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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Blood, War, Injury/Injury detail
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There's more than a touch of Lady Chatterley & Oliver Mellors about the relationship between the main characters.
This fixes a bond that is strained at every turn, as class and war intervene with tragic hopelessness. The writing is understated and powerful, the characters to some extent mindless cyphers pulled and pushed by circumstance.
Ultimately it's bleakly nihilistic in its constant denial of the characters' wishes to simply be who they are. Alec in particular cannot even begin to answer this question.
Looking through the other reviews here, it is often panned, in almost every case by younger readers made to read it in school, in particular for Irish state exams. This is a damning indictment of the educational system, removing the power and insight from such a wonderful book.
This fixes a bond that is strained at every turn, as class and war intervene with tragic hopelessness. The writing is understated and powerful, the characters to some extent mindless cyphers pulled and pushed by circumstance.
Ultimately it's bleakly nihilistic in its constant denial of the characters' wishes to simply be who they are. Alec in particular cannot even begin to answer this question.
Looking through the other reviews here, it is often panned, in almost every case by younger readers made to read it in school, in particular for Irish state exams. This is a damning indictment of the educational system, removing the power and insight from such a wonderful book.
For such a brief book, How Many Miles to Babylon is a work of startling delicacy and power. Set in the dying days of the Irish Ascendancy just before the start of WWI and the 1916 Rising ensured that "all changed, changed utterly", it tells the story of two young Irish men. Alex, an upper-class Protestant, and Jerry, a working class Catholic, who become friends despite the class divisions between them: a friendship that's both erotically charged and very strong, and which leads to one of the starkest, most powerful endings of any book I've ever read.
I first read this as part of my Leaving Cert syllabus, all the way back in 2002. I adored it and re-read it many times before the year was out; though, for some reason, the rest of the class didn't share my affection for it, and my teacher went to great pains to emphasise that there was absolutely nothing homoerotic about this book, at all, whatsoever. No sir. Oh, Irish convent schools.
I first read this as part of my Leaving Cert syllabus, all the way back in 2002. I adored it and re-read it many times before the year was out; though, for some reason, the rest of the class didn't share my affection for it, and my teacher went to great pains to emphasise that there was absolutely nothing homoerotic about this book, at all, whatsoever. No sir. Oh, Irish convent schools.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
God this book... I've read a lot of WWI literature, written both by the war generation and by those who came after it, but nothing has reached quite the level of delicate emotional intensity as this. I think it's because the focus of the book is on the relationship between Alec and Jerry rather than more broadly on the war, so even in a mere 156 pages you get so attached to the characters and the love between them. 'Intimate' really is the best description of this book, both physically (the swimming together, the close quarters of the trenches, the soft touches) and emotionally. There are strong parallels with Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men which I cannot believe were simply coincidental, but for me predicting the ending didn't stop the novel being as powerful as it was. The shortness of the book means that every line is so perfectly crafted that the last few pages had my heart breaking over and over and over again. Would highly recommend reading it in one go if possible, because it's the kind of book that needs to be experienced in one heart-wrenching burst.