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A review by tba_95
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
5.0
On one hand you could say that the book is cliché. It's bittersweet and if you're paying attention you know what is going to happen. Faulks does a fantastic job of not giving away information too early, so you cannot predict everything from the start.
It's brutal. It's quite long, but I don't think its bloated. There are "boring" parts but you need a pause from the devastating war scenes. I never felt that anything was out of place or unnecessary, that sentences were drawn out or overblown. In comparison to less-well received books, Birdsong stays stylistically and thematically consistent. There are no inappropriate jokes, there is no long-winded descriptions for no apparent reason. Dialogue is sensible and believable, characters make sense. It all fits.
Towards the beginning there are some graphic sex scenes and I was concerned about the book being suggested reading for A-level. Should 17/18 year olds be reading this? Well, given that the main focus of the book is WW1 with 18/19 year olds marching into death or worse I guess...why not?
It's brutal. It's quite long, but I don't think its bloated. There are "boring" parts but you need a pause from the devastating war scenes. I never felt that anything was out of place or unnecessary, that sentences were drawn out or overblown. In comparison to less-well received books, Birdsong stays stylistically and thematically consistent. There are no inappropriate jokes, there is no long-winded descriptions for no apparent reason. Dialogue is sensible and believable, characters make sense. It all fits.
Towards the beginning there are some graphic sex scenes and I was concerned about the book being suggested reading for A-level. Should 17/18 year olds be reading this? Well, given that the main focus of the book is WW1 with 18/19 year olds marching into death or worse I guess...why not?