A review by serendipitysbooks
In Memoriam by Alice Winn

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 In Memoriam is both beautiful and harrowing. It follows Henry Gaunt and Sydney Ellwood plus many of their schoolmates from their public boarding school in England to the trenches of France during World War I. The writing is exquisite. Winn highlights the terrible toll of the war physically and psychologically, as well as at a population level. The number of obituaries and the lengthy list of wounded in the school newspaper was really impactful. The nature of the love between Gaunt and Elwood was perfectly captured - the feelings of shame and fear due to the legal and social environment, the uncertainty about whether the other reciprocated their feelings, the tenderness, the passion, the protectiveness, the need. The way homosexuality existed in the school environment really interested me. Experimentation was an open secret - not all of it was healthy and much was abusive - yet it wasn’t acceptable to identify or be identified as homosexual. Other aspects of the novel also caught my eye including the way characters were innocent and immature schoolboys one minute yet leading others in trench warfare the next, the good and the bad of the public school experience, and the way classism and racism played out in both school and army life. Gaunt and Ellwood captured my heart. It was impossible not to want the best for them so I was willing to overlook and forgive the historical implausibility of some aspects of the book’s ending. This was a beautiful written story of love that flourished despite the surrounding horror. 
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