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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
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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