The Effects of War
After an endlessly beautiful afternoon spent analysing first and second World War poetry, either of two things can happen to a person. Either one feels incredibly jaded, distrustful and weary all at once, which in my experience, isn't very nice no matter how lovely the afternoon; or one simply wants to hear more about the wars. I'm quite thankful the latter happened to me.
I went to the British Council Library (BCL) looking for writings on war: poetry, prose, bios, anything really. I was suddenly siezed by wanting to know more about life in the trenches, how ugly it got, the shell shock and the gas bombs, the repeated effects of seeing ones friends blown to bits and the disguised but forever flickering empathy with one's enemy.
I got my paws onto some war stuff immediately. And this is stunning because in the Bangalore BCL I once found Shakespeare lurking in the Surgery section and Naipaul in Nanotechnology.
The book I found was Paul Bailey's 'Old Soldiers'. As the title suggests it isn't quite life-in-the-trenches so much as what life-in-the-trenches can do to a man post war. The book was an unexpected and great find in many ways. The writing is so easy that getting involved with the characters was near instant. There were no flimsy introductions and descriptions, one just begins with a slice of Captain Standish's and Victor Harker's life. The war leaves deep scars on both men's lives and it would be easy to say that these scars hinder the course of their lives, but that isn't altogether true. And that's where the beauty of the book lies for me. The effects of the war are both bad and good for both men. Realizing that war can construct whole lives, not just destroy them- it can completely rebuild people- was an eyeopener for me.
After that last paragraph I feel like emboldening this next bit. It's a funny book. It's funny in clever ways: lots of word play, lots of irony, lots of quirks in the characters. I really like books or stories where one feels like one has understood the charcters and this was one. There's some crazy, irreverent moments in the book, but its never contrived. And it's tiny! It's really like a long short story, if you get my drift. 'Old Soldiers' took me about two hours to finish, and that's quick because I've been crowned the Princess Slow of Reading.
So if you can, read 'Old Soldiers'. It is funny, sad, irreverent, thought provoking and small, all at the same time. It's a great read and it definitely gave me a wider base on my World War knowledge, but with a quirk. I never expected to find a book about war that wasn't filled with gore, fear and horror. I guess like everything else, war is not one-dimensional. Clearly, the effects of war are many.
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on 9.4.06 at 11:57 AM.
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