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A review by bleadenreads
In Memoriam by Alice Winn
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
5.0
This was absolutely deserving of the hype & an outstanding novel. Book maths - Tinman + All Quiet on the Western Front.
I was so invested in Gaunt and Ellwood, & it's rare that a book has such an absolute hold on me. It's joined the ranks of Still Life, Tinman, A Gentleman in Moscow & Wolf Hall. The historical detail was exceptional & it really encapsulated the naivety of the young schoolboys signing up to war, expecting the poetic glory of Troy or the Peloponnese War.
Winn focuses on their school as a sort of microcosm for the sheer scale of death & injuries for one generation through their school newspaper reporting deaths and injuries, the edition after the Somme was heartbreaking, as well as the way Winn tells you their friend died the day before Armistice.
There were brilliant twists and turns, as well as brutal depictions of shell shock & the loss of innocence, especially when you remember that most soldiers were 17-25 years old & didn't grow up with cinema footage of war, they had no precedent or concept of what to expect. The flashbacks to their schooldays really drummed home their age & youth (and loss of it). The trenches were terrifying - with the mud and rotting bodies described so viscerally.
It reminded me of All Quiet on the Western Front with the loss of naivety and disillusionment with the ideas of empire, class & glorified war.
I could talk about this novel forever and it was absolute perfection. I highly recommend!
I was so invested in Gaunt and Ellwood, & it's rare that a book has such an absolute hold on me. It's joined the ranks of Still Life, Tinman, A Gentleman in Moscow & Wolf Hall. The historical detail was exceptional & it really encapsulated the naivety of the young schoolboys signing up to war, expecting the poetic glory of Troy or the Peloponnese War.
Winn focuses on their school as a sort of microcosm for the sheer scale of death & injuries for one generation through their school newspaper reporting deaths and injuries, the edition after the Somme was heartbreaking, as well as the way Winn tells you their friend died the day before Armistice.
There were brilliant twists and turns, as well as brutal depictions of shell shock & the loss of innocence, especially when you remember that most soldiers were 17-25 years old & didn't grow up with cinema footage of war, they had no precedent or concept of what to expect. The flashbacks to their schooldays really drummed home their age & youth (and loss of it). The trenches were terrifying - with the mud and rotting bodies described so viscerally.
It reminded me of All Quiet on the Western Front with the loss of naivety and disillusionment with the ideas of empire, class & glorified war.
I could talk about this novel forever and it was absolute perfection. I highly recommend!