While I have read many books about World War II and its aftermath, I really haven’t read many about World War I. I’m not sure why.
I just haven’t. I know of the horrors of World War I through history classes and documentaries. I know my grandfather fought in that war and there is a button or two from his uniform that my mother kept. Still, novels and biographies of this time have, for the most part, escaped my reading, until a review of The Return of Captain John Emmett caught my attention. Danielle wrote such a compelling review of this first time novel of Elizabeth Speller, that I knew I would soon be reading it.
Easier said than done.
The Return of Captain John Emmett was just released in the States in July and while there are copies in the various libraries in my library system, most of them have been on hold. I did finally secure a copy and held on tight, wanting to finish it but finding time for reading scarce. I will have a hefty fine to pay on Tuesday. It was worth every cent!
The story begins in Kent, England. November. 1920. The railroad station is dark but the platform is filled with people; women, both young with children and old, a few men, soldiers. All are waiting solemnly for a train to pass through, carrying the body of an unknown soldier whose remains are to be buried at Westminster Abbey. An internment symbolic of the thousands of soldiers lost in the battlefields during the Great War.
Laurence Bartram leads a solitary life in a few rented rooms, writing a book about churches. His wife and son died while he was away fighting and he has all but given up on life. He receives a letter from Mary Emmett, the sister of a school chum, who asks him to find out about her brother, John, who has committed suicide while being housed in an asylum. John has what was then termed as shell shock. John also has the burden of a dark secret of war.
With the help of his friend, Charles, a great fan of Agatha Christie, Laurence begins to investigate John’s death. He comes to believe that John’s death wasn’t a suicide after discovering several other deaths, all men who were part of the execution of an officer during the war.
The Return of Captain John Emmett is a beautifully rendered story of a terrible time and horrendous actions. It is at times atmospheric and poetic. It is also horrific and disturbing. It is a mystery with many characters and some name changes and surprises, much in the fashion of Charles’ favorite writer, Miss Christie. Charles, by-the-way, is of great help to Laurence. A man of wealth, he makes many connections that help Laurence along the way.
This book has not set easily with me. I do not mean this against the author. A good book should make you think, question, be happy, or be disturbed. The Return of Captain John Emmett is unsettling in its content; the cruelties of war, both against each other, the innocent people upon whose soil wars are fought, those left at home, the inhumanity of war, and the horror of battle. All the more reason to read it. Please do.
A Work in Progress’s review of The Return of Captain John Emmett with an interview of the author can be found here. It is good reading, and good listening as well. Thank you, Danielle, for leading me to this book.
Your lovely review has convinced me and I’ve just reserved it from my library. I always try to read something based on WW1 or WW2 in October so that will be it.
Thank you. I would be interested in your opinion of it, Cath. This has definitely made me want to read more of the time period of WWI.
Can I recommend, if you can get hold of it, Not So Quiet by Helen Zenna Smith. It’s a fictional account, based on real life diaries, of what the women who drove ambulances in WW1 went through. It’s brilliant. I also liked The First Casualty by Ben Elton, a crime story set in WW1.
Thank you, Cath. Not So Quiet is in our system and I will check it out soon. It sounds interesting. I’ll keep my eye open for Ben Elton’s as well. Appreciate the suggestions.
I am another who has just reserved this book at the library. I don’t often read books set during wartime, and most of those that I have read were based around the second world war. Your review and the video on the link you gave has made me want to read this book. My grandfather fought in WW1 also, he told us very little about that period of his life but my son is (slowly) researching his war service.
There are several copies of this book available in the various library branches so i won’t have a long wait, the only trouble is I have so many books in my still-to-read pile that I can see fines looming if I am not careful
Wasn’t that an interesting video? I went back and viewed again just after I finished the book and appreciated it even more. I’d forgotten that Speller is a poet, which explains how she was able to combine such a poetic feel to such a horrible time.
I have read that New Zealand’s losses were heavy during WWI, Marilyn. This must have devastated NZ in so many ways. I’m sure you be interested in you son’s research.
I wonder if your copy will have a different cover. That always seems to happen to books once they are printed in the US. I did return my book today. The librarian spent some time asking me about it. No one waiting in line, so, I wonder if it followed her home.
I doubt that it is on our library shelves, but I may be able to reserve it through our system. Your review intrigues me. It sounds pretty dark. I did a research paper on WWI in high school and don’t remember a thing other than descriptions of fighting in the Argonne Forrest. Lucy Maude Montgomery gives much information in the last books of the Green Gables series. Most of the information comes from discussion of the ladies at home as they share letters, read the newspapers, and listen to radio broadcasts. The women fought their own war at home. Letters took weeks and news reports were very general.
I will add this to my list and hope that I have no fines.
I hope you are able to find this in your interlibrary system, Janet. It took me a while to get a copy. It is dark, but, the writing is wonderful and it brings up so many issues that follow war and ended up being a decent mystery as well. Can you imagine waiting for information as these women did? At least now, information is as quick as the send button, though the horror no less. The book does touch on this and how women had no idea what the men suffered at war and so had no idea how to help them.
I seem to remember one of LMA’s books being one of the books soldiers in Greenland? were allowed to read. Does that ring a bell?
As late as my books was, it was $1.10. I love our public libraries.
Penny, this sounds an amazing book: and set in the county which I adore, in which I lived, and where I shall end my days. Kent saw so much conflict,but it came from the skies; the ugliness just the other side of the channel, mans inhumanity to man, never properly leeched into our soil. We are a blessed little shire.
Thanks: a very powerful review.
It is a book I might not have otherwise picked up had it not been for reading about it on a blog, Kate. The author is also a poet, and she managed to take such a tragic time and infuse beauty in it as well and the beauty of Kent comes through.
Sorry it’s taken me so long to drop by and read your post–last week was crazy! I’m so glad you liked this one, too. It is worth a library fine (though hopefully not too large a fine!). I knew about troops who had been executed because they didn’t follow orders but didn’t realize that officers were generally not executed even if convicted of the same sort of behavior. I find this era so interesting and thought Speller really gave a good flavor for the period! Her prose is really very elegant, too! I’m looking forward to reading her second book now!
How kind of you, Danielle. It’s good to hear from you anytime.
I agree. Speller’s writing is beautiful and she told a story of such a horrible event in such a beautiful way. This book makes me want to seek out more novels about this era and I, too, look forward to her second book. Thanks for leading me down this path.
This is an excellent book review that makes me want to pick up the book. I know very little about WWI, even from school history because I think WWII was so fresh in the minds of the adults around me, my father and all my uncles being WWII vets and the adult women in my life often talking about those years as well. Add to this the slew of WWII movies we had back then and the fact that most of my male teachers who taught high school history were also WWII vets who put more emphasis on that war and there was little room for WWI!
Thank you. You came to mind as I was reading this, Janet, thinking you might be interested in reading it. I had the same experience with WWI and now you’ve made sense as to why. I started school about ten years after WWII ended, so, that was what was emphasized. It was the outcome of the first war that led to the second one, and devastated so much of Europe with its loss of men and all that entailed. I’m eager to read more now. Cath, in one of her comments above, has some recommendations of this era that sound good.