Birdsong

Product Information

review: A book in seven parts; the first being set in 1910 in France, where a wild affair between a young Stephen Wraysford and his host's wife(!) Isabelle, devastates the families involved, as well as setting the foundations of the book. It then alternates between the lengthy Wraysford 's First World War experiences and the very short sections of his granddaughter seeking to find out his war and post war story.

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. The battlefield scenes are so descriptive and cleverly written and at times make harrowing reading but the author makes sure you are in that trench and you are witnessing the vivid descriptions of carnage and brutalities of War.

Reader Reviews

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. 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.

Katherena has moved with her mother from a seaside city to a new home out in the country. Katherena has always loved to draw, but she is struggling with the relocation, and she doesn’t feel like drawing now. That is, until she meets her elderly neighbor Agnes.When the book begins Stephen is an impetuous twenty year old. War is not yet in his future. There are a few references to the song of birds and how this sound is annoying to him. This will not always be the case. As we follow Stephen through his horrific war experiences, we realize how he is maturing - not just aging but developing a new humanity. His courage and his desire to survive are vivid and beautifully detailed. The song of birds, once so annoying, becomes the sound of hope and life. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger really applies here. I have quite mixed feelings about this book. While I found the sections on the war proper quite devastating and very well done, I also found the framing device of the pre-war romance and more present day life far less effective and also less well written. My feelings may also be affected to some extent by other World War I literature that I have been reading as part of the Centennial over the past few months. The heroism and unflinching humanity these ordinary people displayed is something those of us who’ve lived our lives untroubled by war will probably never understand. They had to be phenomenally brave to survive – in the mental sense as much as the physical. BIRDSONG brings that home to us in no uncertain terms. Take heed, because as a reader of this book you will need to be likewise. Sebastian Faulk's writing is sumptuous and pitch perfect, capturing the essence of each of the three eras he writes--the tumescent melodrama that unfolds in Amiens in 1910, the desperation, emptiness and incongruous vividness of the war years, and the practical, surging energy and wealth of late 70s London. This is a great novel, an engrossing but devastating read. Just look up every so often and take deep, slow breaths. You'll need them. The way that the characters and the atmosphere are built by Sebastian Faulks is just amazing! The reader is taken in to that atmosphere, and shares the feelings of the main character, Stephen. You cannot fail to be totally captivated.

a b c d e Gorra, Michael (11 February 1996). "Tunnel Vision". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 13 September 2016 . Retrieved 29 August 2016.In 2012 it was adapted as a two-part television drama for the BBC. [20] The production starred Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Wraysford and Clémence Poésy as Isabelle Azaire, and was directed by Philip Martin, based on a screenplay by Abi Morgan. The historian Edward Madigan favourably compared the television adaptation to Steven Spielberg's War Horse as a successful evocation of the experience of the World War I trenches. [20] There's a love affair, so passionate, but yet illicit and at first I thought that this is what was going to get to me in this novel. It did, but the most powerful, thought provoking thing about this book is what happened to the men in the trenches during WW I. Birdsong was adapted as a radio drama of the same title in 1997, and as a stage play in 2010. [7] The play adaptation was first directed by Trevor Nunn at the Comedy Theatre in London. [7] Gorra described the novel's split into parallel narratives as the critical fault in the reading experience of the novel. [9] For de Groot, however, the split structure provides one of the most sophisticated elements of the novel. [8] De Groot writes that Benson's investigation of personal history allows Faulks to examine the difference between the two perspectives on the memory, highlighting the "unknowability of the horror of war" and of history more generally. [8] Trauma [ edit ] Death surrounded British soldiers on the front line, often to the point of breaking their psychological endurance. Faulks explores this historical trauma, throughout the novel. Painting by C. R. W. Nevinson, 1917. The novel tells two stories separated by time, but featuring characters connected through family. The novel’s main story is about Stephen Wraysford, focusing on his experiences during World War I. A secondary story features Elizabeth Benson, Stephen’s granddaughter, who discovers her grandfather’s journals and begins to learn about his life through them.