"The Guns of August" gives an account of the events leading up to the outbreak of World War I, and the first month of battles in August 1914. The writ"The Guns of August" gives an account of the events leading up to the outbreak of World War I, and the first month of battles in August 1914. The writing is colorful and very dense. Some basic knowledge of World War I is helpful since Barbara Tuchman throws out the names of the main players very rapidly in the initial chapters about the causes of the war. The black and white maps are helpful, but not spectacular. The author is an interesting storyteller, looking at many of the politicians and generals with a bit of humor and frustration.
The book concentrates on the Western Front as the German troops moved into Belgium and northeastern France. A few chapters are devoted to the Eastern Front, especially the Battle of Tannenberg. In the Mediterranean the search for the battleship "Goeben" is discussed since its presence in the Dardanelles blocked Russian trade and influenced Turkey to join forces with Germany. The naval presence in the North Sea is also mentioned. The book omits the situation between Austria and the Balkans.
The battles are described in an informative and detailed manner. Better weapons, new technology, and strong planning and organization benefited the Germans. But their "slash and burn" philosophy in the treatment of neutral Belgium brought Britain into the war, and turned US sympathies toward the Allies. Tachman writes vividly about the plight of the infantry (on both sides) who often marched and fought for days before their supplies of food and ammunition finally caught up with them. The book ends dramatically with an account of the first Battle of the Marne in early September 1914 with taxi cabs of soldiers speeding from Paris to the Front. Although the Allies prevented the Germans from entering Paris, the bloodshed had only just begun. "Sucking up lives at a rate of 5,000 and sometimes 50,000 a day, absorbing munitions, energy, money, brains, and trained men, the Western Front ate up Allied war resources....The deadlock, fixed by the failures of the first month, determined the future course of the war and, as a result, the terms of the peace, the shape of the interwar period, and the conditions of the Second Round."...more
It's a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, starting as she sets out in the morning to buy flowers for a party, and ending as her par3.5 stars
It's a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, starting as she sets out in the morning to buy flowers for a party, and ending as her party guests are leaving that night. The book is written in a stream of consciousness so the reader learns about the characters' feelings about the present, past, and future, moment by moment. Throughout the book, Big Ben and other London clocks sound the hours. Clarissa reads Shakespeare's words from "Cymbeline" about death in a book in a shop window early in the book, foreshadowing things to come.
The book was written after the devastation of World War I. Septimus Warren Smith, a veteran suffering from PTSD, sees hallucinations of a good friend who died in the war. One of Septimus' doctors will be attending the party later. Woolf and her husband published Freud's works, and Woolf had been treated unsuccessfully for bipolar disorder and depression. She shows that the medical and psychiatric doctors of the time were inept and unfeeling to people with mental illness.
Clarissa, a charming high society hostess, invites about twenty people to her party. We learn about her youth, her past loves, and her marriage as she shops in the morning. Was she happy in her marriage to Richard, or should she have married Peter who still loves her? We also see England's social structure through the eyes of many characters. There is a contrast between Clarissa's life, and the lives of working women.
I appreciated Woolf's writing which was often very beautiful, and her thoughts about the Great War, mental illness, and society. Her stream of consciousness writing gave impressions of past, present, and future which melded into a complete idea. I admire Woolf for trying a new style of writing, and might enjoy it in a short story of a few pages. But I found it difficult to concentrate on her stream of consciousness writing for a whole novel. There are other styles of writing that I prefer reading....more
Helen gets a call that her brother, Declan, is dying of AIDS and wants to spend time at their grandmother's home on the Irish coast. Declan had never Helen gets a call that her brother, Declan, is dying of AIDS and wants to spend time at their grandmother's home on the Irish coast. Declan had never revealed his gay lifestyle or his illness to his mother or grandmother, and he wants Helen to smooth the way and converse with them first. The three generations have had emotional problems since the death of Helen's and Declan's father.
Two of Declan's friends join them at the grandmother's seaside house. His friends have become a family to Declan while his mother and sister have been out of the loop. The estrangement between Helen and her mother is especially severe, but they have to face the past as they also prepare to soon lose someone they love.
The story is set in the early 1990s when AIDS was a new disease with few treatment options. It was a devastating time for the gay community, their friends, and their families. Colm Toibin uses beautiful spare prose to show the troubled relationships and the start of the healing process for this family....more
Reread for a book discussion. "The Dinner" started with satirical social humor as two brothers and their wives dine at a posh restaurant. But the distuReread for a book discussion. "The Dinner" started with satirical social humor as two brothers and their wives dine at a posh restaurant. But the disturbing story gets psychologically darker and totally riveting as it moves on. What secrets is this unreliable narrator hiding? How far will the two couples go to protect their sons who are responsible for a terrible event? Why do they have such a strong sense of privilege? I couldn't put the book down!...more
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