In memoriam

The Hague Convention sought to make war more humane. We had reached a point in history where we believed it was possible to make war humane.

I’m legit not sure if I can produce a coherent review for this one, just as I’m still not sure if it was the right decision for me to read a war novel right now. But I’m kind of glad I did this to myself, because honestly, the book is pretty great. It’s as character-driven as you can get, and the character development is absolutely glorious—both for the two protagonists and the numerous supporting characters around them. Though of course I don’t know if “development“ is the right word, given the circumstances of the plot and the subject matter; more like, the act of breaking the characters down.

The bulk of the story takes part in the trenches and the prisoners of war camp, but there are the early chapters and the occasional flashbacks about the characters’ school days, and damn, do those add to the devastation. It’s just this constant juxtaposition of who these boys were, who they could have been, and who they had to become. I felt it’s particularly evident in Sydney’s arc, with some of the late-book scenes showcasing his worldview and personality traits being literally a dark mirror of similar scenes earlier in the book. And then there’s also Sydney and Henry’s love story developing from those school days through and past all the horrors of war, from juvenile misunderstandings to supporting each other through shell shock, and I can’t really put into words what that development did to me and how unfair the world was to those characters—and how much worth things could turn out to them at any point.

There’s no real happy ending here, but there’s hope—except knowing the century of history that followed, that hope feels bitter and misplaced. After the entire harrowing story, it was the very last paragraph that kind of broke me: the quote from an obituary for a fallen soldier, expressing a hope for a century of prosperity and peace as World War I comes to an end. We all know there was no such century. 

All in all, this was a beautiful, painful, very well-crafted book that left me profoundly angry at the entire world that stubbornly refuses to learn.