Birdsong

BIRDSONG BY SEBASTIAN FAULKS

Rather fittingly for the centenary of WW1 I chose to read Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, definitely one of the easiest reads I've had in a long time. The tale of war (obviously), love and destruction follows the life of Stephen Wraysford, a daring youth originally sent to Belgium to conduct research for his textile company. Wraysford stays with the much respected Azaire family and commences a passionate affair with Madame Azaire (Isabelle). After the explosive revealing of this affair and Isabelle's subsequent deserting of him, we rejoin Stephen as a commander of a battalion in WW1 and experience the trauma that came with the war, nowadays as Faulks highlights in his introduction, a war forgotten perhaps due to guilt or in it's presumed pointlessness compared to its far more devastating successor. There are few great books about WW1 as it's either remembered in a more statistical manner,which forgets emotional side of things,  or seen as the funny war. Birdsong was thus thoroughly successful in bringing out the horrifying conditions of trench warfare and  more importantly how operose the soldiers became, placed in a dream-like state becoming killing machines instead of people. We also follow the discovery, by Stephen's granddaughter Elizabeth, of his journals and she gradually discovers what the war was really like. Whilst this in its own would be too obvious in Faulks using a character merely to illustrate his opinion of how we've all seemed to have forgotten the war, the backstory of her affair helps make Elizabeth an actual person than a statement. Perhaps the most significant criticism I can find of the book is whether Stephen's affair with Isabelle (a key part to the plot), in all it's lustful glory, takes over from the actual warfare side of things. This is only a meagre criticism as the affair also adds a more human aspect to the book itself, making the war a less alien experience. With the vast assortment of characters, many who end of dying (which evoked genuine sadness in me), as well the rich description of the Belgian and French countryside I was able to understand all the acclaim Birdsong has received; but by far the greatest star of the book is Faulks vivid emotional description of all trauma war brings.