Allo scoppio della prima guerra mondiale, entrambi si arruolano, seppure con motivazioni diverse, e si troveranno nello stesso reggimento. Simile ad una statua che si risveglia solo per manipolare figlio e marito. Ho trovato bellissimo il modo in cui l'autrice ha illuminato il grigiore della vita di entrambi con improvvisi sprazzi di calore e luce; una passeggiata insieme, un bagno nel fiume, un dialogo, una corsa a cavallo, una notte a sentire il suono di un violino.
E' doloroso che gli altri non si sforzino di capire, ma che continuino nella loro marcia estenuante. Gli edifici tremano. BABT Blurb: As a child Alexander, heir to the big house and only son of a bitter marriage, formed a close friendship with Jerry, a village boy who shared his passion for horses.
In both enlisted in the British Army - Alexander goaded by his beautiful, cold mother to fight for King and Country, Jerry to learn his trade for the Irish Nationalist cause. But amid the mud of Flanders, their relationship is tested by an ordeal beyond the horror of the battlefield Against the backdrop of the First World War, Jennifer Johnson masterfully takes you back in time to the depleted battlefields to tell the truly remarkable story of a friendship.
Jennifer Johnston remains one of Ireland's most prolific writers. Very touching. James Henderson. With a title referencing a traditional nursery-rhyme this novel retraces some familiar ground. How Many Miles to Babylon presents issues of friendship, family, class and war. What makes the novel worthwhile is the fine writing style of the author. Both the description of the desolation of Ireland as seen from the eyes of the impressionable youths and the experience on the fields of Flanders as it ends their innocence is well told.
The story begins, however, with the complex tale of a friendship between two boys in Ireland prior to and during World War I. Alec, the son of Anglo-Irish parents grows up lonely and friendless on his parents' estate in Wicklow during the early years of the 20th century.
His parents have a difficult relationship and it is stated that "their only meeting place was the child. Alec's mother, who believes strongly in the class system of early twentieth century Ireland, discovers the friendship and forbids him to spend any more time with Jerry. Their friendship is one that transcends their differences in class and character. I found the psychology of the family triangle of Alec, his over-bearing mother and his deferential father to be the most interesting aspect of this slight novel.
Their friendship is continued in private until the outbreak of the First World War. Jerry signs up as his father is already in the British Army and the King's Shilling would be of great benefit to his mother.
Alec feels no compulsion to sign up until his mother tells Alec that his father Fredrick is not his biological father and in that moment he is so frustrated with his mother he impulsively signs up. In France the two friends are stationed together, but now divided by rank as well as class.
They are commanded by Major Glendinning, a ruthless officer who shares Alec's mother's belief in the class system and divisions between rank, demanding that there be 'no flaw in the machinery'. When Jerry learns that his father is missing, he leaves to find out what happened to his father leading to a tragic ending. While the end of the story is apparent from the opening pages, the complex and lyrical style of the author held my interest and kept me reading to discover the story behind the sad beginning.
Another view of the tragic nature of the Great War, this short novel resonates with better and more substantial fictions and I would recommend readers turn, or return, to Erich Maria Remarque's magnificent All Quiet on the Western Front for the seminal version of this tragic turning point in World history.
Steve Middendorf. This is not a story about life in the trenches of World War I. This is a story about relationships that could not be. Friendships between people of widely separated classes. The young gentleman, Alexander and his groom, Jerry, who shared a love of horses, sent off together to the trenches of Flanders. They never felt a bombardment or saw a shot fired in anger. Alexander was a gentle upper class boy who never grew up; his mother thought that sending him to war would make a man of him.
It did. Jerry was not a pacifist but he cared nothing for authority, or politics, or war; only for the horses. This, in the end got him the firing squad - to be led by his friend. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers. Show full review. Young Alec Moore lives in paradise. It is the early years of the 20th century, and Moore is the only child of wealthy Anglo-Irish parents, a member of the landowning aristocracy that has ruled the Emerald Isle for centuries.
But all is not well. Alec is the product of a poisoned marriage, his father a shrunken, drunken man whose sole comfort is the vast land he owns and cherishes, while his mother, good lord — his mother must be one of the most malevolent in all of fiction, like a horrid cross between Medea and Lady Macbeth gone awry.
Thwarted from receiving a normal education, Alec is a lonely, introspective child, until the day he meets a boy from the village swimming illegally in their lake… a mouthy lad going by the name of Jerry. It is just as much a sharp take on marriage and parenthood, an exploration of English colonialism in Ireland, a determined leap across the chasms of class and religion that separate the rich Protestant heir from the poor Catholic rascal, uniting the two as much in life as in death.
But this only embitters the boy and pushes him closer towards his feckless father, whom the mother holds in unadulterated contempt.
When war breaks out, naturally Alec and his father want nothing to do with it. They are happy in their hermetic idyll. But she has different ideas, her own marital battle to win. So she manipulates him mercilessly, until finally he gives in and makes up his mind to enlist. The two dream of setting up their own horse-racing outfit once the war is over. The trenches which Alec describes are a physical representation for the reader of humankind without the redemptive power of love.
It is like descending into the hell which he describes so well in the course of the novel. Alec embraces the friendship of Jerry, caring for his welfare and trying to buffer some of the abuse hurled at him by the officers. It seems that Alec and Jerry should become insensitive to feeling and the little kindnesses which make life bearable. Yet despite this ultimatum, Alec continues to befriend Jerry and their smallest gestures of help to each other indicate the pointlessness of the war which rages around them.
This murder illustrates the breakdown of the inherent moral code in humanity. After the murder, Glendinning never once shows remorse or disgust for his act. Crowe goes to the front again tomorrow with the rest of his squalid friends. Friendship The reunion between Jerry and Alec near the end of the novel is very moving. This poignancy is more effective because the reader of the novel suspects that the reunion will be short-lived:. He threw an arm across my shoulders and we lay in silence. My warmth was spreading through him, but the hand that clasped the back of my neck was still cold as a stone fresh from the sea.
When Jerry is found he is put into the detention camp where Alec visits him to carry out the greatest test to their friendship and love. They reminisce about their youthful dreams and ambitions. Jerry confesses for the last time that he loves his country above his king. It seems an odd thing to say before death but it is important to remember its symbolic significance.
For Jerry, his country encompasses more than the nationalist cause, more than the land itself; it reflects his belief about the brutality of war, the uselessness of it. This novel fits into the category of social realism. It is a story which is extremely true to life.
Johnston does not over-exaggerate her plot or stretch it beyond the bounds of credibility. It is a novel based firmly in an actual time and place in history. Her main characters belong to clearly defined social backgrounds, the Anglo Irish gentry and the Catholic underclass of Ireland in the early s.
Both men are accurately drawn as they each possess certain qualities of their respective backgrounds. The bigotries which attempt to divide them both at home and on the battlefield are all too real in the novel.
It is, therefore, a book rooted in reality. In many respects, the novel takes on the form of an autobiography. It could also be said to be a confessional work. It begins with an officer alone in his room, about to face death by firing squad and he is writing his last thoughts. Therefore, the novel is told in flashback.
The novel is presented strictly in chronological order with only a few slight references to the past, as Jerry and Alec at times of depression or crisis look back longingly to the good times they spent together in the Irish countryside.
It is divided into two distinct settings: Ireland and France. It is a simply structured but completely effective novel with a plot that is uncomplicated and direct. She does not waste words on rambling descriptions nor does she overuse images for exaggerated effect. This makes her images all the more memorable when she does use them. Clarity is her main strength. She describes her characters and the action in the plot in a concise condensed manner. The rushes bowed to her as a little rippling wind stirred through them.
A thousand green pikemen bowing. It heaved uncomfortably and its blackness was broken from time to time by tiny figures of white, mistakes.
Their conversations were always the same, like some terrible game, except that unlike normal games, the winner was always the same. They never raised their voices, the words dropped malevolent and cool from their well-bred mouths. The emptiness of the Irish landscape and the emptiness of the inhabitants of the Big House are matched by the desolation of the war fields.
Johnston introduces a vivid comparison when she introduces war for the first time. Not a prolonged scream, it rose and fell, faded, deteriorated into a babbling from time to time and then occasionally there was silence. During the silence you could never forget the scream, only wait for it to start again. The men hated the sound as much as I.
You could see the hate on their faces. Johnston also uses symbols to good effect in the novel. At intervals in the book, the swan is used as a symbol of loyalty and eternal friendship. Alec and Jerry share a common love and respect for swans as they begin to know each other. Swans reappear in Flanders, both literally and metaphorically. At times of crisis as the men struggle to endure the hardship of the war, they remember the swans in the few rare glimpses the reader gets of the past.
This symbolises the imminent death of Jerry as the bond of friendship between him and Alec is about to be severed. Another literary device favoured by Johnston is the use of rhyme and poetry at crucial moments.
How many miles to Babylon? Four score and ten, sir Will I get there by candlelight? Yes and back again sir. This was a rhyme that Alec learned innocently as a child and it comes back to haunt him as an adult. As children, Alec introduces Jerry to Yeats on the shore of the lake:. Rose of all roses, Rose of all the world And heard ring The bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing. In contrast to this, Yeats reappears in a very different situation.
Here he is experiencing his strongest emotional test and it is significant that he turns to Yeats for help. I love no living person. While Alec quotes the poetry of Yeats, Jerry uses a different kind of rhyme to show his dedication to the Republican cause:. Now father bless me and let me go To die if God has ordered so. Humour is sparse in the novel and when used it is often grim.
It is evident on the morning when Alec leaves for the war and it is used by the soldiers at moments of stress to lighten their moods. Dialogue is used sparingly and it is often loaded with inferences particularly in the relationship between Alec and his parents.
The absence of words only illustrates the lack of communication within the family. Dialogue is not favoured by Major Glendinning who uses short, sharp sentences. These have the primary function of giving orders and he forbids discussion as much as possible. It is extremely effective as it invites the reader to fill in the gaps and particularly to infer meaning from the electric silences which permeate the story.
While Alec and Jerry have lived in close proximity to each other in Ireland there is a strong contrast between their backgrounds. Alec is the only child of an aristocratic couple whose values and beliefs differ significantly from those of the Catholic people of the time. The socials division between both groups was strong yet Alec and Jerry chose to ignore it. Yes, young. The responsibilities and limitations of the class into which you are born.
They have to be accepted. But then look at all the advantages. Once you accept the advantages, then the rest follows. Chaos can set in so easily. Both boys were also educated differently.
Alec had the doubtful pleasure of his own tutor, Mr Bingham, and a piano teacher. This meant that Alec never mixed with other boys of his own age as a child and therefore his friendship with Jerry was particularly important for him. Jerry, on the other hand, went to an ordinary school but had to leave early to find work.
Your lot would care. My lot too if it came to it. Yes, I knew they would care. He was right.
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