December 4 2020

 The Razor's Edge (1943)

By W Somerset Maugham

This complex novel is set in the years following World War 1.  The author makes himself the narrator as well as a character in the story, which opens in Chicago, where he is visiting his good friend the prominent decorator Elliott Templeton, along with Elliott's socialite sister Louisa Bradley and her pretty daughter Isabel.  The late Mr Bradley had been a US ambassador and the family is very at home in the European capitols, where much of the story takes place.  The story centers around Larry Darrell, Isabel's childhood friend and now her fiancé, but their relationship faces difficulties as Larry has changed following his experience as a pilot in the war.  While attractive and pleasant he has no apparent ambition except to "loaf" - as he puts it, content to live off a small inheritance, read, and travel.  When Isabel can't persuade him to get a job - an offer has been made by Isabel and Larry's friend Gray Maturin's father - Isabel finally gives up on Larry and accepts Gray's offer of marriage. They are destined to stay in touch, however, as the Maturin's firm goes bankrupt in the Great Depression and Isabel, Gray and their daughters go to live in Elliott's Paris apartment.  Larry goes in and out of their lives, working in a coal mine, then on a farm, a monastery in Germany, an ashram in India, but often in Paris in between trips.  Larry seems at peace - though his friends can't understand his constant moves and searching.  He tries to help a couple of women associated with the author (Sophie and Suzanna) though more for humanitarian reasons than romantic notions.

Despite Larry's aimlessness, it's obvious Isabel still wants him (reminiscent of Scarlett O'Hara's lust for Ashley Wilkes).  Perhaps others vets felt as Larry did, but lacked the independent means to pursue their restless feelings and instead were obligated to set goals, make a living, support themselves and possibly a family, and find hope again.  

The story offers a few surprising turns but all of the players remain true to character throughout, and in the end - as the authors suggests - each of them got what they wanted.

September 20 2020

A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918 (2015)
By Joseph Loconte

I've read only parts of Lewis's and Tolkien's most well-known books, but I have gained great insight into the motivation and theme of The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings, thanks to Prof Loconte's study of the two writers.

Tolkien and Lewis, both Oxford scholars, found common ground in their shared love of myth.  But both men served in the Great War, suffering the loss of close friends as they saw first hand what modern science and technology could do: unprecedented butchery with no good outcome.  Even the Treaty of Versailles disappointed all parties.  A new cynicism about liberal democracy, capitalism, Christianity, and the achievements of western civilization took hold.  Loconte speaks of 3 "epidemics" that grew out of the war:
1) Spanish flu
2) communism
3) fascism
that helped further lead to a loss of hope and what many considered a failure of religion.  Tolkien's war experience is reflected in Lost Tales (started in 1917), the Silmarillion, and The Lord of the Rings - violent contests of good against evil, moral tales.  "The sheer destructive power of the war, the unimaginable number of dead and wounded...the apparent futility of the outcome - all of this instigated a new season of religious doubts and experimentation.: (p 124)

In Lewis's case, his conversations with J R R Tolkien and Hugo Dyson about myth and faith led him to observe, "the difference between Christianity and all the pagan myths is that this Dying God actually entered into history, lived a real life and died a real death... a myth that has really happened?  In that case, says the skeptical Lewis, "I begin to understand." (p 133)  He felt a great sense of relief and gratitude, as he came to embrace a common faith with his fellows.

In discussing the writers' themes, Loconte notes that an "encounter with the presence of evil: the deep corruption of the human heart that makes it capable of hunting and destroying millions of lives in a remorseless war of attrition" (p 145) was central to Tolkien's and Lewis's experience.   Yet their writings reflect
-a "longing for goodness and joy, so palpably alive in the best and noblest of the characters" (p 150).  "They are haunted by a memory of eden" that enables their moral vision.  The characters in Lord of the Rings had lots of chances, like us, of turning back from a painful path, only they didn't. This freedom [to either fulfill or evade the calling on ones life] is central to Tolkien's work - and to his understanding of the human condition.
-heroic quest: As veterans Tolkien and Lewis choose to recount "not only the horror and sorrows but also the courage, sacrifice and friendships that made it endurable" (p 170).  They shared a strong bond, based on the war experience, writing and faith.  Their stories help readers find the grace and strength to play their own part in the story, however long it endures and wherever it may lead them.  They "sought to make sense of a conflict that claimed so much in blood and treasure and delivered so little to the cause of human happiness" (p 186).

Their stories might have reflected the futility of the war in which they'd served, but these writers instead chose hope.  Yet, unlike our modern tales of heroism, no superhero like Superman could save the day - their only hope came from beyond the characters' own strength, whether it was the unlikely loss of the ring that had started to work its evil spell on Frodo, or the return from death by Aslan.  Today, it is clear that our salvation is not through our own strength, but in God alone.

July 4

All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)

By Erich Maria Remarque

Paul Baumer and half a dozen schoolmates have been drafted into the German army in the 4th year of the Great War.  The story opens as one of Paul's friends is dying from a leg wound.  He recalls the sadistic drill sargeant who harassed the young soldiers, taking every opportunity to make their lives miserable.  But they all suffer at the front, whether taking a bullet while running for the trenches for cover or the psychological agony of having killed a French soldier who was someone's father or son.  There are precious human moments - as when Henry visits his ailing mother during his first home leave or trying to accommodate the young wife who comes to visit her dying husband in the hospital.

The author served for only months before his shrapnel injuries rendered him too handicapped to serve.  His heartfelt narrative offers a good argument for the insanity of war.

September 6

Mrs Dalloway (1925)

By Virginia Woolf

This novel takes place during the course of a single day.  The bongs of Big Ben mark each hour.  In post-war London, Clarissa Dalloway, happily married and 50-ish, looks forward to hosting a dinner party.  She shops for flowers in the morning, walking through the park, thinking about her life as a young woman and remembering her first love, Peter Marsh.  She spots a young man who suffers shell shock.  Later in the story, it turns out he has committed suicide (but she is not, after all, her brother's keeper,  and he is from a lower social class).  When Clarissa returns home, who should show up at her door but Peter Marsh?  Turns out he is about to marry, as soon as his young girlfriend can get a divorce.  Clarissa seems to have mixed feelings about Peter's news.  Peter comes to her party, as does a Dr Bradshaw, a psychiatrist who announces that one of his patients has committed suicide.  There's a lot to think about here, and one reading is not enough.

This short novel is a story of class lines, the aftermath of war, aging, women's roles, etc - much fruit for thought.

March 2

The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World before the War

By Barbara Tuchman

I'd always wanted to read this account of Europe in the 20 years preceding World War I.  The author describes the activities of the anarchists (bombings in a Paris Post Office, shootings in Madrid) and it sounds like Europe today. Instead of ISIS, the perpetrators are the turn-of-the last-century disenfranchised peoples.  It was not surprising to read of the incredible wealth of the richest landed gentry vs the poverty of the poor - no wonder the anarchists rose up, though some, surprisingly, were of the wealthy classes.  Tuchman also writes of the contemporary musicians, like Strauss
and Wagner, and the influence they wielded.  I got bogged down in some of the dates and activities thought themed-tolatter parts of the book, but this lengthy, detailed, well-researched book is definitely worth reading.  Best to know about the past in order to understand the present, and hopefully to prevent some of the same mistakes.

February 25

Fatal Decision: Edith Cavell, World War I Nurse
By Terri Arthur

One person CAN make a difference.  Edith Cavell has been likened to Florence Nightingale in her commitment to train nurses, and especially in her work in treating wartime casualties.  As a daughter of a clergyman, Edith felt a call to serve, and left her home in Norfolk to train at the London hospital in the 1890,s when nursing was just beginning to be recognized as a career requiring training and employing scientific techniques - and not just a chore relegated to untrained nuns and charwomen.  After working in several settings in England, Edith is invited to go to Brussels and set up that country's first nursing school.  Her serious commitment - and her fluency in French - win the respect of the local doctor and the first few students arrive for training.  It's not long, however, before Germany invades neutral Brussels and German soldiers take control of the city.  When wounded British soldiers arrive at the hospital, Edith is faced to make a decision between treating "the enemy" [of the Germans] or turning them over to German authorities.  She opts to help them, the first of many British soldiers whom she nurses back to health and helps escape (through her contacts) across the border into the Netherlands.  Although Edith and her staff are very careful, a German spy infiltrates the hospital and arrests Edith for helping the enemy.  Shockingly, Edith is convicted and, after a sham trial, executed, causing an international outrage that would have lasting repercussions.

January 14

The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers
By Harry Bernstein

Harry Bernstein's tender memoir recounts his impoverished growing up years in an English mill town in the early 1900s.  His family struggled not only with poverty (he recalls his mother's efforts to earn income by collecting bruised fruits at the fruit vendor's and carefully carving out the brown spots to resell to her neighbors) but also with an erratic and often drunk father, who hurriedly left the house each night with one arm in a coat sleeve but the other sleeve always dangling.

Along Harry's street, Orthodox Jews lived on one side while Gentiles resided on the other.  The two sides never socialized with one another; nor did their children walk to school together - almost as though a wall were built down the middle.  Prejudice and religion (though not the kind of religion that is expressed by love and mercy) affected all relationships in this neighborhood where everyone knew one another.  As England gets involved in the first World War, however, the residents start to work together and to communicate.  Tentative friendships blossom.  The war ends, but all too soon the animosity returns and everyone is the poorer for it.

Harry's beloved older sister, Lily, is a very bright student but is made to leave school to work in her father's tailor shop.  In the midst of all of the intolerance, Lily and her across-the-street Christian neighbor Arthur fall in love, and a small ray of hope appears.  Yes, love can overcome prejudice, but the young couple would face a hard road ahead with little support.

The amazing thing about Harry is that he started this memoir at age 93, and then went on to write two more books!

I'm glad that Harry finally got round to writing this story.  Prejudice and fear can rob us of so much richness and joy that we miss by not getting to know someone who looks (worships, speaks a language, comes from a place) different from us.