A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list and was also shortlisted for The Booker Prize in 2005 - 9 out of 10

 

A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list and was also shortlisted for The Booker Prize in 2005

9 out of 10

 

 

This is an extraordinary novel, which has elated this reader, notwithstanding the fact that it has a lot of fighting in it, World War I is, if not omnipresent, on almost every other page, and even when the plot takes us to Dublin or Amiens, the horror is in the background and overwhelms the reader with its monstrosity

 

One of the episodes comes to mind now, told by a friend of the hero, William ‘Willie’ Dunne, Pete O’Hara, the latter had come across a calamity, with people, animals killed, and in the middle of this, there was a young woman, tied, with her skirt lifted at the back, and all the signs of rape and torture, a terrifying site

Pete O’Hara was with just a few other soldiers and one officer (as I recall) and the leader tells them they will take the woman along, only some of the soldiers are not so sure, for on the forehead, the wretched creature had ‘Duetche’ written, so there was a debate over the reason for that, as if she was not a victim enough already

 

Her tongue had been cut, so she made some heart-breaking noises, when taken by the Irish men (I think they were all Irish, to begin with, Willie Dunne is surrounded by those who have volunteered to fight for the British King, however much the situation would be changed after some years of carnage and also because of the revolt in Ireland)  

The soldiers say that the sign on her face, which means German, could mean she is from there, no matter how illogical, absurd it would be to believe that she had come all the way, across the trenches and the front lines to this desolate place, or else that she had been inscribed by them…Willie would have a medal burnt into his skin

 

All the comrades on this journey through perilous territory die, with the exception of O’Hara, and another lad, and while they wait under some feeble cover, the latter starts raping the poor soul, and O’ Hara keeps her still, if I remember correctly, not as an active accomplice, but who the hell knows what was on his mind

The fact is that this was so horrendous, in itself, and then when he tells this inhuman tale to Willie, the latter thinks of the woman he loves, Gretta, and then he punches his friend, aghast at how loathsome he could be, and for that matter, so many others, because this is just appalling, and there is so much of it in the book

 

It is not just the trenches of World War I, in Flanders, we have a bloody battle in…Dublin, when Willie is there, the rebellion against the British starts, and in the chaos, William Dunne finds himself and the other troops shooting on the protesters, and one young man, with a pistol in his hand, is killed right in front of our hero

 

The death and the aftermath confuse the young volunteer, after all, he just joined the army to fight for the British king, and when he writes to his father, a policeman, that he felt pity for that rebel, who was Willie’s age, the conservative parent is so furious, that he pours scorn and hatred on his son – spoiler alert, do not read from here on…

Later, the two will reconcile, only it might be too late, let us leave it at that, only I need to emphasize that this is such a glorious read, I am tempted to say in spite of the tragedies that keep piling on the poor protagonist, all the bad things happen to him, but then it is not in spite, but because it is so genuine, frank about life

 

We do not have the usual Wine and Roses, the happy endings we are used to from block buster movies, and the books that sell well, because they are Panglossian, like the ethereal optimist in Candide https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/12/candide-or-optimist-by-voltaire.html by Voltaire, a character that I like

‘All is for the best, in the best possible world’ – well, maybe, but A Long Long Way is about war, the drama that enfolds, the men that are massacred in the trenches, and the impact at home – a second spoiler alert – Willie loves Gretta and he wants to marry her, however much they may resemble Romeo and Juliet

 

Like the most famous and unfortunate lovers (from Verona, were they, or I am making this up, with a flawed memory) Willie and Gretta belong to families that are at odds, the policeman has kicked the protesters, and Gretta’s parent is a revolutionary, but they keep the affection hidden, until that is already beyond repair

As he was on leave in Amiens, the innocent Willie is taken to a place where two French (maybe, actually, I am not so sure) girls offer coitus for money (when available) and for a few minutes, the hero fornicates, and he will leave to regret that assiduously, because (this alert) Pete, his friend, would send an anonymous letter

 

Gretta reads about the ‘infidelity’, and mind you, they were religious (they still are in Ireland and so many other places) and there is that rule ‘if you look at the wife of the neighbor with lust, then you have already committed the sin’, something like that, presumably, so the woman is very cross with this affair

She tries to write to the soldier, but mail is most frequently lost, they are in the trenches, under that hellish bombardment, so he does not get the epistle, does not answer, and when he returns for a few days, he has this aggressive reception from his father, and when he walks to the home of the woman he worships, he comes into the room, and she has an infant at her breast, for a while I thought that maybe Willie’s child, only he or she is not…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”