Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book General > Reading Recommendations > Book Clubs

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 12-16-2014, 07:12 AM   #16
Bookpossum
Snoozing in the sun
Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Bookpossum ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Bookpossum's Avatar
 
Posts: 10,135
Karma: 115423645
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Device: iPad Mini, Kobo Touch
I have just finished it. I didn't like the final chapter, which didn't ring true to me. But the rest of the book I thought was terrific, especially the unbearably long chapter on the battle and the following chapter about the journey to reach medical assistance for a wounded comrade.

It seems ironic that those early editors toned down the language so that readers weren't offended by swearwords, when the real obscenity was in the war itself.

I'm so glad to have read this book, grim though it was. Thank you for including it in your list, Billi. Very powerful indeed.
Bookpossum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-17-2014, 10:51 PM   #17
sun surfer
languorous autodidact ✦
sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
sun surfer's Avatar
 
Posts: 4,235
Karma: 44637926
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: smiling with the rising sun
Device: onyx boox poke 2 colour, kindle voyage
I'm still waiting for mine to come in, and forgive me for taking a moment to vent a little. If anyone ever tells you that an interlibrary loan is always quick and simple, don't believe them! I was finally able to get a local library card this year and this was my first interlibrary loan request. First I filled out the online form and sent it. There wasn't a place to specify the edition so I had to write it in the title (and for good measure I added "Robin Buss, translator" in the author line as the second author).

A few days later, I received an email asking if it was okay for them to try to find the book on interlibrary loan since there'd be a small fee. I already knew about the small fee because it's specified on the online form I filled out and I can't think why it took them a few days to finally ask me that, but I replied that of course it was fine.

Then close to a week went by with no word. Finally I called them back and asked them if they'd put in my request. They didn't connect me to whoever did my request, but said that the general policy is that they request it and don't contact the member until they either are rejected or receive the book.

I'm still waiting to hear from them one way or another. Hopefully it will arrive soon.
sun surfer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-18-2014, 07:27 AM   #18
Hamlet53
Nameless Being
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sun surfer View Post
I'm still waiting for mine to come in, and forgive me for taking a moment to vent a little. If anyone ever tells you that an interlibrary loan is always quick and simple, don't believe them! I was finally able to get a local library card this year and this was my first interlibrary loan request. First I filled out the online form and sent it. There wasn't a place to specify the edition so I had to write it in the title (and for good measure I added "Robin Buss, translator" in the author line as the second author).

A few days later, I received an email asking if it was okay for them to try to find the book on interlibrary loan since there'd be a small fee. I already knew about the small fee because it's specified on the online form I filled out and I can't think why it took them a few days to finally ask me that, but I replied that of course it was fine.

Then close to a week went by with no word. Finally I called them back and asked them if they'd put in my request. They didn't connect me to whoever did my request, but said that the general policy is that they request it and don't contact the member until they either are rejected or receive the book.

I'm still waiting to hear from them one way or another. Hopefully it will arrive soon.
I use an interlibrary request on average six to eight times a year. I am fortunate that I can request a book from any public institution in Wisconsin, including colleges, with no fee. It is indeed a slow process often taking up to six weeks between request and the book arriving at my local library. Sometimes I have lost interest in the book by the time it arrives. I have always received the book eventually and at no charge I can't complain.
  Reply With Quote
Old 12-18-2014, 09:57 PM   #19
sun surfer
languorous autodidact ✦
sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
sun surfer's Avatar
 
Posts: 4,235
Karma: 44637926
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: smiling with the rising sun
Device: onyx boox poke 2 colour, kindle voyage
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hamlet53 View Post
I use an interlibrary request on average six to eight times a year. I am fortunate that I can request a book from any public institution in Wisconsin, including colleges, with no fee. It is indeed a slow process often taking up to six weeks between request and the book arriving at my local library. Sometimes I have lost interest in the book by the time it arrives. I have always received the book eventually and at no charge I can't complain.
Six weeks, wow! I don't really have any room to complain either; I'm sure the libraries are doing the best they can with the limited funds that most of them are operating on.

Full disclosure - I actually had a minor surgery yesterday and will be recuperating for the next two weeks and so am planning to hopefully get some good reading in. Although, I am finding that it is a challenge to read when pain pills make it hard to focus my eyes, heh. Anyway, I was hoping to read Under Fire during this time. I could read the free ebook version anytime but I'd prefer the Buss and I'm now invested in waiting for the loan to come in.
sun surfer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-19-2014, 08:03 AM   #20
Hamlet53
Nameless Being
 
Wow, I finally finished this. Not that it was badly written, in fact it was an excellent work of literature. It's just that it was such an overwhelming and unrelenting depiction of the horror that was life on the Western Front in WWI. I found it less novel like than All Quiet on the Western Front, more like Barbusse organized and expressed in such vivid terms entries from a diary kept.

Many specific passages struck me, but this one in particular:

Spoiler:
Quote:
Women and children are waiting for them, in pretty and happy clusters. The commercial people are shutting up their shops with complacent content and a smile for both the day ended and for the morrow, elated by the lively and constant thrills of profits increased, by the growing jingle of the cash-box. They have stayed behind in the heart of their own firesides; they have only to stoop to caress their children. We see them beaming in the first starlights of the street, all these rich folk who are becoming richer, all these tranquil people whose tranquillity increases every day, people who are full, you feel, and in spite of all, of an unconfessable prayer. They all go slowly, by grace of the fine evening, and settle themselves in perfected homes, or in cafes where they are waited upon. Couples are forming, too, young women and young men, civilians or soldiers, with some badge of their preservation embroidered on their collars. They make haste into the shadows of security where the others go, where the dawn of lighted rooms awaits them; they hurry towards the night of rest and caresses.

And as we pass quite close to a ground-floor window which is half open, we see the breeze gently inflate the lace curtain and lend it the light and delicious form of lingerie—and the advancing throng drives us back, poor strangers that we are!

We wander along the pavement, all through the twilight that begins to glow with gold—for in towns Night adorns herself with jewels. The sight of this world has revealed a great truth to us at last, nor could we avoid it: a Difference which becomes evident between human beings, a Difference far deeper than that of nations and with defensive trenches more impregnable; the
clean-cut and truly unpardonable division that there is in a country's inhabitants between those who gain and those who grieve, those who are required to sacrifice all, all, to give their numbers and strength and suffering to the last limit, those upon whom the others walk and advance, smile and succeed.

Some items of mourning attire make blots in the crowd and have their message for us, but the rest is of merriment, not mourning.

"It isn't one single country, that's not possible," suddenly says Volpatte with singular precision, "there are two. We're divided into two foreign countries. The Front, over there, where there are too many unhappy, and the Rear, here, where there are too many happy."

"How can you help it? It serves its end—it's the background—but afterwards—"

"Yes, I know; but all the same, all the same, there are too many of them, and they're too happy, and they're always the same ones, and there's no reason—"

"What can you do?" says Tirette.

"So much the worse," adds Blaire, still more simply.

"In eight days from now p'raps we shall have snuffed it!" Volpatte is content to repeat as we go away with lowered heads.
The disorienting shock the soldiers feel on a brief trip to Paris away from all mud, death, and corpses at the front.


Like Bookpossum I did not like the final chapter, or rather I felt it just did not fit with the rest of the book.

Spoiler:
So much matter-of-fact realism and then a sort of fantasy finish of a philosophical discussion of the causes of war and whether or not it can be prevented from happening again among soldiers on both sides on a plain of water where all evidence of a front has disappeared.

Anyway I'm glad I read this and thanks again to Billi for nominating. Now I think I need to read something light next. The Cricket on the Hearth will do.
  Reply With Quote
Old 12-19-2014, 08:05 AM   #21
Hamlet53
Nameless Being
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sun surfer View Post
Six weeks, wow! I don't really have any room to complain either; I'm sure the libraries are doing the best they can with the limited funds that most of them are operating on.

Full disclosure - I actually had a minor surgery yesterday and will be recuperating for the next two weeks and so am planning to hopefully get some good reading in. Although, I am finding that it is a challenge to read when pain pills make it hard to focus my eyes, heh. Anyway, I was hoping to read Under Fire during this time. I could read the free ebook version anytime but I'd prefer the Buss and I'm now invested in waiting for the loan to come in.

I hope you recover quickly. Quite the time to read this knowing how you feel about reading about war, especially in such graphic terms as in this book?
  Reply With Quote
Old 12-19-2014, 11:41 AM   #22
BelleZora
Wizard
BelleZora ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BelleZora ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BelleZora ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BelleZora ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BelleZora ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BelleZora ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BelleZora ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BelleZora ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BelleZora ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BelleZora ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.BelleZora ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
BelleZora's Avatar
 
Posts: 1,432
Karma: 25151986
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Seattle, US
Device: Kindle Oasis 3, Kobo Libra 2
I hope the book comes in soon, sun surfer, and that you heal quickly and well.

The last chapter of Under Fire was also a disappointment to me. It is understandable that Barbusse included it when one considers that it was written before the war ended and when the outcome was far from certain. Barbusse wanted to make his points, although I thought he made them very well indeed in the stories without elaborating at the end.

I think that Under Fire is a great book with the most powerfully descriptive passages set during this terrible time that I have yet read.
BelleZora is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-20-2014, 05:01 PM   #23
Billi
Wizard
Billi ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Billi ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Billi ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Billi ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Billi ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Billi ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Billi ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Billi ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Billi ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Billi ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Billi ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Billi's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,388
Karma: 14190103
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Berlin
Device: Cybook, iRex, PB, Onyx
Quote:
Originally Posted by sun surfer View Post
Full disclosure - I actually had a minor surgery yesterday and will be recuperating for the next two weeks and so am planning to hopefully get some good reading in. Although, I am finding that it is a challenge to read when pain pills make it hard to focus my eyes, heh. Anyway, I was hoping to read Under Fire during this time. I could read the free ebook version anytime but I'd prefer the Buss and I'm now invested in waiting for the loan to come in.
Wish you a speedy recovery with many books to read!
Billi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-21-2014, 09:31 PM   #24
sun surfer
languorous autodidact ✦
sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
sun surfer's Avatar
 
Posts: 4,235
Karma: 44637926
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: smiling with the rising sun
Device: onyx boox poke 2 colour, kindle voyage
Thanks Hamlet, BelleZora and Billi; I appreciate it! I'm already feeling better than a few days ago.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hamlet53 View Post
Quite the time to read this knowing how you feel about reading about war, especially in such graphic terms as in this book?
Yes, quite the time, heh. Well I admit that I was hoping for some other book to win but, similar to Billi’s earlier observations, I do think that this makes a good bookend, paired with All Quiet on the Western Front from January, to the centennial year of the start of WWI. Also a good trifecta with Testament of Youth from midyear close to the anniversary; I like that they represent three separate country, culture and language perspectives.


ETA - I received a notice on the 29th that the book came in; will be starting soon.

Last edited by sun surfer; 12-30-2014 at 01:58 AM.
sun surfer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2015, 03:37 PM   #25
fantasyfan
Wizard
fantasyfan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fantasyfan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fantasyfan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fantasyfan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fantasyfan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fantasyfan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fantasyfan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fantasyfan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fantasyfan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fantasyfan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.fantasyfan ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
fantasyfan's Avatar
 
Posts: 1,367
Karma: 26308818
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Ireland
Device: Kindle Oasis 3, 4G, iPad Air 2, iPhone IE
This book is one of the most graphic descriptions of the horror of The Great War that I have ever read.

I think it is worth pointing out that Barbusse also focuses on class divisions. Thus we have the "trench tourists" who are little more than curiosity seekers and those who have managed to obtain safe positions behind the lines. Both types arouse the indignation of the ordinary soldier. Then there is the contrast between the conditions of the trench-soldiers as it is reported at home and as it really is.

War is thus a generator of lies and misery ratheer than a noble exercise in heroism. In this regard, Barbusse is in agreement with Remarque, Owen and Sassoon.

A great deal of the novel has a"lethargic" quality where little seems to happen. But this is part of the depression the soldiers experience. It adds realism to the narrative. They are caught in a terrible irrational trap which may explode into a malign violence at any time. It has nothing to do with justice or nobility or patriotism or any decent morality--despite the sometimes desperate attempts of the soldiers to find something to give rationality to their insufferable existence.

In the end, the self-defeating pupselessness of the war is expressed by a common soldier:

. . . Two armies fighting each other--that's one great army committing suicide."

Last edited by fantasyfan; 01-16-2015 at 05:48 PM.
fantasyfan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-16-2015, 04:22 PM   #26
HomeInMyShoes
Grand Sorcerer
HomeInMyShoes ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HomeInMyShoes ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HomeInMyShoes ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HomeInMyShoes ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HomeInMyShoes ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HomeInMyShoes ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HomeInMyShoes ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HomeInMyShoes ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HomeInMyShoes ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HomeInMyShoes ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.HomeInMyShoes ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 19,226
Karma: 67780237
Join Date: Jul 2011
Device: none
@sun surfer. It all depends on the book and the time of year and the atmospheric pressure. There's no guarantees on interlibraries. Heck, I've waited for two months for a book within the Saskatchewan system. It was on loan, it came back, it sat on the shelf for two weeks before I went to the library took it out, read it and then returned it. At which point, not two days later, I got an email saying that the book I had requested had come in. *facepalm*

Sometimes the system fails. I try to just laugh and get over it.
HomeInMyShoes is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-20-2015, 11:12 PM   #27
sun surfer
languorous autodidact ✦
sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.sun surfer ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
sun surfer's Avatar
 
Posts: 4,235
Karma: 44637926
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: smiling with the rising sun
Device: onyx boox poke 2 colour, kindle voyage
Thank you Billi for volunteering for a month and your list of nominations were great. I'll look forward to your next turn when it comes around again.

I appreciated Under Fire but I didn't particularly enjoy it - it was too graphically horrific for me. It’s an important novel but I feel like I already know so much about the horrors of war in general from various sources over the years and when I can and have already imagined similar scenes before in realistic detail, doing it again can feel excessive. Some people may read books like this and not have much of a reaction or may even be titillated; I may be sensitive but reading something like this tends to disturb me and stays in my mind. You may say that my reaction is the point but it’s preaching to the choir in my case.

I should’ve known going in that I might not be apt to enjoy it but as I did enjoy All Quiet on the Western Front and Testament of Youth, I was excited for this to cap off the anniversary year of the start of WWI. Instead, in impact it reminded me more of Black Rain, another book that dwelled on graphic details of war horrors. I’m okay with a bit of realistic horror - All Quiet is a good example. It’s when it feels like an excessive focus that I don’t particularly like it, unless it’s necessarily exposing me to something important that I hadn’t considered before.

I did enjoy many aspects of Under Fire - the authenticity, the realistic dialogue, the vignette style, the glimpse of camp life, the characters’ stories and finding out their hopes and desires.
sun surfer is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Historical Fiction Barbusse, Henri: Le feu (french) v.1. 25.Jul 2014 Karl May ePub Books 1 08-20-2014 11:42 PM
Historical Fiction Barbusse, Henri: Das Feuer (German) v.1. 25 Jul 2014 Karl May ePub Books 0 07-25-2014 12:07 PM
Parution ÉFÉLÉ : Lettres de Henri Barbusse à sa femme, 1914-1917 Eric Muller E-Books 0 01-15-2012 10:54 AM
Barbusse, Henri: The Inferno. v1, 2 Mar 2008 Madam Broshkina Kindle Books 0 03-02-2008 09:41 PM
Barbusse, Henri: The Inferno. v1, 2 Mar 2008 Madam Broshkina BBeB/LRF Books 0 03-02-2008 09:40 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:08 AM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.