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From Amazon
Readers who are entranced by the sweeping Anglo sagas of Masterpiece Theatre will devour Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks's historical drama. A bestseller in England, there's even a little high-toned erotica thrown into the mix to convince the doubtful. The book's hero, a 20-year-old Englishman named Stephen Wraysford, finds his true love on a trip to Amiens in 1910. Unfortunately, she's already married, the wife of a wealthy textile baron. Wrayford convinces her to leave a life of passionless comfort to be at his side, but things do not turn out according to plan. Wraysford is haunted by this doomed affair and carries it with him into the trenches of World War I. Birdsong derives most of its power from its descriptions of mud and blood, and Wraysford's attempt to retain a scrap of humanity while surrounded by it. There is a simultaneous description of his present-day granddaughter's quest to read his diaries, which is designed to give some sense of perspective; this device is only somewhat successful. Nevertheless, Birdsong is an unflinching war story that is bookended by romances and a rewarding read.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
In 1910, England's Stephen Wraysford, a junior executive in a textile firm, is sent by his company to northern France. There he falls for Isabelle Azaire, a young and beautiful matron who abandons her abusive husband and sticks by Stephen long enough to conceive a child. Six years later, Stephen is back in France, as a British officer fighting in the trenches. Facing death, embittered by isolation, he steels himself against thoughts of love. But despite rampant disease, harrowing tunnel explosions and desperate attacks on highly fortified German positions, he manages to survive, and to meet with Isabelle again. The emotions roiled up by this meeting, however, threaten to ruin him as a soldier. Everything about this novel, which was a bestseller in England, is outsized, from its epic, if occasionally ramshackle, narrative to its gruesome and utterly convincing descriptions of battlefield horrors. Faulks (A Fool's Alphabet) proves himself a grand storyteller here. Enlivened with considerable historical detail related through accomplished prose, his narrative flows with a pleasingly appropriate recklessness that brings his characters to dynamic life.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly superb,
By "johnewark" (Hull, East Yorkshire, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Birdsong : A Novel of Love and War (Vintage International) (Paperback)
Birdsong is an immense novel, capturing the futility of war and the horrors of life on the battlefields of the First World War. In addition to this there is an intriguing love story of 20 year old Stephen Wraysford who begins an affair with the wife of a prestigious French textile baron whilst in France on a business trip. Seeing that she is trapped in a passionless, amotional marriage, he persuades her to return to England, but the onset of war and her pregnancy (which she keeps secret) doom the relationship and Wraysford is sent to the killing grounds of the Somme, where the carnage and unspeakable atrocities haunt him interminably. Faulks parallels this with Wraysford's daughter searching for memories of her Grandfather but the genuine interest is in the conflict, where such evocative images and unimaginable violence will test the resolve of even the hardiest of readers.This is Faulk's fourth novel and, having finished this, my appetite has been suitable whetted to try and read some more of his work. Personally I think that the quotation on the inside cover says more than any critic could truly attribute to this wonderful novel: 'When I go from hence, let this be my parting word, that what I have seen in unsurpassable.'
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Um, Mr. Faulks? A "Novel" Requires A Plot!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Birdsong : A Novel of Love and War (Vintage International) (Paperback)
Lovely descriptions, (and decent steamy scenes), but for heaven's sake, where's the story, and why do I care? A handful of lovingly described events combined with inconsistently developed characters does not a good plotline make. It's a boring mishmash.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Difficult but Enthralling Read,
By Pamela Mckinnon "Traveling Pam" (Vancouver Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Birdsong (Paperback)
I'm not sure why I am writing this review because words actually fail me after having just finished reading this book. It is an oustanding book but I agree with some of the other readers, I think the characters are flawed. I just couldn't connect with Stephen or actually any of the characters. I found Elizabeth dull. I know this sounds dreadful but I had to stop reading from time to time to absorb the absolute atrocity of the trench warfare and the tunnel diggers (sewer rats). I almost felt guilty to be sitting on a deck on a beautiful sunny day listening to birdsong and reading a completely different aspect of it. I found the gruesome details of the war and the descriptive scenes disturbing. I know it was terrible but page after page of it makes it mind boggling.I found the ending when Stephen and Jack were in the tunnel just far too unrealistic. Without giving away the ending to others who have not read the book, I would simply say I found the recovery impossible in real life. I thought the grandaughters story unreal and just kind of thrown in there to break up the carnage of death. The ending for her was a situation that was very hollywoodish. I felt her story line was rushed. Having said all that, it is a good read but I would not be inclined to read it again.
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