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ruthiella's review against another edition
4.0
William Boyd is a great historical fiction writer, but nothing quite measured up to the first book of his that I read: Any Human Heart, however this novel is the closest runner up so far.
Showcasing the absurdity of war, most of the novel is set in what was then German and British East Africa where colonial forces also fought out World War I . In Africa, there are farmers, the expatriate American, Walter Smith, and the half German/half English Erich von Bishop and his unhappy wife, Liesl, each who live just on the other side of the borderline between the two colonies; neighbors until war is declared. In England, the main characters are brothers Felix and Gabriel Cobb. They come from a military family and Gabriel is a newly engaged career soldier but Felix, the youngest, is a petulant teenager who despises the values held by his father and wants to go to Oxford to study.
While not a comedy exactly, the book does have more than a few funny moments and absurd characters (who are probably all completely based on real people – the truth is stranger than fiction). But it also is quite tragic at times – the loss of life in East Africa wasn’t as dramatic as on the battlefields of Europe, but this is about a war and the terrible things that happen to soldiers and civilians caught up in such violent events.
Showcasing the absurdity of war, most of the novel is set in what was then German and British East Africa where colonial forces also fought out World War I . In Africa, there are farmers, the expatriate American, Walter Smith, and the half German/half English Erich von Bishop and his unhappy wife, Liesl, each who live just on the other side of the borderline between the two colonies; neighbors until war is declared. In England, the main characters are brothers Felix and Gabriel Cobb. They come from a military family and Gabriel is a newly engaged career soldier but Felix, the youngest, is a petulant teenager who despises the values held by his father and wants to go to Oxford to study.
While not a comedy exactly, the book does have more than a few funny moments and absurd characters (who are probably all completely based on real people – the truth is stranger than fiction). But it also is quite tragic at times – the loss of life in East Africa wasn’t as dramatic as on the battlefields of Europe, but this is about a war and the terrible things that happen to soldiers and civilians caught up in such violent events.
rosseroo's review
4.0
For some reason, despite being a huge fan of William Boyd's writing for going on twenty years, I'd never gotten around to reading this -- his second published novel -- until this week. I suppose it's kind of a delayed gratification thing, with Boyd I know I'm going to be in the hands of an able storyteller whose sure plotting and smooth prose is going to be a pleasure.
The titular war is the faceoff between British and German troops in their colonial possessions in East Africa (present-day Kenya and Tanzania) during World War I. (My guess is that 97% of the people who are aware that there even was fighting in East Africa during World War I, probably learned of it via The African Queen.) The three main characters are Temple Smith, and brothers Gabriel and Felix Cobb. Smith is an American sisal farmer on British land not too far from Mt. Kilimanjaro. The Cobbs are the kind of upper class types familiar to viewers of Downton Abbey or readers of Evelyn Waugh. Gabriel is in the Army and gets posted to Africa, where his capture becomes part of the catalyst for Felix joining up and finagling an African assignment in order to find him.
Boyd paints the absurdity of the war as it relates to his African setting in the best tradition of "war as a tragic farce" stories, while at the same time, devoting equal, if not greater time to the war's effect on domestic lives. The former is told mainly through Smith's efforts to expand his farming operation, only to see it captured by native troops led his politely enervating German neighbor. His quest for reparations is tragicomic and utterly human. Meanwhile, we trace the Cobb brothers from their prewar lives and loves, as the war batters them about with somewhat less comedy and rather more tragedy. Along the way, glimpses at the Army operations show the confusion and chaos of it all.
As always, Boyd is a treat to read. The story is a nice mix of antiwar satire and domestic melodrama, definitely of interest to readers of historical fiction. The melodramatic elements may be ever so slightly too strong, taking it a peg down from his best books, but that still places it in the top 10%.
The titular war is the faceoff between British and German troops in their colonial possessions in East Africa (present-day Kenya and Tanzania) during World War I. (My guess is that 97% of the people who are aware that there even was fighting in East Africa during World War I, probably learned of it via The African Queen.) The three main characters are Temple Smith, and brothers Gabriel and Felix Cobb. Smith is an American sisal farmer on British land not too far from Mt. Kilimanjaro. The Cobbs are the kind of upper class types familiar to viewers of Downton Abbey or readers of Evelyn Waugh. Gabriel is in the Army and gets posted to Africa, where his capture becomes part of the catalyst for Felix joining up and finagling an African assignment in order to find him.
Boyd paints the absurdity of the war as it relates to his African setting in the best tradition of "war as a tragic farce" stories, while at the same time, devoting equal, if not greater time to the war's effect on domestic lives. The former is told mainly through Smith's efforts to expand his farming operation, only to see it captured by native troops led his politely enervating German neighbor. His quest for reparations is tragicomic and utterly human. Meanwhile, we trace the Cobb brothers from their prewar lives and loves, as the war batters them about with somewhat less comedy and rather more tragedy. Along the way, glimpses at the Army operations show the confusion and chaos of it all.
As always, Boyd is a treat to read. The story is a nice mix of antiwar satire and domestic melodrama, definitely of interest to readers of historical fiction. The melodramatic elements may be ever so slightly too strong, taking it a peg down from his best books, but that still places it in the top 10%.
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