This was a terrific love story, of love unrequited, about war and bravery, about fear and honour, and it is has something of a happy ending. ( )

A long work of historical fiction set in World War I Europe. Highly acclaimed, but a little to much soap opera content for my tastes. Solid images of trench warfare, and of the contrasts between the front lines and life in areas where no fighting was in progress. ( )

Haunting story of love and war. Harrowing images of WWI and what the unimaginable horror the troops endured. ( )

Oy vey. Sebastian Faulks is the Leonard Cohen of romance novels--in the you-want-to-slit-your-wrists-after-reading-him sense. The problem is he takes you there, too effectively.

Usually I'd give him 5 stars, which is unquestionably what the quality of his writing deserves. But in this case there was so much graphic violence and (gratuitous in many cases IMHO) and horrors of war (WWI nonetheless) I skipped large passages describing brains leaking out of skulls etc...

So 5 stars for quality of writing and taking me there. 3 stars for subject matter I found too gory for my taste. ( )

BIRDSONG was a book that i found to be a little confusing in places, however the overall story was intriguing and rather moving, giving an excellent alternative perspective of the great war. Whilst it was a lengthy, and sometimes slow read, I am looking forward to studying it and exploring its themes further. ( )

Beautifully written novel about life, love, friendship, and war. It begins with Englishman Stephen Wraysford’s life prior to the start of World War I. He is sent to work in Amiens, France, where he falls in love with the factory owner’s wife. It then moves forward to France in 1916. Stephen is a lieutenant in the British Army, which is engaged in trench warfare. The last part is based in the 1970s. Stephen’s granddaughter, Elizabeth, is attempting to track down what happened to her grandfather after discovering several journals he wrote during the war.

Faulks’s elegant writing is filled with vivid imagery. We follow Stephen to the battlefield, experiencing the sights, sounds, and horrors of war. There is a scene in which Stephen and another soldier are trapped in an underground tunnel. I experienced a sense of claustrophobia that was almost palpable. We also accompany Elizabeth as she visits a veteran in an asylum many years later, showing him the tenderness and compassion that he has missed in his isolated environment.

This book contains seven sections and three time periods. It explores a wide variety of themes, including love, heartbreak, loneliness, fear, and courage. It also takes a look at the psychological effects of war and the attempt to maintain some semblance of humanity under excruciating conditions. It is a difficult read in many places, but also feels authentic. The book examines the futility of war and the deep wounds it leaves on society. It also includes a hopeful note about remembrance and the circle of life. The characters seem so genuine that I missed them when I finished the book. I simply loved it and am adding it to my list of favorites.
( )

Hall for Cornwall

It's a book that is full of the possibility of emotion, but it falls short. With cliched scenes, predictable plot, and long, sterile descriptions, the novel lingers on and on. The ending was foretold so long before it happened that I lost all interest; there is no suspense.
After p. 350 it finally picked up, and there are some very beautiful and poignant scenes, but at that point it was too late for me.
I recommend instead, [Un long dimanche de fiançailles] by Sébastien Japrisot. ( )

Birdsong is a novel consisting of several arcs that alternate between the passionate tryst of Stephen Wraysford and Isabella Fourmentier, the inhumane, destructive spoils of World War I, and a woman whose curiosity is piqued after reading an article about the anniversary of the Armistice.

Stephen encounters Isabella during his tenure at her husband's house. The other invited guests display gross, ostentatious personas that he strongly dislikes. Stephen is described as a dispassionate character, whose distant facade conceals a barely suppressed emotional volatility. Isabella, an elegant trophy housewife possessing a quietly willful streak, is equally attracted to him, but is frightened by what their encounter beholds. Still, they carry on with their affair, and finally elope, causing a social uproar. Isabella soon discovers that she's pregnant, has second thoughts, and secretly returns to her sister's house. Stephen doesn't hear from her again, until much later, when he meets her sister Jeanne by accident. In the meantime, Stephen is crushed by Isabella's abrupt departure. After enrolling into the army during World War I, he finds his emotional and physical fortitude pushed to the extremes.

The war scenes are described too well to a disturbing extent. The soldiers end up becoming grotesque playthings of flesh, as wave after wave of them are killed. The remaining soldiers have to relive the horror of waking up every day to an uncertain fate. As the soldiers forge strong bonds over battles, women and the brief respites of rest, they are aware of how laughingly tenuous these relations are. Even when they return to their homes, they find themselves isolated by their unwilling burden, their minds suspended in the fight-or-die response of war, tired beyond breaking point. The ones that do survive harden themselves emotionally to survive the physical and emotional onslaught, but this repression inevitably becomes traumatic. Brennan, a WWI veteran, lives out much of his entire life incoherent, his mind forever frozen in the early 1910s'.

This is my first Faulks novel and it's written in an obsessively microscopic, yet curiously detached manner. I'm not yet sure how to feel about this, although it's a solid work on its own merits. The nearest feeling I could come to is a fascination? ( )

I was not able to get into this one - after 70 pages, the story was still not really happening, though there were signs of working class French political movement. This is supposed to focus on WWI, so may be of interest to others because of that. ( )

http://www.susanhatedliterature.net/2018/01/birdsong/ ( )

I was expecting a little more from this book based on the reviews I'd read. It was well written, poignant, captivating. However there were times when the details were skimmed over and other places where the details were given too much weight and time in the book. It claims to be a story about love, but I'm not sure about that. There was love in the story, but there was an emphasis on the war, a little too much for me. A small but annoying feature of the book is that it's divided into segments but there is no table of contents. Why bother if you don't have a table of contents? Some of the characters were fleshed out a little better than others, but that could have been my memory as well. It was really long and I was very ready for it to end. The ending was very satisfying, though and I actually cried about the baby's name. ( )

An epic tumultuous saga, starting from 1910 to 1918, and then jumping to 1978-79, a follow up of sorts. 1910, France - an ardent and brief love affair (which didn't particularly grab my heart, like I expected it would) between a British man and a Frenchwoman, and then - when the protagonist joins the war - a most horrifically poignant description of the First World War on French soil, with British forces involved. An unusual denouement at the end of the novel. One of the scenes that appealed to me in this part of the book was when Elizabeth (the granddaughter of the main character), in search of her roots, has a meeting with an old compatriot of her grandfather in the veterans' hospital where this man had spent 60 years... All in all, the writing and the characters were not what I would expect from a novel that received so much recognition. ( )

What a moving, passionate, and heart-breaking novel. The author writes as though he's been through this kind of war, and knows exactly what PTSD and Survivor's Guilt is like.. and it's heart-rending and provoking. The war scenes are graphic, horrendous, and should not be skipped through. The very last chapter left me in tears. I am glad this novel is SO much more than the movie could possibly have ever hoped to show; it is a beautifully written literary masterpiece. I heartily recommend it. ( )

A senseless slaughter of innocent lives, young men, brothers, cousins, family connections living in the same towns and villages, lined up at the front of water logged trenches waiting for the whistle and their date with destiny.

It is 1910, four years before the start of World War 1 and Stephen Wraysford, an industrialist from the north of England, is on a visit to a family in Northern France, in the small town of Amiens where an exchange of business ideas is about to take place. An intorduction to Isabelle Azaire, the wife of Rene Azaire leads to a passionate affair which has repercussions and for reaching consequences long into the future.

We move forward to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the enevitable commencement of hostilities and a blood bath on a scale never before witnessed. Wraysford's command is that of a Lieutenant in charge of a small group of "tunnel rats". Their function is to infiltrate the German troops by tunnelling underneath their forward line, plant explosives, and in the resulting mayham, offer the allies an opportunity to advance. Given that the same tactic is employed by both sides there is little or nothing to be gained, apart from the inevitable sacrifice of human life.

Birdsong is one of the greatest books ever written and it has been a real joy for me to rediscover again 25+ years after it's debut. Not only is it a statement about the futility of war, war is inevitable it is endemic in the human spirit, but it equally it is a love story, the passion that can bind two people together nomatter the circumstances. Birdsong is a book of good and evil, of love and death, a momumental literary achievement of one of the saddest events in the history of mankind. ( )

In 1910, 20-year-old Stephen Wraysford is sent by his employer to Amiens, to observe the practices of the textile industry. While there, he meets Isabelle, and begins an intense love affair.

In 1916, Stephen is back in France, this time as an officer in the trenches of warfare, returning to the areas around Amiens - the Somme valley.

60 years after the end of the war, Elizabeth seeks to find out more about her grandfather, and his experiences in the trenches.

And so this novel is a book of three parts. The first section describes several months in 1910 when Stephen is staying with textile factory owner Azaire and his unhappy, younger wife Isabelle. There are moments of great writing, with Faulks drawing the characters of Azaire and his arrogant neighbour Berard superbly. Some of the other characters, however, don't feel as well-drawn, and parts of the story feel clunky.

When the story moves to the trenches, however, the quality of the story-telling makes a substantial change for the better. Though describing some horrific events, Faulks does not veer into sensationalism or mawkishness, but produces a moving account of the First World War, and the experiences and feelings of those who fought in it.

Alternating with the story of the war, is Elizabeth's story. Approaching 40, Elizabeth has a sudden need to discover more about her grandfather, who fought I. The First World War. In his introduction to the 2011 edition that I read, Faulks states that 'Elizabeth existed at first to ask questions for the reader and to satisfy a thematic requirement; that the past and the presents the public and the private, be shown to be interdependent'. Perhaps I didn't feel a need to ask those questions, because I felt this part of the story to be somewhat unnecessary. I did not engage at all with Elizabeth as a character, and did not really care about what happened to her. I speed-read through the sections set in 1978, itching to get back to the scenes set in 1916-18. The only moments I felt had any real purpose were Elizabeth's visit to the Somme, and to a war veteran.

Thankfully, Elizabeth's story is a small part of the book, and the bulk of the book is centred on the war. I must admit that I have never been particularly interested in early 20th century history, and have not had more than an awareness of events during the 1914-18 war. So I was aware of the high number of losses in the Somme, and the attitude the people 'back home' had towards returning soldiers. So Birdsong, something I read because it was a Book Club read, would or normally have been my book of choice. I am grateful that I was given reason to read it, because of the greater depth of understanding it has given me about the horrors of the war. As well as being moved, I felt angry at times: can anyone not get angry when they learn more about the poor organisation of The Big Push, that lead to completely unnecessary loss of lives?

I am glad that I have read this book.

( )

This is a book of WWI in Flanders. Within days of finishing it I spent a few days in Flanders, learning the story of this area where I realized how well this area of combat had been researched. I visited the cemeteries, and toured the tunnels in Arras that were so important in both world wars and gained a greater appreciation for the novel. While battles, strategies and the brutality of the war is faithfully told, the romance which serves as a frame for the story seems contrived as does the 1970s portions where a woman researches her ancestor. ( )

Every book I read about World War I fills me with horror but this one is in a class by itself. And yet there is a redeeming quality about the story in that it describes beautifully the comradeship that developed between men under fire. I thought it was a brilliant evocation of the time.
Stephen Wraysford spent time in Amiens France before World War I started. He was there on behalf of his employer to learn all he could about the fabric trade. M. Azaire (a textile manufacturer in Amiens) hosted Wraysford allowing him full access to his business and his home. Mme Azaire was quite a bit younger than her husband being his second wife. As the weeks pass Stephen and Mme Azaire (Isabelle) develop a passion for each other and consummate it with wild scenes of lovemaking. They announce their love to Azaire one evening and immediately leave the house. They live together for some time with Stephen earning a living as a woodworker. When Isabelle discovers she is pregnant she decides not to tell Stephen and leaves him to return to her parents’ home. When the war breaks out Stephen joins an infantry unit which takes part in some of the bloodiest battles of the war. Amazingly Stephen survives although he is seriously wounded twice. Once the medical staff disposed of his body with dead men but he was found by someone who knew him. Jack Firebrace was one of the tunnellers who would dig under German lines to listen and to lay explosives. His unit was stationed next to Stephen’s and his commanding officer (Weir) was a good friend of Stephen’s. Almost all of the company who started out with Stephen are killed as time goes along so Firebrace and Weir are some of the few who Stephen knew from the beginning. They have strong ties to each other. This is rare for Stephen as he has no relatives (he was orphaned as a young child) and no friends to speak of since he had severed ties with England to be with Isabelle but when that fell apart he stayed in France getting jobs here and there. Almost all the other men get letters and parcels from home but Stephen never receives anything until a leave spent in Amiens. In a small bar he sees a woman who resembles Isabelle and who Stephen knows is Isabelle’s sister Jeanne. He stops her and learns that Isabelle had returned to Azaire before the war. When the Germans occupied Amiens they required hostages from the able-bodied men and Azaire went to Germany. Shelling damaged their house and then damaged the apartment Isabelle had moved to and injured Isabelle. Jeanne came to look after her. Stephen says he wants to see her and Jeanne agrees to ask Isabelle. The meeting occurs but Isabelle is now in love with a German soldier and plans to live with him as soon as it can be arranged. Isabelle does not tell him of the child. Stephen accepts that his passion for Isabelle is over. However Jeanne starts a correspondence with him and he is glad to have someone to write to and visit. As he continues to lose friends and companions he treasures having a connection with someone outside of the war.
The details Faulks gives of life in the trenches are extremely specific. Like how the lice infest all their clothing and how the trenches are constructed and the different brands of cigarettes the soldiers get. He must have read reams of recollections from soldiers who fought the war as a book published in 1993 could hardly have used much in the way of first-hand accounts. Any veterans still alive then seventy-five years after the war ended would have been ancient and they would be unlikely to talk about such specifics as how their clothing was fumigated or what was in their packages from home (one account that still boggles my mind is that some of them received hand knitted socks almost every week). Yet it is those specific details that make this work so impactful. Truly a masterpiece. ( )

This was a decent book, but its turns and spiraling narrative proved to be disagreeable to me at points. The novel meanders and wavers at certain points. There are beautiful and remarkable scenes, but at the same time there is much energy and overabundance of material that could have been cut prior to the publishing of the novel. Additionally, the ending to me did not seem real enough and I was left unsatisfied by the book's conclusion.

Fair, with great parts, but that is all. ( )

I was not prepared for the experience of reading this book. It took me much longer to read it than most books, but it wasn't because I wasn't interested. Almost like 3 books in one: a love story, a WWI story, and the story of a woman's search for the knowledge of her ancestors. Every single part was deeply affecting, and so incredibly well-written. ( )

A poetic, heart-breaking novel, about the atrocities of war and the hope that springs even under the most harrowing circumstances. Sebastian Faulks writes with elegant, beautiful prose, and creates memorable characters.

Stephen Wraysford and Isabelle Azaire take the central stage due to their tragic love-affair, but for me the characters that are the heart of the novel are Jack Firebrace and Weir, representing all that is good in a time of war, and the importance of self-sacrifice in times of duty.

The only element that didn't attract my attention was the part of the narration that is set during the 1970s. I understand why Faulks decided to include it in Birdsong, but I wouldn't miss it if it wasn't there. There is a BBC adaptation, produced in 2012, with some alterations but with respect in the spirit of the novel and a great performance - one of his many great performances, actually - by Joseph Mawle as Jack Firebrace. ( )

So evocative of a time & the feelings - love & pain - in a beautifully written tale. However, a bit like Captain Corelli's Mandolin, it's a book of two pieces and could have been better tied together. ( )

Unexpected. The erotic and sensual love scenes are captivating without lewdness. I gained a whole new understanding of trench warfare and the profound, stupefying loss of life on the battlefields of WWI. ( )

A beautiful book, one of those acclaimed pieces of literary fiction that actually lives up to its reputation. It combines vividly created settings, fully developed characters and a story with pace and incident. Harrowing in places it creates an understanding of war better than any other piece of fiction I have read. Highly recommended. ( )

Birdsong is really 2 stories in one.... One about Stephen Wraysford, a twenty year old boy working in France, falling in love with all the troubles that entails (a historical romance), then going to war and describing the brutality both above the ground and below it... very detailed ( military historical)....

Then the scene moves forward about 60 years about story of a woman, Elizabeth, who wants to discover what her grandfather was like... she has boxes of memorabilia and journals written in code but little else and of course a romance on her own (back to historical romance again).

It seems to be a dichotomy that is hard to resolve at first but it works and in the end a lot of loose ends are tied up nicely.

Slow to start (not a great fan of historical romance) but once the war starts it is hard to put down... a very good read ( )