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From a Whitbread Award-winning author: A WWI novel of loyalty and friendship "graced with the immanent lyrical talent of the Irish writers at their best" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Born to an aristocratic family on an estate outside of Dublin, Alexander Moore feels the constraints of his position most acutely in his friendship with Jerry Crowe, a Catholic laborer in town. Jerry is one of the few bright spots in Alec's otherwise troubled life. The boys bond over their love of swimming and horses, despite the admonitions of Alec's cold and overbearing mother, who scolds her son for venturing outside of his class. When the Great War begins, he seizes the opportunity to escape his overbearing mother and taciturn father, and enlists in the British army. Jerry, too, enlists--not out of loyalty to Britain, but to prepare himself for the Republican cause. Stationed in Flanders, the young men are reunited and find that, while encamped in the trenches, their commonalities are what help them survive. Now a lieutenant and an officer, Alec and Jerry again find their friendship under assault, this time from the rigid Major Glendinning, whose unyielding adherence to rank leads the two men toward a harrowing impasse that will change their lives forever. … (more)
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Alec and Jerry form that classic friendship of the upper-middle-class and the workin-class boy. They enjoy
Alec’s mother encourages him to enlist (her motives are murky). He doesn’t want to, and doesn’t have to, Things in Ireland being a little troublesome. Alex goes out into the night, meets Jerry, discovers that he’s going to the war as well, and they proceed to get uproariously drunk.
Soon thereafter they’re at the front, in the same unit, but separated again by class. Their experiences, brief as they are, have profound effects on their lives.
Doesn’t sound like much, does it? Author Johnston manages to create a searing story of friendship, love, and politics all in one go. This is a amazing read; do please try it. I guarantee that you won’t regret it.
The rural idyll is then shattered, as the two young men go to Belgium at the beginning of the First World War, which due to the brevity of the book is described with less success than other WW1 books. The end is moving and well described, but you do not grow to love the characters, even though you can see that they are products of their circumstances.