Historical fiction is the shiz. Growing up in Virginia
(especially in an area close to places like Williamsburg and Jamestown), I was
always learning something new about history, and I ate it all up. As I started
moving into the upper-level bookshelves at my local library, I came across the
historical fiction section, which blew my
twelve-year-old mind. It was history like I hadn’t read it before. And I
was in love.
So I’m starting a recurring… bloggy… thing (the technical
term for it) about historical fiction and all there is to know (and love) about
it. Maybe some posts will be about specific historical time periods, like this
one, but others will be about authors (I’m comin’ for you, Ann Rinaldi) or
genres like YA historical fiction or specifically female and/or minority writers of the genre. Anyhoo… books about World War I. The Great War. The War to
End All Wars. Let’s do this:
All Quiet on the Western Front—Erich Maria Remarque
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| "The GREATEST WAR NOVEL of ALL TIME." Okay, drama queen. |
Yeah, that’s right, I’m starting with the obvious. Because
you’ve heard of this book, you probably read it in high school (along with A Farewell to Arms), you probably looked up the summary on SparkNotes because you
had an AP-Biology test the same week and couldn’t work on both projects at
once, and you didn’t know that you were missing out on one of the best
historical fiction books ever (I’m being a little dramatic, but only a little).
This book is amazing, and beautiful, and painful as all-get-out. And it’s also
pretty irreverent; you’ve got these soldiers sitting on boxes in a beautiful
field, surrounded by sunshine, flowers, birds, rainbows, and unicorns (again,
dramatic), and they’re ignoring it all because they’ve all got diarrhea and
they just want to smoke and play cards and poop in their boxes (there’s a
rummy/runny pun in here somewhere). It’s got a little of everything, and it’s
got such a strong voice, I can never set it down.
Not So Quiet…-- Helen Zenna Smith
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| Come here often? |
The apparent story behind this novel is that Smith (a
pseudonym for author Evadne Price) was told by her editor to write a satirical
piece of All Quiet. Smith realized
what a jerk move that would be and instead wrote an even more heart wrenching
and agonizing book than the one she was supposed to be spoofing. The novel,
written from a female ambulance driver’s perspective, is based on the (now lost)
diaries of Winifred Young. Personally, I think this book might be even better
than All Quiet, even though Remarque
had seen action and Price had not. Definitely read this one, but save it for
after All Quiet if you’re planning on
reading them both.
The Forbidden Zone—Mary Borden
This one is kiiiiiiiiinda weird but also insanely good.
Borden was a nurse in the “forbidden zone,” the stretch of land right behind
the front lines. As she explains, one can never really explain these
experiences of trauma that soldiers and nurses alike experience, but she
attempts to depict some of the feelings she encountered and the people she tried
(and sometimes failed) to save. There’s some poetry, some short stories, and some
pieces in between the two.
The Return of the Soldier—Rebecca West
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| I miraculously got this gorgeous cover instead of the creepy editions of blurred human faces. |
This one actually doesn’t directly deal with WWI; it’s about
a woman, Jenny, living with her cousin (who she maybe… probably… is in love
with?) and his wife (who he definitely is not
in love with). When her cousin, Chris, returns from war with complete
amnesia demanding to see a woman they’ve never heard on, each character must
face the consequences of the secrets they’ve been telling each other and
themselves before the war even began. Jenny is a fascinating character all on
her own; it’s hard to tell whether she wants to be Chris and/or his mistress or if she wants to be in a
relationship with them (or both?). It’s a short, fast read but sprinkled
throughout the fascinating plot is some beautiful descriptions of the
countryside, which I’m always a sucker for.
I’m gonna put the next three together:
These are all collections of short stories and poems
surrounding World War I. Wilfred Owen is an especial favorite of mine; he “studied”
under established poet Siegfried Sassoon during their stay in a mental rehabilitation
hospital (long story) during the war. His poetry is indescribably good. If you don’t
want to read the whole collection, just read “Dulce Et Decorum Est.” Better
yet, watch this video of Jake Gyllenhaal reading it out loud to you. That’s
right, now you’re hooked.
More historical fiction posts coming your way soon!
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