276°
Posted 20 hours ago

Requiem for a Wren

£4.995£9.99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

When things like this happen, there's just nothing to be done about it. Even suffering itself is a mere waste of time... Like some infernal monster, still venomous in death, a war can go on killing people for a long time after it’s all over.”

It's still great. I'd forgotten about the Irish Terrier, Dev. I used to have Irish Terriers and I loved both dearly, Bridget, then Colleen. Naturally, it made the story all the better. My spouse and I have been watching a program called Foyle's War. It's essentially a British cop show, but set in WWII. It's a wonderful show, but it got me started thinking about WWII-era things, and I decided to dust off this gem from the past.

I'm trying to guess how many books I've read which in one way or another are about the Second World War. I've read a couple just in the last month, Wilcox's Japan's Secret War and Linebarger's Psychological Warfare. As usual, I was gripped by two contradictory emotions: horror and fascination. I think most people have a similar reaction. The war was monstrous and appalling, but it was also the most exciting, extraordinary period in human history. New techniques, new ideas, new ways of thinking were invented and turned into weapons within a couple of years; sometimes a couple of months. Nothing was impossible, and everyone knew what the purpose of life was. It was to win the war. Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL9722439M Openlibrary_edition Setting aside my few complaints, I enjoyed the story immensely. The characters were so well drawn I felt like I knew each one of them. As I got to know Janet I kept hoping that she, who committed suicide at the beginning, would somehow be found alive.... perhaps the dead body was mis-identified ....and the ending would be a happy one, as I've come to expect from Shute. Yes. I like Nevil Shute's writing. I think A Town Like Alice is his best work so I would always recommend that title first. I do think he is very good at describing life in the British Armed Services during WWII. Those that enjoy military history and writing will like his books, but even I enjoyed them (and I have little knowledge of planes and guns). Oddly enough, one of Shute’s biggest failings is one of the things I love about his work. As I have noted previously, and as Kim notes in her review of On the Beach, Shute’s writing cannot be called elegant. In Kim’s words:

Like some infernal monster, still venomous in death, a war can go on killing people for a long time after it’s all over. Shute also tends to write in a fairly stilted manner, using phrases that seem ridiculous —“The breakfast came upon the table”— and referring to characters by their nationality or occupation —“The Australian”, “The scientist”, “The Commander”— which grate with constant repetition. Shute reveals the end at the beginning, but only part of it, the devastating part. A young woman's suicide that seemingly has no rhyme or reason starts the returning home Aussie pilot on a journey through his past. The attention to detail is fantastic and the reader learns much about the nitty gritty of maintaining the gunnery parts of British WWII ships. I had no idea that there was such a thing as Ordinance Wrens in the War. They were an integral part of the War Effort and they suffered as much of what we know now as PTSD as any of the soldiers that saw action. His arrival home is marred by the apparent suicide, a few hours earlier, of a young Englishwoman named Jessie Proctor, who was his parents' housekeeper. [2]

My Book Notes

I love Shute. Everything I have read of his has been better than the 5-stars I was allowed to give it. I had not intended to read this right now, having just read Pied Piper, but Bob convinced me it would be stupid to push this off so that I could read something I could not be assured would be as satisfying. Have you listened to any of Damien Warren-Smith’s other performances before? How does this one compare? While I accept that guilt is often experienced, I think it is drawn too far in the case of two central characters, both Janet Prentice and Alan Duncan. That Janet takes upon herself the guilt for seven war deaths, feeling she must pay in kind by losing seven she loves dearly, and that Alan feels guilty for Janet’s suicide stretches the power of guilt too far.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment