12-16-2014, 07:12 AM | #16 |
Snoozing in the sun
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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. |
12-17-2014, 10:51 PM | #17 |
languorous autodidact ✦
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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. |
12-18-2014, 07:27 AM | #18 | |
Nameless Being
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12-18-2014, 09:57 PM | #19 | |
languorous autodidact ✦
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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. |
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12-19-2014, 08:03 AM | #20 |
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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:
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:
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. |
12-19-2014, 08:05 AM | #21 | |
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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? |
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12-19-2014, 11:41 AM | #22 |
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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. |
12-20-2014, 05:01 PM | #23 | |
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12-21-2014, 09:31 PM | #24 | |
languorous autodidact ✦
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Thanks Hamlet, BelleZora and Billi; I appreciate it! I'm already feeling better than a few days ago.
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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. |
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01-16-2015, 03:37 PM | #25 |
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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. |
01-16-2015, 04:22 PM | #26 |
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@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. |
02-20-2015, 11:12 PM | #27 |
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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. |
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