The opening love story is masterfully subtle and insightful, and provides a civilized contrast to the monstrosity that comes later.
You will not be able to put this book down.
I had read an earlier book of his and thought it a load of pretentious twaddle (Girl from Lion D'or).
The book has a number of startling pieces: the first world war is obvlously dealt with at length, but the most moving parts for me were those that dealt with the love of our children.
Jack Firebrace's love for his son John was expressed in a way that fundamentally relayed my feelings for my own children. I was mesmerised and deeply moved as he described his feelings.
I was genuinly apalled by the suffering of the ordinary soldiers in the pointless war, and one of the aims of the book I am sure was to make clear what they endured. In that it succeeded. I have often thought about the war as members of my family died on the first days of the fighting in Turkey.
On the negative side:
I did not at all relate to Stephen the main character. His detachment and self belief are charactersitics I would more associate with a public school boy from a priviliged and wealthy family and not from a lad brought up in an institution.
I did feel that the book was overly long, with a number of scenes in the tunnels that could easily have been dispensed with. There was a particularly silly scene of Stephen carrying a bird in a cage and overcoming his fear.
I was not taken with the literary devise of the enquiring grand daughter,and not at all interested in her love affair with Robert. I appreciate that this did produce the desired result i.e. a "surrogate" son for Jack Firebrace, but their lives in comparison with those of the soldiers seemed pale and vapid.
The London Underground and the descriptions of the tunnels also seemed a little too contrived.
However, this is a masterpiece of a novel: moving and evocative. It was not perfect but its richness made up for any flaws in its construction.
