- Sep 12, 2008
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A very interesting war memoir from 1927 about the author's service in the Somme region of France during the first world war. The author served for about 18 months from early 1915 till late 1916, when he was taken out by a grenade and invalided for the rest of the war.
It is a memoir of frustration and anger. The leadership had no clue what they wanted, had no idea how to get there, the soldiers just wanted a good enough wound to get out and the everyone was stuck in a morass of cupidity, cowardice, lice and incompetence.
It seems to be the first and best anti war war memoir. Graves is a very talented writer, and he makes you see the whole thing clearly. He later wrote I Claudius.
It is a memoir of frustration and anger. The leadership had no clue what they wanted, had no idea how to get there, the soldiers just wanted a good enough wound to get out and the everyone was stuck in a morass of cupidity, cowardice, lice and incompetence.
It seems to be the first and best anti war war memoir. Graves is a very talented writer, and he makes you see the whole thing clearly. He later wrote I Claudius.