the book.
There is an insight into the industrial unrest prevailing in France at the time and
in the discrimination suffered by women of the period. There are other undertones between the factory owner, his wife Isabelle and his friends the Berards.
The second part of the novel takes place in 1916 and introduces Jack Firebrace a miner sent to the front, put in uniform and expected to dig towards the enemy. There was imminent danger of death from being buried alive or blasted by the German mines. I was unaware of the tactics of tunnelling during WW1 and although it seems obvious I thought it was mainly trenches and dugouts. Jack Firebrace makes a comment on the social conditions experienced by ordinary people at the time when he admits that the army food that arrives at irregular intervals and sometimes contaminated was better than he could afford at home. The brief breaks in villages behind the lines, made returning to the trenches harder. Coping with a normal life after the constant bombardment , fear of death and the harsh conditions, even briefly, was almost impossible. There is a central theme, which is the relationship between the rather cold Wraysford and the scared, but eccentric Captain Wier. The battles are horrific but well described with much loss of life due to the incompetence of the Generals.
The next part of the book takes us forward to 1978 and Elizabeth a single career woman conducting an affair with a married man. She is searching for the truth about her Grandfather, Stephen Wraysford. During her search she finds a large monument and the answers she receives from a local both surprise and horrify her. This fuels her obsession with learning more and leads her to question her own life.
We then switch to France in 1917 and a brief interlude of home leave. In France Stephen encounters his recent past and makes an unexpected discovery. The war at this point is being waged with more caution and planning to minimise loss of life.
The final two chapters resolve the fortunes of both Elizabeth and her Grandfather.
Although the novel is fiction it is based on the facts of WW1. It made me angry and frustrated at the lack of regard for human life by the pampered and whingeing Generals well behind the front line. Imagine digging down 75 feet and constructing a tunnel 3 foot wide heading hundreds of yards towards the enemy lines; your shoulders touching either side with tons of French soil above you and crawling away from the air pump getting hotter and breathing hard. Meanwhile your General is complaining that there is only red wine to go with his chicken dinner.
There are those that say the Generals were not as bad as we painted them with the phrase “Lions led by Donkeys” The cold facts are that 10 million men from all sides of the conflict lost their lives and 20 million were wounded. One million men were killed in the battle of the Somme. They give donkeys a bad name.
Faulks detailed descriptions of the emotion and the fear the night before the battle of the Somme left me feeling tense and uneasy. How these men could bring themselves to walk in line towards a hail of bullets with only the protection of a uniform and a tin helmet and to do so having seen the evidence of the effects on a frangible human body is beyond my comprehension. The letters home are very poignant and tell of the craving for a normal life but at the same time trying not to worry their loved ones.
I was held throughout by this wonderful and brilliant novel and effected by the strength of human spirit and the compassion that stayed with me throughout and still does.
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks Published by Vintage UK £6.99 ISBN 0-09-938791-3
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Looks like I have missed out by not reading this book. Great review. Jane x
sarieah 21.12.2004 21:06
Interesting and thorough review. I've currently reading Birdsong for my A Level Literature coursework/exam and wasn't looking forward to reading it at all. It actually took me ages to get into, simply because it was for school and I enjoy reading easy 'chick-lit' kind of books. Though, since reading Birdsong, my view has changed.
Thank you so much for your review, I've got to give a presentation on Birdsong and I think your feedback has really helped me!
Readers who are entranced by sweeping historical sagas will devour Birdsong, Sebastian ... more
Faulks' drama set during the first world war. There's even a little high-toned erotica thrown into the mix to convince the doubtful. The book's hero, a 20-year-old E...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Readers who are entranced by sweeping historical sagas will devourBirdsong, Sebastian ... more
Faulks' drama set during the first world war. There's even a little high-toned erotica thrown into the mix to convince the doubtful. The book's hero, a 20-year-old En...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Readers who are entranced by sweeping historical sagas will devourBirdsong, Sebastian ... more
Faulks' drama set during the first world war. There's even a little high-toned erotica thrown into the mix to convince the doubtful. The book's hero, a 20-year-old En...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Readers who are entranced by sweeping historical sagas will devour Birdsong, Sebastian ... more
Faulks' drama set during the first world war. There's even a little high-toned erotica thrown into the mix to convince the doubtful. The book's hero, a 20-year-old E...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Apr 6th, 2004
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