That Just Happened!

Findley, Timothy. The Wars. Penguin Group (2005).   Originally published 1977.

Robert Ross, a sensitive nineteen-year-old Canadian officer, went to war–The War to End All Wars.  He found himself in the nightmare world of trench warfare, of mud and smoke, of chlorine gas and rotting corpses.  In this world gone mad, Robert Ross performed a last desperate act to declare his commitment to life in the midst of death.

Back Cover 

I finished this book last weekend and I am still not sure how I feel about it.  The beginning was so good. I was hooked from the prologue, however, it is difficult to say I enjoyed reading about the atrocities of war.  In particular there are three sexually explicit scenes in the book that were so disturbing to me.  I really dislike reading books, or watching movies with this sort of thing in it.  However, I cannot say it detracted from the power of this book, or that it was put in there to be shocking.

This book left me feeling disgusted, horrified and moved.  Quite the range of emotions, actually.  It was extremely well written and I imagine it was very true to what war is like.  Robert Ross is dehumanized and beat down both physically and emotionally and it is described in such a way that you can really picture it happening.

The point of every book cannot be to leave us feeling warm and fuzzy, as this book certainly does not.  Does the fact that I am left feeling all of these things (including greatly disturbed) mean I am able to give it less that 5 “ehs”?  I don’t think so.  So I am giving this novel

 I wish I could be more descriptive, or decisive about this book, but I really cannot decide how to feel about it. If you are to read it be aware of the graphic nature of this novel.  That being said, it is a very powerful book.  See? Still cannot make up my mind.