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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Kinda cheesy I guess, but it hits. Liked the camping bit, and the bit about the guy who dropped a bunch of pies.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, War, Injury/Injury detail
This brilliant, searing, devastating novel is told in the first person voice of Joe Bonham, a very young veteran of World War I. The reader is the only person hearing Joe's voice because he is trapped in his deafened, blinded, horribly mutilated body; unfortunately, he remains fully able to think and have emotions, even without his limbs and face. The writing is incredible: at times dreamy and in a stream of consciousness as Joe remembers his former life; at others frantic and anxious as Joe tries to come to grips with his new horrific reality. This book is angry and honest, and illustrates the indefensible cost and futility of war so clearly and painfully. For me, it joins the great books of anti-war fiction: The Red Badge of Courage, The Things They Carried, anything by Vonnegut, etc.
As an aside, as I read this I realized (once again) how much I love American literature from the early part of the 20th century. Writers like Edith Wharton, Carson McCullers, Sinclair Lewis, Betty Smith, Steinbeck, F.Scott Fitzgerald, early Capote, Willa Cather, Sarah Orne Jewett, Theodore Dreiser, Booth Tarkington, Hemingway, even Ayn Rand with all of her problems. It's something about how much they trust their readers to keep up with them.
As an aside, as I read this I realized (once again) how much I love American literature from the early part of the 20th century. Writers like Edith Wharton, Carson McCullers, Sinclair Lewis, Betty Smith, Steinbeck, F.Scott Fitzgerald, early Capote, Willa Cather, Sarah Orne Jewett, Theodore Dreiser, Booth Tarkington, Hemingway, even Ayn Rand with all of her problems. It's something about how much they trust their readers to keep up with them.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was an emotional ride! This author was well beyond his time and struck every nerve and left them raw. The writing was amazing, the story was tragic and heartbreaking and it made the reader feel such strong empathy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail
“if you tell us to make the world safe for democracy we will take you seriously and by god and by christ we will make it so. we will use the guns you force upon us we will use them to defend our very lives and the menace to our lives does not lie on the other side of a nomansland that was set apart without our consent it lies within our own boundaries here and now we have seen it and we know it. put the guns into our hands and we will use them. give us the slogans and we will turn them into realities.”
I love that it read perfectly like thoughts in your head. Or like a journal just full of random ideas, thoughts, memories, rants.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No