The Soldier's Return

Rating:
Summary: homecoming
Review: Homecoming is not always the pleasant experience we want it to be. This is true of Sam, returning to rural England from fighting the Japanese in Burma. He is trying to rebuild his life, fighting his own inner turmoil with flashbacks of the horrors of the war he experienced. At the same time, his wife does not want to give up the jobs and independence she gained in his absence. Their communication is nil, further jeopardized by Sam's jealousy of the mother/son bond formed during the many years he was away. The author takes the reader into the lives of many touched by the war, with every attention to detail and sensitivity.Their frustrations become very real. With the offer of relocation to Australia, Sam has a renewed spirit, but Ellen is not willing to go and leave everything she knows behind.This is a great read about the struggles, sacrifices, and bonds of soldiers during war, and those very same concerns that surface with their homecomings.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting switch of perspectives
Review: I devoured "The Soldier's Return" on a long overseas flight; I literally couldn't stop reading! Bragg's excellent novel tells the story of a British soldier returning home after years at the Burmese front during WWII. During his absence, his wife has had to cope with being a single parent, raising their young son, Joe.

Sam's return home is not as simple as it would be seem. He and his wife struggle to resume their relationship, to get to know one another again. Adding to the tension is Sam's jealousy of the bond formed between mother and son during his years away. Ellen herself cannot get her husband to open up about the horrors that he and his buddies experienced in Burma.

Always compelling and wise when it comes to dealing with the intricacies of relationships, "A Soldier's Return" by far is one of the best books of this year and should especially appeal to fans of Pat Barker's very literate war novels.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful novel
Review: I devoured "The Soldier's Return" on a long overseas flight; I literally couldn't stop reading! Bragg's excellent novel tells the story of a British soldier returning home after years at the Burmese front during WWII. During his absence, his wife has had to cope with being a single parent, raising their young son, Joe.

Sam's return home is not as simple as it would be seem. He and his wife struggle to resume their relationship, to get to know one another again. Adding to the tension is Sam's jealousy of the bond formed between mother and son during his years away. Ellen herself cannot get her husband to open up about the horrors that he and his buddies experienced in Burma.

Always compelling and wise when it comes to dealing with the intricacies of relationships, "A Soldier's Return" by far is one of the best books of this year and should especially appeal to fans of Pat Barker's very literate war novels.

Rating:
Summary: Quietly Brilliant
Review: It's a theme repeated endlessly ever since the Odyssey, and yet this story of a soldier's weary return from war reads like it's all brand new.

Following a grueling and horrendously brutal campaign in Burma in the waning days of World War II, Sam Richardson returns to his home, a tiny village in England's Lake Country called Wigton. There, as he has dreamed of for months and years, he is reunited with his pretty young wife Ellen, and his young son Joe, a baby when his father went off to war.

Soon enough, it becomes apparent that the happy reunion was only the tip of the iceberg. A tangled web of emotions, frightening to both Ellen and Sam, and unspoken by both, threatens to destroy the relationship they both want so badly to keep. Sam is haunted by the atrocities and death he has seen in the war, and can hardly keep in his own skin as he dreams of escaping to far-off lands to make a new start. Ellen, used to being on her own, is frightened by this stranger with her husband's face, and clings even more desperately to the village of her birth and the way of life she is accustomed to. And in between them is little Joe, accustomed to having his "mammy" all to himself, and now misplaced by a stranger he must call "daddy."

Alongside this very private drama of three very private people is the larger story of the village of Wigton, which suffered all manner of privations during the war--but whose people are still clinging strongly to village ways.

Bragg, who grew up in the Wigton area, has created a masterpiece, in my opinion. It is followed by "A Son of War," a continuation of the Richardson saga, and something I intend to read immediately.

Rating:
Summary: A soldier returns to a changed world.
Review: Melvyn Bragg's The Soldier's Return is the memorable and poignant story of Sam Richardson, a young man from rural England who has fought in the Burma campaign in World War II and who then returns home to a world totally different from the world he has left--everyone and everything has changed.

Sam has seen such atrocity that he is now harder and less willing to show a soft side. His son Joe, now five, doesn't know him. His wife has been successful working two modest jobs and does not want to give them up. Sam has been exposed to the outside world, a world which has shown him how limited his future is in the socially inflexible world of Wigton, while his wife Ellen, in contrast, has been supported by the friendships, traditions, and familiarity of this community, where she knows everyone.

The tensions within the family and within individual characters grow and boil over, as stiff-upper-lip-ishness comes into conflict with the human need to communicate and share, creating real drama and intensity. Bragg's written dialogue is completely natural, and his descriptions and his narrative style are simple, as is his choice of vocabulary. The reader will have no trouble following the various threads of the story while learning much about Cumbria, post-World War II social upheavals, and the kinds of personal problems that may have been typical for many other young soldiers. Mary Whipple

Rating:
Summary: All the elements necessary for a wonderful audiotape!
Review: Since no one who has purchased this audiotape has reviewed it, perhaps some comments on this memorable and poignant book (available through www.amazon.co.uk) will be helpful to potential customers. Melvyn Bragg's The Soldier's Return is the story of Sam Richardson, a young man from rural England who has fought in the Burma campaign in World War II and who then returns home to a world totally different from the world he has left-everyone and everything has changed.

Sam has seen such atrocity that he is now harder and less willing to show a soft side. His son Joe, now five, doesn't know him. His wife has been successful working two modest jobs and does not want to give them up. Sam has been exposed to the outside world, a world which has shown him how limited his future is in the socially inflexible world of Wigton, while his wife Ellen, in contrast, has been supported by the friendships, traditions, and familiarity of this community, where she knows everyone.

The tensions within the family and within individual characters grow and boil over, as stiff-upper-lip-ishness comes into conflict with the human need to communicate and share--the stuff that can give real drama and intensity to an audiotape. Bragg's written dialogue is completely natural, needing only the inflections of a voice to bring it completely to life. His descriptions and his narrative style are simple, as is his choice of vocabulary, so that a listener will have no trouble following the various threads of the story while learning much about Cumbria, post-World War II social upheavals, and the kinds of personal problems that may have been typical for many other young soldiers. The cast of characters is limited enough that a listener should have no difficulty remembering who is who. Like the best of the old-fashioned novels, this one is made to be read aloud.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting switch of perspectives
Review: This post-war book is thick with British idioms and terms, and so it was read slowly and deliberately! This is a very well-researched book. It describes a returning soldier's coming to terms with the horrors of war which he had experienced in Burma during WWII. The story opens with his return; very little of it is flashbacks, except when necessary, and only to tie it in to a current happening in the plot. The soldier's wife and young son have learned to be self-reliant while he was away, and their adjustments to his return are slow and painstaking. Well written, yet the ending was too hastily composed, in my opinion. A long, drawn out plot which ends abruptly, toying with one's emotions, is a characteristic of books which some like....I prefer a calmer resolution.

Rating:
Summary: No Dramas Here
Review: When Sam Richardson returned home from Burma after the second World War, nothinkg appreared to have changed in his hometown. However, traumatised from his experience, he found it difficult to adjust. He loved his wife Ellen and son Joe deeply, but having returned almost as a stranger to them, he had hurdles to cross to forge bonds with them. While he desperately wanted to get out of the familiar and routine surroundings, Ellen and Joe wanted to stay put almost as desperately.

Unsentimental and almost glommy, this book is not for readers looking for dramatic plots or romance. It simply moves the reader along with the thoughts and feelings of the two central characters, Sam and Ellen

Rating:
Summary: No Dramas Here
Review: When Sam Richardson returned home from Burma after the second World War, nothinkg appreared to have changed in his hometown. However, traumatised from his experience, he found it difficult to adjust. He loved his wife Ellen and son Joe deeply, but having returned almost as a stranger to them, he had hurdles to cross to forge bonds with them. While he desperately wanted to get out of the familiar and routine surroundings, Ellen and Joe wanted to stay put almost as desperately.

Unsentimental and almost glommy, this book is not for readers looking for dramatic plots or romance. It simply moves the reader along with the thoughts and feelings of the two central characters, Sam and Ellen