In Memoriam
Ratings63
Average rating4.5
If you Google “approach-avoidance conflict” don't be surprised if this book shows up at the top of the results. I can't remember a book that I both anticipated and dreaded so strongly. Only the assurance from other reviewers about the ending (both MCs still alive and together) kept me going through horrific battle scenes that demonstrated numerous gruesome ways to die. Alice Winn perfectly captures the innocence and enthusiasm of the boys who enlisted, the devastating erasure of their ideals, and the stiff upper lip culture that provided no empathy for their broken bodies and minds. Viewed through that lens, Ellwood and Gaunt's love is apparent in every nuance of their interactions despite the added complexities of homophobia and xenophobia.
5 stars, will inevitably buy a copy for myself but will need to summon my emotional strength reserves before re-reading.
Alice Winn's “In Memoriam” isn't your typical war novel. Yes, there's the muck and misery of war, but there is also a tender and aching love story. I loved meeting Ellwood and Gaunt; their bond forms within the strict confines of early 20th-century homophobia. Their fragile world is torn apart by the war and there is a contrast between the tenderness of their love and constant threat of death.
It is a story of love and resilience. It reminded me of the human cost of war (a lesson all too applicable today) and how even amongst devastation, love persists. Absolutely loved this one.
4 1/2 stars.
A harrowing insight into the tragedy of war, and a beautiful story about two men who love each other despite it.
I don't ever write reviews or rate a book but this books definitely deserves one. 5/5. This is the first book ever I will re-read. I have never re-read a book in my life. To me it is a bit pointless since I know already the ending (maybe because mostly I read mystery-thriller books). But this one changed everything. Beautifully written, beautiful characters, beautiful story, everything.
¿Novela hestórica con gays? Sign me up for it! El conceptu por sí solu enganchóme, pero la execución brillante terminó de ganame por completo. “Contraste” sería una bona definición pa esta novela, xuega con ello constantemente.
Entama con Sidney Ellwood y Henry Gaunt na so escuela, mozos y felices. Reciten poesía de Tennyson y citen autores griegos. Una vida idílica (lo idílica que pueda ser nuna escuela masculina en 1913 enllena d'adolescentes hormonaos y completamente faltosos).
Al llegar la guerra Gaunt ye'l primeru n'alistase a cuenta la so ascendencia alemana. Metíense con él y llamábenlu “espía alemán”, vióse forzáu a ello, a non sólo ver como mataben a los sos collacios, sinón tamién a matar a los sos compatriotes. Equí entra ún de los temes principales: la idealización y mitificación de la guerra. Píntase como dalgo glorioso, dalgo a lo que cualquier home xoven debía aspirar a participar. Non obstante, dempués llega l'horror de la realidá: ver les muertes más grotesques imaxinables, la calidá de vida miserable nes trincheres, la escasez de comida, los bombardeos y proyectiles y, probablemente lo más duro, ver morrer a tolos tos collacios con apenes dieciocho y diecinueve años.
Fala de cómo la guerra roba l'inocencia y la xuventú, de cómo te camuda como persona y te destruye. Onde más se refleza esto ye nel personaxe d'Ellwood. Yera astutu, pícaru y encantaor. Siempre tenía una respuesta pa tou. Enllenu de vida y carisma. Tres tolo polo que pasó, torna una persona despegá, agresiva ya impredicible. Trata amás del amor con estrés post-traumáticu.
Saco, o quiero sacar, una conclusión antibelicista d'esta maraviyosa novela. Sólo destruye. Los civiles nun importamos un res, por muncho qu'haiga convenciones internacionales o crímenes de guerra y escontra la humanidá. Sólo somos peones a la mercé de los intereses capitalistes ya imperialistes de los poderosos.
Obviamente, la homosexualidá (go lesbian!) ye un tema central. El tratu que recibe recuérdame al de l'antigua Grecia, onde se vía como un ritu de crecimientu, dalgo propio de la mocedá que nun debe trespasar a la vida adulta, pues eso yá sería viciu y perversión. Nel colexu d'Ellwood y Gaunt yera una especia de xuegu del que podíen esfrutar mentanto esperaben pa casase con una bona muyer y formar una familia nuclear con xardín con llendes de maera blanco.
Por embargu, la visión dientro la guerra nun ye la mesma. Nun ambiente hípermasculinu, les muestres de ciñu ente homes nun taben mal vistes. Nun teníen que demostrar la so virilidá constantemente.
En resume, una hestoria con xiros y vueltes, personaxes complicaos con desendolcu y una narración tanto crúa como delicá. Nun puedo recomendalu lo suficiente.
“And it was a magical thing, to love someone so much; it was a feeling so strange and slippery, like a sheath of fabric cut from the sky.”
“-Ich möchte leben”
“-Ich auch”
8.0This felt, in a lot of ways, like a British [b:At Swim, Two Boys 96200 At Swim, Two Boys Jamie O'Neill https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1439613291l/96200.SX50.jpg 956105]. Which reminds me I need to re-read that one as soon as possible. Alice nailed it, specially for a first time writer, gonna definitely keep an eye out for her.
Quite a beautiful book. So many wonderful moments, so much pain and suffering. Sometimes it's hard to relish the love when reading about such horror. The gore factor could have been scaled down. There were so many characters who die so it's hard to keep track and feel the death.
I guess the novel is realistic.
A love story set in British private schools and across the battlegrounds of WWI. Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt, dashing dapper private school boys, constantly reciting poetry and reading Greek epics, are secretly in love. When one of them feels pressured to enlist for England before his time, the other follows shortly behind. What follows are many heartbreaks, of what war does to young bodies and minds.
I feel like I read several books with different tonalities. First we're experiencing the angst of forbidden gay schoolboy crushes (honestly kind of shocked how accepted sexual abuse between the boys seemed to be at those times) with lingering fears and dreams of heroics on the battlefield. Then the cruel No Man's Land reality of WWI is pure tragedy and heartbreak. Followed by suspiciously jolly adventures of a few of the former schoolmates attempting to escape German prisoner-of-war camps while rereading Adam Bede again and again (I had to laugh out loud several times at the continuous Adam Bede jokes). Followed by a final sombre act that makes it very clear how war produces broken men that never can fully heal.
Tonal differences asides, I enjoyed them all, and didn't mind at all how expertly they toyed with my emotions. Winn's writing of the schoolboy charm made me chuckle a lot, and the audio narration was quite excellent as well.
Powerful. A look at the destruction of innocence of some public schoolboys in the trenches of the First World War, whilst also dealing with societies then attitude towards homosexuality. This is playing with some really weighty topics, and it does them with an appropriate level of sensitivity whilst not backing away from the brutality of the events of the time. Even as the events of WW1 are fading into history we find a similar trench warfare building on the gates of Europe again at the moment which I think adds to the poignancy of the stories here.
The title refers to a section in the school newspaper, where the fallen old boys of the school are remembered, and as we start our main characters are all still in the school reading about former schoolmates who have gone to war and grasping with the ideas of glory that are still prevalent. As they gradually leave the safety of school and enlist we see the idealism gradually fade to be replaced by horror and lasting psychological trauma, and that descent provides the powerful backdrop to the whole novel.
Poignant, sad and heartfelt, a powerful read.