Rating: 
Summary: Be moved to the core of your existence...
Review: I don't know were to begin, as I finished reading the book this morning. It is one of the best books I have read in a very long time, for starters. Although having read more books on war and such, including some of the cliche 'classics', this books moved me more than I could ever have imagined. I have had some sleepless nights by now... The vivid decriptions of human nature, loyalty between people, the surroundings (which are decribed in a way I recognise from Tolkien, he has the same (English?) way of colourful and lively picturing nature) and trench warfare in general made me many times recoil in fear, digust, hope or pity at what was happening, but always with the urge to return ro the story. The interludes in the seventies are somehow very touching too, I think many Europeans have felt the same way Elizabeth, the character in this part of the book, is doing. More than one million dead sons, brothers and fathers in the first months of WW1 is not something that is forgotten lightly, whatever the cause... Read it, and think, and hope (in vain?) for no more wars on this scale...
Rating:
Summary: I loved it, so there
Review: I thought that it was a wonderful book, really well writen. It was very moving and I don't think I ever cried so much at a book before- that could just be because I'm pathetic, but I still thought it was a fantastic book. The parts in France before or during the war were better than the ones in the 70s, but it was still a fantastic book overall, and I loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: Make up your own mind.
Review: For my Higher Still English I have decided to write my Specialist Study on 'Birdsong' and wanted to write a short review to help others who may, in the future, do the same. I found the reviews very useful for my essay, but disagreed with a number of them.For a start, it is only following careful inspection that the book begins to lose any of its appeal. On the first read it remains - to most people - a thoroughly enjoyable piece of work. However, for people such as myself who, due to the syllabus they are following, have to disect a text, the magic becomes slighly lost. It's like finding out that Santa isn't real, or someone isn't who you thought they were, you wish you never knew. Getting back to the subject however, I would certainly recommend this book, but that's not really up to me. I would encourage potential readers not to be put off or persuaded by too much of the advice in the reviews, as obviously opinions vary. However, I will say this: For anyone who is studing or has studied any aspect of The Great War in History, then it will most definitely strike an emotional chord. But back to my title, make up your own mind!
Rating:
Summary: Almost brilliant
Review: This book is almost brilliant, but just misses. Why ? Most of it is wonderfully done - but the contemporary sections are simply not as well written, and after the intensity of life in the trenches, I did not feel as engaged with the modern characters. I think this is also partly due to the excellence of Faulks descriptive writing which works better describing the Somme than Twickenham. However, the ending, set in the present, does pack an emotional punch and connects past and present in a satisfying and uplifting conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: The human spirit's ability to survive
Review: Some would think this is a war novel, others a love story/war novel. I found myself clawing through my own claustophobic urges in the tunnels, turning away from the pages at the horrific assaults on the front. But then, when I finished the last page, I realized what I had encountered in this wonderfully exhausting story was a lesson on how strong our spirit to survive, how much depends on that for ourselves and others who count on us. The camraderie these soldiers felt, through four years of hell was a real example of how having something to hang onto when all seems lost is paramount. The flash forwards to the seventies was a bit of a turnoff to me, hence the four stars. But what a wordsmith Faulks is! His descriptions are so complete, the characters so real. Stephen Wraysford will stay with me through many days of thinking about this story. I found Isabelle totally believable and Jack Firebrace is the man I will never forget.
Rating:
Summary: Simply brilliant
Review: Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulks, has impressed me beyond words. It is difficult to express the extent in which it has moved me. This is a winning novel, in all its aspects. I found that the three main section of the novel complemented each other, unlike some other reviewers. The passionate affair between Isabelle and Stephen was completely believable and beautifully described. However, the heart of Birdsong lies in the muddy trenches, and it is here that it excels. We get a true feeling of what it was to be a soldier in WWI, and the image that we get is haunting. Some particular passages, like the prelude to the Somme attack and the last section when Stephen and Jack are trapped in the tunnel, are simply brilliant. There is so much compassion in these sections. All the characters are multidimensional, complex and utterly believable, and they will stay in your mind for days. As for the flashbacks to the 1970s, I agree that it seems like a literary device. But they help make a connection between the WWI characters and our own lives, showing that many of our great-grandfathers could have lived through the same ordeal as Stephen, Weir and the rest. The novel builds toward a fantastic, climatic ending, which I will not reveal because I believe you must experience it yourself. Birdsong is a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: Simply put, this book is a marvel! I can't remember one in recent years that I've enjoyed more. And--to add icing to the cake--I picked it up on a whim, having no prior familiarity with either the author or his apparent critical acclaim. He certainly warrants the latter, however, having produced a book of exceptional clarity and economy of language. An initial story of smoulderingly passionate infidelity (paradoxically and yet effectively described in cool dispassion) is chronologically followed by a subsequent tale which is immersed in the mind-numbing violence and brutish existence of World War I's Western Front. The resultant "disconnect" between the prewar and wartime circumstances of the novel's central character--a singularly self-contained business functionary who transforms somehow into a quietly combative junior British infantry officer--couldn't be greater, and becomes the central theme of the novel. His progression through literal and figurative hell (concisely, almost clinically captured in spar prose) represents nothing less than a aching eulogy for a complete generation of young men who were either physically or spiritually destroyed by a war of unbelievable personal degradation. And yet, the book finally ends on a note of unexpected--if delayed--optimism, which in lesser hands might seem contrived but with Faulks' skillful narration feels only proper. Tempted though I might be, I can feel no cynicism about the ultimate triumph of life over death. This is a true testament to the superlative nature of this book!
Rating:
Summary: Simon Faulks' Birdsong -- A Memory of A Generation Lost
Review: Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks is simply one of the best novels I have read in two decades. It is neither simply a "historical novel", nor a "romance novel", nor a "war story". It rises above all those limiting genres. Faulks' prose is spare, direct, but contains moments of great beauty: his description of the lover Isabelle and her sister; the comradeship of men in the trenches of World War I; and the guilt-ridden deistic relief that the protagonist is surprised by on a leave in England. After reading this novel, I urge anyone who can to visit the marvelous Cathedral in Amiens on an evening, and then see the fields between Albert and Bapaume in northern France. The echoes of a generation wiped from the earth are at those places, and hearteningly, in this book. A masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but gory
Review: Faulks has a captivating writing style. This book is well composed with good description, but if you don't have the stomach for gruesome detail this book isn't for you.
Rating:
Summary: The extremes of the human condition in a fresh and new way
Review: This is genuinely a story of love and war - and the extremes about what humanity is and means. This is not a romance, nor is it exclusively a WWI novel. It is a true literary work that engages the spirit. I am hard pressed to recall a book that gave me such a sense of sound and sensation. Many of the tactile and visual descriptions were so fresh and new, yet true, that I found myself re-reading the passage for the sheer beauty of the language. It is heavy reading from an emotional standpoint but the narrative itself straightforward, pretty much linear and easy to follow. Unlike other reviewers, I did not find that the multigenerational passages disturbed the flow of the novel. Nor did I feel that the "parts" created an incongruous whole. Nevertheless, it is not a quick read - it is to be savored for all of the emotional impact and sensation it evokes. Birdsong is not just about the degradation of humanity under the grotesque conditions of trench warfare, it is also about the elation of human beings, and their real-life struggles, as well as the restoration and continuity of humanness across generations. Rarely have I encountered such masterful characterization - the people and their stories and beings pull you in and grip you to the very end.
|
