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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
Struggled to find the book enjoyable. Was marginally intriguing at times but that’s a compliment. The characters were two dimensional - the narration would’ve been interesting if John Dowell wasn’t utterly clueless. I had hopes for the book but the quality of the characters and narrative had little interest or appeal.
Ford Madox Ford wrote The Good Soldier in 1915 telling a truly tragic tale of love, adultery and morality which is so layered I think it must be read more than once to gain full appreciation for it. Ford uses non-chronological flashbacks to lead the reader through an in-depth character study full of betrayal and intrigue the likes of which I have never encountered before.
The story is bold and engaging once you get into it. I would say it is not an easy book to read, certainly to begin with. This is mostly due to the non chronological way it is told. The best way I can think to describe it is like the film 'Memento' starring Guy Pearce. but if you persevere with it the rewards are great.
Ford's use of this flashback technique was pioneering at the time and earned him a place among literary giants of the 20th century. It fits the story perfectly which is itself a roller coaster ride full of conflicting emotions and told by an unreliable narrator who seems to desperately struggle himself to make any sense out of what happened.
The character development is amazing and I must say I have rarely found characters so engaging or real. That being said their behaviour at times seems incredible and almost completely without logic. It is truly a looking glass into another time and place.
I cannot recommend it highly enough and although it is hailed as Ford's greatest work I will certainly be reading more of his in future.
The story is bold and engaging once you get into it. I would say it is not an easy book to read, certainly to begin with. This is mostly due to the non chronological way it is told. The best way I can think to describe it is like the film 'Memento' starring Guy Pearce. but if you persevere with it the rewards are great.
Ford's use of this flashback technique was pioneering at the time and earned him a place among literary giants of the 20th century. It fits the story perfectly which is itself a roller coaster ride full of conflicting emotions and told by an unreliable narrator who seems to desperately struggle himself to make any sense out of what happened.
The character development is amazing and I must say I have rarely found characters so engaging or real. That being said their behaviour at times seems incredible and almost completely without logic. It is truly a looking glass into another time and place.
I cannot recommend it highly enough and although it is hailed as Ford's greatest work I will certainly be reading more of his in future.
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Three months ago, when I stumbled upon a beautiful collection of Alma Classics at a book sale, I hardly imagined that one of the volumes I selected would turn out to be one of those rare literary unicorns that ticked all my boxes. It seems unlikely, but The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford fascinated me from practically the first sentence. “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.”
The first thing you should know about The Good Soldier is probably that it’s being told from the viewpoint of an unreliable narrator and has no strict chronology. It reads like a confession and the sequence of events is jumbled according to the mood and flow of conscience of the main character, John Dowell (whose name you will likely have forgotten by the end). The story is written in such a way that you don’t untangle most of its lies and mysteries until the very last page, which gives the book the impression of being a puzzle you must put together. The suspense definitely had me race through the later chapters.
On the surface, Ford sketches how, at the beginning of the 20th century, the lives of two couples -- one American, one British -- intertwine themselves over the years, giving way to a secret romance and betrayal. On a deeper level, Ford examines the mental processes these people underwent to get where they are now in their lives. It spares us no dirty details. Even our dear unreliable narrator finds plenty of faults within himself and ends most parts of the book on a self-critical note. The Good Soldier is brutally honest in spite of describing an intricate web of lies and the feelings of one man who was the sorry victim of it.
Despite being first published in 1915, so many elements discussed in this book are incredibly relevant and it’s obvious why that is: The Good Soldier is a portrait of humans, and humanity has not really changed in the past century at a base level. We are still driven by love, pride, jealousy and all that other good stuff. This has led many reviewers to call the characters ‘despicable’ or ‘the worst of humanity’, but I think that’s too quick of a judgement. It was refreshing to see the dark corners of the human psyche portrayed with such stark honesty. The characters felt like people I could possibly encounter in the street; some reminded me of people I knew. Best of all, I could understand all of their motivations at any one point.
Honestly, this book handles so many subjects that we are still struggling with today. Here’s a selection: sexism, male entitlement, the objectification of women, abusive relationships, religious tension between branches of the Christian faith, the downsides of cultural conservatism, and many others. But it also brought some brighter topics to the fore, namely asexuality, polyamory and serial monogamy, male-female friendship, and the importance of responsibility and trust in any relationship. If that doesn’t sound modern then I don’t know what does anymore.
And the ending, damn, it was all I could have wanted. It was realistic and so quietly tragic that I could not help but feel sympathy for all those involved in the tale. It’s true you won’t get happy vibes from The Good Soldier, but you get tonnes of satisfaction from it instead. It’s got my full recommendation.
The first thing you should know about The Good Soldier is probably that it’s being told from the viewpoint of an unreliable narrator and has no strict chronology. It reads like a confession and the sequence of events is jumbled according to the mood and flow of conscience of the main character, John Dowell (whose name you will likely have forgotten by the end). The story is written in such a way that you don’t untangle most of its lies and mysteries until the very last page, which gives the book the impression of being a puzzle you must put together. The suspense definitely had me race through the later chapters.
On the surface, Ford sketches how, at the beginning of the 20th century, the lives of two couples -- one American, one British -- intertwine themselves over the years, giving way to a secret romance and betrayal. On a deeper level, Ford examines the mental processes these people underwent to get where they are now in their lives. It spares us no dirty details. Even our dear unreliable narrator finds plenty of faults within himself and ends most parts of the book on a self-critical note. The Good Soldier is brutally honest in spite of describing an intricate web of lies and the feelings of one man who was the sorry victim of it.
Despite being first published in 1915, so many elements discussed in this book are incredibly relevant and it’s obvious why that is: The Good Soldier is a portrait of humans, and humanity has not really changed in the past century at a base level. We are still driven by love, pride, jealousy and all that other good stuff. This has led many reviewers to call the characters ‘despicable’ or ‘the worst of humanity’, but I think that’s too quick of a judgement. It was refreshing to see the dark corners of the human psyche portrayed with such stark honesty. The characters felt like people I could possibly encounter in the street; some reminded me of people I knew. Best of all, I could understand all of their motivations at any one point.
Honestly, this book handles so many subjects that we are still struggling with today. Here’s a selection: sexism, male entitlement, the objectification of women, abusive relationships, religious tension between branches of the Christian faith, the downsides of cultural conservatism, and many others. But it also brought some brighter topics to the fore, namely asexuality, polyamory and serial monogamy, male-female friendship, and the importance of responsibility and trust in any relationship. If that doesn’t sound modern then I don’t know what does anymore.
And the ending, damn, it was all I could have wanted. It was realistic and so quietly tragic that I could not help but feel sympathy for all those involved in the tale. It’s true you won’t get happy vibes from The Good Soldier, but you get tonnes of satisfaction from it instead. It’s got my full recommendation.
The slow, nasty dissolution of the relationships between a number of people - two noxious couples and a parade of extra-marital love interests - and it's a bit like watching a train crash in slow motion. Part of that sense of slow inevitability is down to the narrator. The story's told in first person by the least interesting member of the quartet, a stolidly wet individual of surpassing unawareness. At least, he's meant to be surpassingly unaware, although his (and by inference Ford's) understanding of character and motive is so precise that the total misunderstanding of his wife's character and actions - while the horrible woman is alive at any rate - makes him not quite consistent, I think. I was reminded a little of Somerset Maugham, who's one of the finest character writers I've read - although Maugham has an understanding of subtlety, I think, that Ford lacks, and certainly more capability for pace and tone. The Good Soldier is monumentally consistent, a sort of dull drone of quiet, repressed desperation, and while it's certainly compelling in its constant neurosis there's something still about it that's a little flat for me, like eating white bread alone for a week on end.
I was very disappointed in this book. I had high expectations and I felt the book let me down. The characters were unsympathetic and failed to engage me. I especially found the ending of the book to be a little overwrought. This is not a book that I would recommend.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
it's about how much of our lives we spend pretending not to see what's in front of us. it's about comfort zones and the trauma of memory. of being inactive in the present - of a bystander telling the story of his life to feel as if he were a part of something. of as much as we try to find differences between ourselves and others, ultimately we are all the same - the knowledge of that is called "the terrifying ordeal of being human".
So I think the way this book is presented is rather misleading. I donno about you but when I see the words 'unreliable narrator' obviously I think that the narrator is actually two people and also a murderer. While that is a debatable interpretation of this book (people have actually made analyses on this and I find them very amusing), our narrator John Dowell is much more realistic, and through that, much more devastating.
(Also fun fact: this novel isn't about war even though it was published in 1915)
John Dowell is an unreliable narrator in that John, being a member of our story and 'narrative' is not able to attain on omniscient and objective point of view. This is made even more interesting through the fact that he is constantly claiming to be showing and telling other people's points of view. Dowell is grappling with adulterous revelations concerning his wife and best friend. He is constantly changing his mind about what conceptions of 'good' are supposed to be, and even if morality can be applied to our lives. He is struggling and failing to come to conclusions about whether there are definitive answers about what one is supposed to do with their life. It is in this way that he is unreliable, because just like us, Dowell doesn't have all the answers or all the facts regarding the events in this book.
Despite some of the rather harsh descriptions of the characters in this book, I have the greatest sympathy towards all of them (except for Dowell who is dead to me after he beat his servant). I will even admit I got a little emotional towards the end. While Dowell is retrospectively attempting to make sense of his life, our other remaining characters are actively trying to chase meaning, purpose and authenticity in their lives. It is also probably crucial to note that all this goes down just prior to World War One and there are lots of rules and stingy notions of propriety that our characters are forced to adhere to. In a time where the facade that one presents to the public is of the utmost importance, all the characters are isolated from each other and indeed even themselves. The characters cannot admit to each or themselves what they really desire. Most of the profound actions and words spring from the characters' subconsciouses. And yet, even if discussions of sex and love had not been taboo would that have prevented this tale ending in tragedy? Part of what makes this book so devastating is that there are no absolutes. It breaks my heart that these characters are condemned for each attempting to seek happiness in their own way. (Even though Ford doesn't really seem to be condemning the characters, but rather society as a whole, it still breaks by heart.)
I also really liked that to highlight the impressionistic aspects of this book, which in turn mimics life, Ford used a non chronological narrative structure to perfection. The progression of this novel wasn't conveyed as a movement in time, but rather displayed by the ever changing thoughts and convictions of our characters.
I am just so overwhelmed by this book and, not to be that guy that everyone hates for comparing books to each other, this really reminded me of a lot of the themes of The Great Gatsby. The whole unreliable narrator and the tragic condemnation of the inauthentic.
My only issue with this book is that sometimes, (specifically after one character's death) the novel seemed to drag a bit because to me there was a space left by this character that Ford quickly tried to cram someone else into, which I found less interesting because they did not have a lot of prior establishment.
There are so many more things I could talk about but I will sum up by saying that I really liked this book.
(Also fun fact: this novel isn't about war even though it was published in 1915)
John Dowell is an unreliable narrator in that John, being a member of our story and 'narrative' is not able to attain on omniscient and objective point of view. This is made even more interesting through the fact that he is constantly claiming to be showing and telling other people's points of view. Dowell is grappling with adulterous revelations concerning his wife and best friend. He is constantly changing his mind about what conceptions of 'good' are supposed to be, and even if morality can be applied to our lives. He is struggling and failing to come to conclusions about whether there are definitive answers about what one is supposed to do with their life. It is in this way that he is unreliable, because just like us, Dowell doesn't have all the answers or all the facts regarding the events in this book.
Despite some of the rather harsh descriptions of the characters in this book, I have the greatest sympathy towards all of them (except for Dowell who is dead to me after he beat his servant). I will even admit I got a little emotional towards the end. While Dowell is retrospectively attempting to make sense of his life, our other remaining characters are actively trying to chase meaning, purpose and authenticity in their lives. It is also probably crucial to note that all this goes down just prior to World War One and there are lots of rules and stingy notions of propriety that our characters are forced to adhere to. In a time where the facade that one presents to the public is of the utmost importance, all the characters are isolated from each other and indeed even themselves. The characters cannot admit to each or themselves what they really desire. Most of the profound actions and words spring from the characters' subconsciouses. And yet, even if discussions of sex and love had not been taboo would that have prevented this tale ending in tragedy? Part of what makes this book so devastating is that there are no absolutes. It breaks my heart that these characters are condemned for each attempting to seek happiness in their own way. (Even though Ford doesn't really seem to be condemning the characters, but rather society as a whole, it still breaks by heart.)
I also really liked that to highlight the impressionistic aspects of this book, which in turn mimics life, Ford used a non chronological narrative structure to perfection. The progression of this novel wasn't conveyed as a movement in time, but rather displayed by the ever changing thoughts and convictions of our characters.
I am just so overwhelmed by this book and, not to be that guy that everyone hates for comparing books to each other, this really reminded me of a lot of the themes of The Great Gatsby. The whole unreliable narrator and the tragic condemnation of the inauthentic.
My only issue with this book is that sometimes, (specifically after one character's death) the novel seemed to drag a bit because to me there was a space left by this character that Ford quickly tried to cram someone else into, which I found less interesting because they did not have a lot of prior establishment.
There are so many more things I could talk about but I will sum up by saying that I really liked this book.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes