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Title: The Soldier's Return by Melvyn Bragg ISBN: 1-55970-685-6 Publisher: General Pub. Date: 10 July, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Quietly Brilliant
Comment: It's a theme repeated endlessly ever since the Odyssey, and yet this story of a soldier's weary return from war reads like it's all brand new.
Following a grueling and horrendously brutal campaign in Burma in the waning days of World War II, Sam Richardson returns to his home, a tiny village in England's Lake Country called Wigton. There, as he has dreamed of for months and years, he is reunited with his pretty young wife Ellen, and his young son Joe, a baby when his father went off to war.
Soon enough, it becomes apparent that the happy reunion was only the tip of the iceberg. A tangled web of emotions, frightening to both Ellen and Sam, and unspoken by both, threatens to destroy the relationship they both want so badly to keep. Sam is haunted by the atrocities and death he has seen in the war, and can hardly keep in his own skin as he dreams of escaping to far-off lands to make a new start. Ellen, used to being on her own, is frightened by this stranger with her husband's face, and clings even more desperately to the village of her birth and the way of life she is accustomed to. And in between them is little Joe, accustomed to having his "mammy" all to himself, and now misplaced by a stranger he must call "daddy."
Alongside this very private drama of three very private people is the larger story of the village of Wigton, which suffered all manner of privations during the war--but whose people are still clinging strongly to village ways.
Bragg, who grew up in the Wigton area, has created a masterpiece, in my opinion. It is followed by "A Son of War," a continuation of the Richardson saga, and something I intend to read immediately.
Rating: 3
Summary: No Dramas Here
Comment: When Sam Richardson returned home from Burma after the second World War, nothinkg appreared to have changed in his hometown. However, traumatised from his experience, he found it difficult to adjust. He loved his wife Ellen and son Joe deeply, but having returned almost as a stranger to them, he had hurdles to cross to forge bonds with them. While he desperately wanted to get out of the familiar and routine surroundings, Ellen and Joe wanted to stay put almost as desperately.
Unsentimental and almost glommy, this book is not for readers looking for dramatic plots or romance. It simply moves the reader along with the thoughts and feelings of the two central characters, Sam and Ellen
Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting switch of perspectives
Comment: This post-war book is thick with British idioms and terms, and so it was read slowly and deliberately! This is a very well-researched book. It describes a returning soldier's coming to terms with the horrors of war which he had experienced in Burma during WWII. The story opens with his return; very little of it is flashbacks, except when necessary, and only to tie it in to a current happening in the plot. The soldier's wife and young son have learned to be self-reliant while he was away, and their adjustments to his return are slow and painstaking. Well written, yet the ending was too hastily composed, in my opinion. A long, drawn out plot which ends abruptly, toying with one's emotions, is a characteristic of books which some like....I prefer a calmer resolution.
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Title: A Son of War by Melvyn Bragg ISBN: 1559706864 Publisher: General Pub. Date: 10 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Vernon God Little: A 21st Century Comedy in the Presence of Death by D. B. C. Pierre ISBN: 1841954608 Publisher: Canongate Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier ISBN: 0525947671 Publisher: Dutton Books Pub. Date: 29 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The White Road by John Connolly ISBN: 0743456386 Publisher: Atria Books Pub. Date: 11 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Nancy Pearl ISBN: 1570613818 Publisher: Sasquatch Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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