Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Apr. 23rd, 2006 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
There is no descriptive Blurb on the Back, instead we get the following quotes:
Ambitious, outrageous, poignant, sleep-disturbing, Birdsong is not a perfect novel - just a great one.
SIMON SCHAMA, New Yorker
An amazing book - among the most stirringly erotic I have read for years ... I have read it and re-read it and can think of no othe rnovel for many, many years that has so moved me or stimulated in me so much reflection on the human spirit.
QUENTIN CREWE, Daily Mail
This book is so powerful that as I finished it I turned to the front to start again.
ANDREW JAMES, Sunday Express
One of the finest novels of the last 40 years.
BRIAN MASTERS, Mail on Sunday
This is literature at its very best: a book with the power to reveal the unimagined, so that one's life is set in a changed context. I urge you to read it.
NIGEL WATTS, Time Out
I feel guilty for not loving this book. I know several people who have read it and found it to be as moving and powerful as those quoted on the jacket but personally, it was a relief just to get it finished.
The story takes the form of three acts. Act One is set in 1910 follows Stephen Wraysford, a young man staying with the Azaires family as he learns about fabric manufacturing techniques from Mr Azaires' factory who embarks on a passionate affair with Azaire's younger wife, Isabelle. Act Two rejoins Wraysford on the Western Front in 1916 and divulges between following his own horrific experiences on the Front and those of Jack Firebrace, a family man who's working as a digging engineer, placing mines and booby traps in the no-man's-land separating the Germans and the English. Act Three follows Elizabeth Benson who in 1978 discovers coded war diaries and sets about trying to find out more about the man who wrote them.
The only part of the book that I admired were the World War I sections, although I found these to be slightly melodramatic in places (e.g. Firebrace has ason with clear learning difficulties, who seems to be there only to heighten the misery element). In the main though, I found the characters to be believable and Captain Weir, a man constantly on the verge of breaking is very credible. There's also a real sense of the awful conditions that the men were living in - the everyday descriptions of lice and mud are done in an unshowey way that makes them credible and I did find it moving when characters with whom you become familiar start to die.
Where the book's real weakness lies is in the first section. The description of Wraysford's affair with Isabelle simply never rings true for me and this is largely because Faulks writes love scenes that feel too modern. Perhaps I am prejudiced against the times, but I find it difficult to believe that even in France in 1910, an Englishman would give oral sex to a woman without sparing another thought about it. I also found Isabelle as a character to be one-dimensional and stilted. She's an idealised woman trapped in a loveless marriage to a husband who beats her for sexual pleasure because of his own impotence - it just feels cliche. For me, it's a relief when the segment ends with her getting pregnant (of course) and running back to her husband but Faulks can't resist bringing her back in the Second Act - this time horribly mutilated, concealing the existence of Stephen's lovechild and ultimately running off to live with a German soldier that she's fallen in love with.
The final segment concerning Elizabeth Benton feels like a tag-on and for me, doesn't add anything to the plot other than to tie up a few loose ends (mostly things that we could already guess at). Again, Benton is a one-dimensional character, although this time she's the stereotypical career woman involved with a married man. I felt nothing for her other than a vague irritation and a belief that Faulks is uncomfortable with female characters.
I think that a big reason why I didn't enjoy this more is because it feels as though it's written for men. The main protagonists are men, it's written by a man and everything believable or moving is from a male perspective. I couldn't empathise with that and whilst I know many women who have, I suspect that it won't appeal to everyone.
The Verdict:
This book wasn't for me and it was a chore to read. However, I'm well aware that I am in a minority on this and I suspect that my failure to enjoy it is more to do with my failure to empathise with the female characters than the author's overall ability as a writer. If you're interested in World War I fiction, then I think there's a lot in there for you in terms of the daily experiences. If you're interested in well-rounded female characters, then there's not so much.
There is no descriptive Blurb on the Back, instead we get the following quotes:
Ambitious, outrageous, poignant, sleep-disturbing, Birdsong is not a perfect novel - just a great one.
An amazing book - among the most stirringly erotic I have read for years ... I have read it and re-read it and can think of no othe rnovel for many, many years that has so moved me or stimulated in me so much reflection on the human spirit.
This book is so powerful that as I finished it I turned to the front to start again.
One of the finest novels of the last 40 years.
This is literature at its very best: a book with the power to reveal the unimagined, so that one's life is set in a changed context. I urge you to read it.
I feel guilty for not loving this book. I know several people who have read it and found it to be as moving and powerful as those quoted on the jacket but personally, it was a relief just to get it finished.
The story takes the form of three acts. Act One is set in 1910 follows Stephen Wraysford, a young man staying with the Azaires family as he learns about fabric manufacturing techniques from Mr Azaires' factory who embarks on a passionate affair with Azaire's younger wife, Isabelle. Act Two rejoins Wraysford on the Western Front in 1916 and divulges between following his own horrific experiences on the Front and those of Jack Firebrace, a family man who's working as a digging engineer, placing mines and booby traps in the no-man's-land separating the Germans and the English. Act Three follows Elizabeth Benson who in 1978 discovers coded war diaries and sets about trying to find out more about the man who wrote them.
The only part of the book that I admired were the World War I sections, although I found these to be slightly melodramatic in places (e.g. Firebrace has ason with clear learning difficulties, who seems to be there only to heighten the misery element). In the main though, I found the characters to be believable and Captain Weir, a man constantly on the verge of breaking is very credible. There's also a real sense of the awful conditions that the men were living in - the everyday descriptions of lice and mud are done in an unshowey way that makes them credible and I did find it moving when characters with whom you become familiar start to die.
Where the book's real weakness lies is in the first section. The description of Wraysford's affair with Isabelle simply never rings true for me and this is largely because Faulks writes love scenes that feel too modern. Perhaps I am prejudiced against the times, but I find it difficult to believe that even in France in 1910, an Englishman would give oral sex to a woman without sparing another thought about it. I also found Isabelle as a character to be one-dimensional and stilted. She's an idealised woman trapped in a loveless marriage to a husband who beats her for sexual pleasure because of his own impotence - it just feels cliche. For me, it's a relief when the segment ends with her getting pregnant (of course) and running back to her husband but Faulks can't resist bringing her back in the Second Act - this time horribly mutilated, concealing the existence of Stephen's lovechild and ultimately running off to live with a German soldier that she's fallen in love with.
The final segment concerning Elizabeth Benton feels like a tag-on and for me, doesn't add anything to the plot other than to tie up a few loose ends (mostly things that we could already guess at). Again, Benton is a one-dimensional character, although this time she's the stereotypical career woman involved with a married man. I felt nothing for her other than a vague irritation and a belief that Faulks is uncomfortable with female characters.
I think that a big reason why I didn't enjoy this more is because it feels as though it's written for men. The main protagonists are men, it's written by a man and everything believable or moving is from a male perspective. I couldn't empathise with that and whilst I know many women who have, I suspect that it won't appeal to everyone.
The Verdict:
This book wasn't for me and it was a chore to read. However, I'm well aware that I am in a minority on this and I suspect that my failure to enjoy it is more to do with my failure to empathise with the female characters than the author's overall ability as a writer. If you're interested in World War I fiction, then I think there's a lot in there for you in terms of the daily experiences. If you're interested in well-rounded female characters, then there's not so much.
