Rating: 
Summary: COMPELLING STORY BEAUTIFULLY PERFORMED
Review:
Winner of an Audie award for her presentation of The Time Traveler's Wife, Maggi-Meg Reed gives a haunting, memorable portrayal of narrator Mathilde Donnay on the Abridged version of A Very Long Engagement.
Another equally gifted actress, Isabel Keating is impressive and affecting as she gives voice to the Unabridged Edition of this emotionally riveting story of a search for a lost love.
France is the backdrop and the time is before and after World War I. Mathilde has been unable to walk since childhood. Although confined to a wheelchair she has gained some reputation as a painter, yet she's unable to recover from the loss of her fiance. Jean Etchevery was a soldier in the war and declared dead; it was a dishonorable death. He was accused and found guilty of deliberately mutilating himself so he would not have to go into battle. He and four others were taken among the trenches and left to die.
Mathilde cannot accept this explanation and with the aid of a private defective and interviews with families of other soldiers she believes Jean is still alive. But, if that is the truth, many more questions arise.
Listeners will not soon forget this story of the dreadful toll of war.
- Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: Superb
Review: A Very Long Engagement is a magical book, one which weaves a tale and catches you in its spell--it will haunt you long after you put it down. The novel begins as five condemned French soldiers walk to their doom during World War I. They have all shot themselves, trying to get out of fighting and as punishment, will be thrown into the no-man's-land between the French trenches and the German trenches. Their families know nothing of this and after they die, are told them men died honorably. A few years later, Mathilde, the fiance of one of the men discovers some of the truth about what happened and she becomes convinced that her fiance has did not die--or at least did not die as she was told. She tries, doggedly, to uncover the truth. Along the way, she discovers many atrocities of that war. The novel pulls you along to its rather unexpected, yet still deeply satisfying ending, pulls you so much you won't be able to put this one down. The power of love, the strength of friendship, the failure of memory--all these come into play in this outstanding novel. I highly recommend this novel to all devoted readers. It's a bit of a challenge, following all the little clues Matilde gets, putting the truth together and tossing out the lies, but it's worth it. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the time....
Review: I confess that I feel just a bit stingy in offering only four stars to this book, because I cannot identify a single area in which it is lacking. Japrisot's story is both moving and entertaining, the characters are richly developed and easy to care about, and the events described seem completely credible. I guess I find myself comparing it to books like ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and A FAREWELL TO ARMS, which is, of course, grossly unfair. For one thing, it could reasonably be argued that those books are among the best written in the twentieth century, and how fair is it to judge every new novel on its ability to measure up favorably to such a standard? Secondly, although ENGAGEMENT is about the First World War, it is more accurately read as mystery/love story. My favorite thing about this novel is the way in which Japrisot offers the reader an opportunity to form quick intitial judgements about many of the characters, and then slowly provides the reader a deeper understanding of these individuals and their motives as the book progresses. I found that, by the end of the book, I liked almost everyone involved in this story. Perhaps not a "great" book, but certainly a very good one - and a damned sight better than most of what has proven to be publishable/marketable over the last fifteen to twenty years.
Rating:
Summary: Just great
Review: I just wanted to add my voice to the fray and say that I loved this book. While complex both in structure (tricky time-jumping) and because of the French proper names and their colloquial variants (I sometimes got confused between place names and people names, as well as variant names for individual characters) this is a book for language lovers -- beautifully written, excellently translated, stirring, heartbreaking and funny as hell. Japrisot's deceptively simplistic narrative style only enhances the underlying horror and outrage. I'm even looking forward to the upcoming film version by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (of "Delicatessen" fame). Comparisons to Kubrick's PATHS OF GLORY are apt but where that film sharpened its satirical edge to an almost unrecognizable razor finish, this novel's quiet, plaintive voice draws you in, and then you're in over your head. Wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Long Engagement--A Very Short Night
Review: I read this book in one sitting. I couldn't put it down. Japrisot not only artfully held the suspense until the last possible moment, he gave me such wonderful characters to care about that I couldn't *help* but frantically turn the pages trying to find out Did Manech die or didn't he?? But it's not just a good mystery story. It's realistic historical fiction that gave me a vivid sense of the trenches and post-war life. It's a beautiful, painful romance story. It's a clever, astute rendering of how people help each other and lie to each other and care for each other and punish each other. All of this, brilliant at every facet, in one little book. It's a brilliantly *woven* story...like Mathilde, the heroine, you have to hold on tho the wire and don't let go until you get to the end as Japrisot winds you through his labyrinthine tale.
Rating:
Summary: A great story, one I will read again
Review: I've just finished Sebastien Japrisot's "A Very Long Engagement", and I loved it. The story is beautifully realized, and the characters very lifelike and human. I was a little disappointed at the publishers reviews as well as the blurb on the bac kon the book - I felt as though it gave away a bit too much of the story. Japrisot, however, leaves the reader in complete suspense until the end of the novel. There were parts where the story dragged a bit - about forty percent is told in the form of letters to the main character, and some of these letters should hae been two or three pages shorter. I also had a bit of trouble keeping all of the minor characters straight. In the end I gave this book a five out of five stars for its originality and the strangth of the characters.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful, Heroic Story
Review: In 1917 five French soldiers are sentenced to death for desertion. Instead of being normally executed, they are taken to the French front to be shot dead by the Germans.
Mathilde Donnay, the seventeen-year-old fiancee of one of the five, is told her lover died bravely in combat. But two years later she's contacted a dying officer who tells her otherwise. Some facts are missing from his story. There's a slim chance one or two of the men survived, and so, Mathilde undertakes a heroic search for the truth.
A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT is the story of Mathilde's search, told in a collage of scenes, letters, and narrating voices of those who knew the five men. What emerges is a gripping, sometimes thrilling mystery as Mathilde uncovers one piece of a very complex puzzle after another. Along the way we get to know not only the man Mathilde loves but also the other four (a carpenter, a welder, a pimp and a farmer) and their loved ones.
Mathilde is a wonderful heroine. A fall off a ladder at age three left her bound to a wheelchair, but she's completely free of self pity. She is above all stubborn, someone who will not give up no matter what. Many people try to tell her that her search is futile, but she persists with doggedness that is at times a little selfish, but also a measure of her loyalty and love for her fiance.
Most of the characters in A VERY LONG ENGAGMENT are very likeable. While their circumstances are sometimes sad, and we see how the war has affected their lives, the book is also uplifting because so many of them go out of their way to help others.
The first chapter is a bit slow, but after that, the book takes off like a roller coaster. Clue after clue falls into place, and Japrisot keeps the reader guessing. The setting, France 1919-1924, is beautifully and authentically rendered.
I enjoyed A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT tremendously. It is a story about devotion and dedication, as well as a story about the tragedy of war, and the beauty of life.
Rating:
Summary: An evocative, brilliant novel on the First World War
Review: Part historical, part detective-mystery, this is quite a remarkable work which combines fiction and fact and evokes a whole gamut of emotions from pain, anxiety, curiousity to some precious moments of beauty. The title may form preconceptions, but this isn't Mills & Boon romance, or even a love story in the accepted sense. The reality of the horrors of war, particularly trenchlife in the 1st World War are vividly brought to life--the story relolves around the grim sentence of 5 soldiers caught for desertion and thrown into No Mans Land between the French & German Lines at the Front Line of the Somme; and Mathilde Donnay, a cripple from childhood who is afianced to one of those soldiers. Her courage and fortitude to discover what happened to her fiance isn't super hero(ine) stuff, but her character grabs you so much, that you, the reader, can't bear not to find out too. Linda Coverdale has done a superb translation, although this book was a best seller and prize winner in France there was no guarantee that much of the essence would be lost (as happens with so many translations fronm one language to another), but she has done full justice to the original work. She has captured it all in the well-written, even flowing, riveting and compulsive reading--nothing has been lost in the translation. You don't have to be a war-story buff to enjoy this poignant tale. I whole-heartedly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: The way of the world
Review: Talk about inter-genre. Sébastien Japrisot's novel "A Very Long Engagement" hardly fits one single genre. The book is at first --and most of it a war drama--, but at some point --still early in the beginning-- the narrative is also a love story. As the pages move, the novel becomes a thriller. But, above all, it is a fable. Just check the first sentence, the classic "Once upon a time..." The result may generate mixed feelings among the readers, but not by chance.
As the story goes, "once upon a time, there were five French soldiers, who had gone off to war because that's the way of the world". From the beginning we meet the five soldiers. Japrisot describes with details who these soldiers are, and where and why -- actually not much of the `why', after all, this is the quest of the book. Then we're introduced to Mathilde, a young girl, whose fiancé was one of the five soldiers -- or so the thinks.
Years later, she receives a letter from a dying man, claiming to have information on her boyfriend. This is the beginning of Mathilde's journey, which will take many years until its heartbreaking conclusion. Throughout her quest, she'll come across the most different kind of people, some will be helpful and others not. Because that's the way of the world.
The non-linear narrative is enhanced by the many devices used by Japrisot. From digressions to flashbacks, and many letters, the readers discoveries events before Mathilde. However, one will be able to fully understand some pieces of information only later -- when the girl can place the piece on her giant war jigsaw.
The gallery of supporting characters is as colorful and the main ones. Mathilde is a strange girl. Confined to a wheelchair since her childhood, she has created many different lives inside her mind. At some point, one wonders if this fiancé really exists. There are many small plots surrounding Mathilde's secondary lives -- but it will all converge in the end.
The five soldiers also have a special place in the narrative. Alongside with their friends, wives, children, they become a portray of the human condition, affected by the WWI. Letters from both sides are the perfect device to give dimension of their dramas.
As the narrative advances, it becomes stranger, until its surprising climax. With this novel Japrisot (1931-2003) proved to be a great storyteller, whose talent will be largely missed.
Rating: 
Summary: Monodimensional characters kill an otherwise decent book
Review: The plot is a sort of mystery, decently realized. The fact that it's entwined with WWI makes it somewhat novel (forgive me). But the flatly drawn characters all but kill the story. There's little growth, little development -- for all their experiences, all the characters seem to remain the same as when they were first introduced in the novel. And what's worse, the lead character is almost saccarine sweet -- so much sentimentality! The writing itself is decent, but not good enough to overcome the poor characterization and the sentimentality. Great literature it is not.
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