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spazmatikdingo's review against another edition
Became a drag. This book took me around 5 years to almost finish, there are better books out there to spend time on than this. If this book taught me anything it was to not waste time on a book you find dragged out and redundant.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
beebeewin's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.75
This was an interesting book to read that while it wasn't my favorite, I will be thinking about it for a long time. Often war memoirs are from the perspective of men so I found it super refreshing to hear it from the point of view of a woman. Vera Brittain writes a book that feels super relevant even now, especially after the pandemic and the large conservative push back on women's rights. She talks unflinchingly of the loss she experiences and seems to have utilized it to pull thought-provoking and heart-breaking nuggets of wisdoms out. If you weren't already a pacificist this book really pushes you to consider it. As someone who learned about WW1 from a distant, historical perspective to read this novel from a first hand position is heart wrenching.
These were humans fighting each other for what, as Roland her fiancé wrote from the trenches "'Here lies two gallant German officers.' The men who put the cross congratulated themselves a little on their British magnanimity, but when, later they pushed the enemy off of the trenches in front of the wood, they found another grave as carefully tended, and inscribed: 'Here le five brave English officers.'" Indeed, Brittain uses the letters of those she loved and loss to show how they themselves once in the trenches saw the pointlessness of this war. "Let him who thinks War is a glorious, golden thing, who loves to roll forth stirring words of exhortation invoking Honour... and Love of Country with thoughtless and fervid a faith... let him look at a little pile of sodden grey rags that cover half a skull and a shin-bone and what might have been Its ribs... and let them realize how grand and glorious a thing it is to have distilled all Youth and Joy and Life into a fetid heap of hideous putrescence."
Reading history from this vulnerable and disastrously sad position I could not help but relate. Those lost were children, men in their teens and early twenties, who were convinced by those more powerful that war was honorable and their duty to protect those they love. Brittain notes that later generations saw them as "poor boobs" letting themselves believe in patriotism and the war, but as she nots it was "a heavy price to pay for making the mistake." It is even more disheartening to realize that only ~10 years later another war occurred that took more young lives, and her hope that "the new generation be taught to perceive logic before the hatreds and passions generated by the last war led a tired and tormented world into another", was more prophetic then I think she anticipated.
Her feminism was interesting as that movement has evolved so much since 1933, but many of the problems that she faced still persist (which is nightmarish). One quote that stuck with me and really applies in this day and again, about 100 years later, "In those dates we were still naive enough to believe that suggestions need only be bright in order to be enthusiastically accepted, and had still to learn.... the one thing that that really terrifies officials is the prospect of any alteration to the status quo." Relevant to my experiences of growing up and watching the pandemic, 2016 US election, Black Lives Matter movement, and many more.
The later part of the book did honestly drag and I wish we could have almost condensed the last 200 pages of the book, thus the lower rating. Despite that I would still recommend this book to everyone just to give better context to the history we have all learned. It definitely opened my eyes to how history can be so distorted when we are not hearing the first hand perspectives and how we need to listen to those who lived these experiences if we don't want to repeat our errors and mistakes over an over. Lastly, I do think I left this book with even more passion for activism, pacifism, and live. "If the living are to be of any use in this world, them must always break faith with the dead," and use our survivorship to fight for change!
These were humans fighting each other for what, as Roland her fiancé wrote from the trenches "'Here lies two gallant German officers.' The men who put the cross congratulated themselves a little on their British magnanimity, but when, later they pushed the enemy off of the trenches in front of the wood, they found another grave as carefully tended, and inscribed: 'Here le five brave English officers.'" Indeed, Brittain uses the letters of those she loved and loss to show how they themselves once in the trenches saw the pointlessness of this war. "Let him who thinks War is a glorious, golden thing, who loves to roll forth stirring words of exhortation invoking Honour... and Love of Country with thoughtless and fervid a faith... let him look at a little pile of sodden grey rags that cover half a skull and a shin-bone and what might have been Its ribs... and let them realize how grand and glorious a thing it is to have distilled all Youth and Joy and Life into a fetid heap of hideous putrescence."
Reading history from this vulnerable and disastrously sad position I could not help but relate. Those lost were children, men in their teens and early twenties, who were convinced by those more powerful that war was honorable and their duty to protect those they love. Brittain notes that later generations saw them as "poor boobs" letting themselves believe in patriotism and the war, but as she nots it was "a heavy price to pay for making the mistake." It is even more disheartening to realize that only ~10 years later another war occurred that took more young lives, and her hope that "the new generation be taught to perceive logic before the hatreds and passions generated by the last war led a tired and tormented world into another", was more prophetic then I think she anticipated.
Her feminism was interesting as that movement has evolved so much since 1933, but many of the problems that she faced still persist (which is nightmarish). One quote that stuck with me and really applies in this day and again, about 100 years later, "In those dates we were still naive enough to believe that suggestions need only be bright in order to be enthusiastically accepted, and had still to learn.... the one thing that that really terrifies officials is the prospect of any alteration to the status quo." Relevant to my experiences of growing up and watching the pandemic, 2016 US election, Black Lives Matter movement, and many more.
The later part of the book did honestly drag and I wish we could have almost condensed the last 200 pages of the book, thus the lower rating. Despite that I would still recommend this book to everyone just to give better context to the history we have all learned. It definitely opened my eyes to how history can be so distorted when we are not hearing the first hand perspectives and how we need to listen to those who lived these experiences if we don't want to repeat our errors and mistakes over an over. Lastly, I do think I left this book with even more passion for activism, pacifism, and live. "If the living are to be of any use in this world, them must always break faith with the dead," and use our survivorship to fight for change!
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Ableism, Gun violence, Grief, Medical content, and Death
wisteriavenusta's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.25
Acredito que – para além de trabalhos da escola manhosos – nunca tenha escrito qualquer tipo de crítica a algum livro, não obstante, este conjunto de páginas merece ter algumas palavras escritas sobre ele; vocábulos inquietos que servirão como agradecimento pela sua estadia num papel. Confesso que demorei demasiado tempo a ler este livro. Recordo-me que no início de 2021, ouvi falar sobre este livro algures – uma biografia espantosa sobre uma enfermeira na Primeira Guerra Mundial que perdeu quatro pessoas (dois amigos, o seu irmão e o seu amado) num contexto de guerra, que nem eles sabiam muito bem no que ia acabar. Pareceu-me extraordinário, mesmo que trágico. Despertou-me uma séria curiosidade, já que estes livros sempre têm perspetivas masculinas e violentas – agora tinha posse de uma perspetiva feminina e feroz.
Não é um livro fácil (tanto que só o estou a terminar mais de um ano depois de o ter começado), mas, decerto, é um livro onde se consegue mergulhar, ficar submerso, experienciar todos os bocados que a autora nos apresenta; saborear as suas experiências, lutar com ela, prantear os seus agouros, fazer o luto com ela, escrever versos, observar o quotidiano – tudo isso, enquanto estamos perante meras palavras, uma vez escritas num papel, agora transferidas para um papel mais limpo, menos um rascunho. Vera Brittain, com as suas convicções duras, observações prepotentes e a magia do que nos consegue transmitir, conseguiu fazer uma Obra de Arte através da sua melancolia, do seu pesar. Desde a sua infância, à sua vida numa Inglaterra purgada por costumes vitorianos, até à sua rebeldia de uma Geração Perdida à tentativa da normalidade num mundo pós-guerra, onde havia uma dicotomia entre modernidade e os costumes.
Embora nos percamos no livro, é, definitivamente, um livro do seu tempo. Muitas das referências feitas no livro só fazem sentido caso haja um estudo intensivo de História ou se tenha sido inglês nos anos 20, são experiências muito específicas e pouco populares. No entanto, o seu pensamento progressivo faz com que o livro pareça mais jovem do que é – Vera consegue cativar leitores de gerações futuras com os seus discursos e opiniões de um tempo já longínquo, um pouco apagado pelas décadas seguintes. O seu feminismo, seu pacifismo e progresso até ao socialismo são lições para quem lê posteriormente – uma mulher invicta que se atreveu a pensar para além das suas circunstâncias, que usou a sua educação para alcançar um bem-maior, que quando as limitações surgiram, mirou-as frontalmente e desviou-se, fazendo o seu nome. Algo bastante agradável de ler, foi, também, a sua sensibilidade. Os seus medos, as suas preocupações, que, mesmo sendo uma figura de aço, também tinha certas concepções sobre o amor, sobre relações interpessoais, opiniões pouco simpáticas sobre certas pessoas, dissertações sobre fisionomia e psique de quem está a seu redor. Não são simplesmente memórias debitadas, mas a narração de um conto contado por quem o viveu e o quer transmitir, uma tertúlia pessoal, um jantar de família.
No Universo de Vera Brittain, existem trincheiras, existe lama, existe sangue, existem ligaduras, no entanto, existe também, uma geração de mulheres vestidas de branco que segurou este conflito grandioso, apenas com as suas próprias mãos (e por vezes treinos pouco intensivos por causa da escassez). Ainda bem que Vera Brittain será sempre relembrada pela História, que não se submeteu à insignificância que tanto lhe tentaram impingir.
E, sim, as últimas 200 páginas (depois da Guerra acabar, sensivelmente) foram intrigantes, mas, com todo o pesar, foram penosas. Uma caneta muito densa, muito intimista – o relatório dos acontecimentos foi doloroso, contudo, o pensamento de Vera em relação à sua condição foi sempre bem-vindo, sensível e aprazível.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Death and Grief
ameliapagee's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and War
Moderate: Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Misogyny
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
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