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Although I had mixed feelings about the book, the main reason being my inability to connect emotionally to its characters, I think that it definitely fulfilled the mission I assigned to it. It taught me things about WWI I was not aware about, even though historical fiction and wars were receiving a lot of my attention lately. It made me look for more information about the war and convinced me at the same time that France deserves another visit of mine, this time to places such as Thiepval or Amiens. It also made me ask myself if normality can ever be restored after one has experienced a war. a mainstream movie like manipulation of the reader to underline the little regard for life that war has, where key supporting characters' deaths are almost just footnotes, but a footnote with a sniper's bullet or machine gun fire.
Elizabeth did some calculations on a piece of paper, Grand-mere born 1878. Mum born…she was not sure exactly how old her mother was. Between sixty-five and seventy. Me born 1940. Something did not quite add up in her calculations, though it was possibly her arithmetic that was to blame.”
The Book of Birds Songs
And the fourth was the one of the last scenes with Stephen in the mines. With the aid of Faulks’ writing, I could feel the hammering of Stephen’s heart, his desperation, his hope fading, his desire to live and the grime beneath my finger nails. Birdsong is a powerful novel, spanning generations and taking us through the horrors of World War 1. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time as it has all the elements of a 5 star read for me. Its got the passion, the history and a great plot. It has the ability to make the reader exclaim out loud and to remember a time when precious lives were lost in the name of war. Faulks' writing is truly outstanding, the fear and hopelessness felt by the men is made vivid and terrifyingly portrayed.
This book rips you apart, scares you to death, rolls you in passionate, sensual love, one minute has you giggling and then later pondering the essence of life and death and fear. The book is an emotional roller coaster. And you will learn what it was really like to fight in the first world war. You can swallow the horror because it is balanced by humor and love and passion and even hope and happiness. Wow! First published in 1994, Birdsong is a WWI era novel that spans 1910-1979 and focuses on main protagonist, Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman that begins a sordid affair with a French businessmen's wife, Madame Azaire. The two are separated and years laters Stephen is now serving in the British army in France. In the 1970's timeline, a young woman named Elizabeth is becoming increasingly interested in a series of notebooks that she has found in her mother's attic and they may just have the key to some untold family secrets left over from the war. i don't understand why it has so much critical acclaim, i don't understand why i'm studying it at A Level, and i don't understand why it's one of the nation's favourite novels. i don't understand. The book was utterly mesmerizing in its portrayal of Stephen and all the things that ultimately made him what he later would be. He was a broken man, as I am sure all those young boys who survived were. Yet, survive he did almost as if fated to do so. With so much carnage surrounding them, I am sure oftentimes even in survival, they wished to be among the dead. I could not stop listening to this book. It is wonderful. I just finished. I haven't been able to do anything except listen to this book. Excellent narration by Peter Firth. I loved it. I loved all the emotion - horror of war and passionate love. And great lines and so much to think about...... Can I collect my thoughts?!this is an amazing little book! we have all of these birds in our neighbourhood here in Southern Ontario. my kids play-to-learn a lot for their homeschooling and since I bought the book the day before yesterday they have learned enough of the birds to be correcting each other via the sounds! this is a wonderful and extremely easy way to teach my kids about our local fauna!! I'm absolutely seeking out the other books! I also wish there were more for the birds in our area <3 This book has everything. It is exciting and horribly moving and oh so wonderful. It is like life: full of the worst and most wonderful.
So, consider yourself warned. This book contains the stuff of nightmares. And it's not just the dreadful tunnels, it is the unrelenting, unfathomable misery of the World War I battlefields. What is it about this war? All war is hideous, but there is something about this war-the number of casualties, the waves and waves of young men released onto the battlefields as cannon fodder, the squalor of the trenches, the chemicals-it was a war that obliterated a generation. Many of those who survived became empty shells, having left their hope and their souls and in some cases, their minds, to the battlefields of the Somme, Passchendaele, Verdun, Ypres. A scene which, some may say, in the greater scheme of the whole book pales into insignificance but is still very well worth mentioning, is the extremely erotic, yet tastefully presented, first sexual encounter between Stephen and Isabelle, which occurs early on in the story. There are other encounters throughout the book, but I found this to be one of the most sexually arousing pieces of writing that I have ever read. It omits just the right amount of detail to allow the reader's imagination to run riot. Amazing! The title is evocative. I found several reasons to entitle the book this way, not least Stephen's declaration regarding his feelings about birds and the reasons behind those feelings. When you read the book, keep the title in your mind. Seeking the meaning adds an extra dimension to your reading.usually, when i study a book, my appreciation and enjoyment of it multiplies tenfold. take, for example, the great gatsby, which i had liked previously but became one of my favourite books of all time when i began to study it. Here's a book that will help the young bird lover to identify some of the most common North American birds by both sight and sound... The authors provide a short description of where each bird can be found, along with basic details about their food, nests, eggs, size and behaviour. By pushing buttons on the front cover, the birds' calls come through a built-in speaker, thus enabling listeners to recognize distinct calls... This book would be useful for young, beginning birders.-- (06/01/2018)
ETA to add link to segment aired on NPR 1/23/14 on digitized British World War I diaries. See below.
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Think of the words on that memorial, Wraysford. Think of those stinking towns and foul bloody villages whose names will be turned into some bogus glory by fat-arsed historians who have sat in London. We were there. As our punishment for God knows what, we were there, and our men died in each of those disgusting places. I hate their names. I hate the sound of them and the thought of them, which is why I will not bring myself to remind you. BBC Culture’s Stories that Shaped the World series looks at epic poems, plays and novels from around the globe that have influenced history and changed mindsets. A poll of writers and critics, 100 Stories that Shaped the World, was announced in May. Umm --- my nine-year old knows how old I am. Elizabeth was raised by her mother, Francoise, and is the managing director of her company. There is no indication whatsoever that her mother wants to keep any family history secret. The implication is that they are curiously dull, or so bovinely indifferent, that such basic facts simply never came up in their family life.
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