Poignant, Fascinating, Too Real

Too Real for our times, perhaps. These times of war without the individual perspective to root us.
This is a truly magnificent book, not because of its epic scale - The Great War has that in itself - but on account of the many people of all walks of life that suddenly became people of all walks of life at War, both on the military and civilian fronts, truly the first People's War. Trying to make sense of the War would never do. So trying to make sense of each individual experience would perhaps be the logical step if you somehow wanted to felt a connection to the experiences of those times. They're still within living memory - but only just so. Before this conflict becomes 'historical' in the worst sense perhaps all of us should read this book. European domination of the World mostly died here. The seeds of WWII are all too clear. But more than that - it seems to be a whole innocence lost along with the Lost Generation.
This is not a sentimental book. But perhaps your reactions to it may be so. Mine were, and I felt it did me some good. I'm not preaching here - but as this War gets further away from us in time it's ever more difficult to understand the terrible introduction to most things worst about the XXth Century that it initiated.



9/10