Customer Reviews

MEMOIRS OF AN INFANTRY OFFICER.

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Siegfreid Sassoon's wonderful war memoir is thinly disguised as the story of George Sherston. Based solely on Sassoon's life in the trenches of WWI, it recounts the horror and scale of carnage that occurred. More importantly it shows the emotionally scars that the survivors carried with them as a result of exposure.

Sherston (Sassoon) was a rather spoiled and pampered young upper class Englishman. The war changed all that. Confronted with death, destruction and idiotic leadership from the High Command you sense the inner turmoil of Sherston.

Relieved when he is not involved with the fighting he is driven by guilt over the loss of the soldiers in his battalion. Consequently when his platoon is on the line he takes great risks in reconaissance of the German positions.

The effects of non-stop total war, stupid leadership and the complete contrast between England and the trenches (only a few hundred miles apart) is staggering to Sassoon. Sassoon becomes anti-war and considers becoming an objector, but his obvious connection to his comrades and loyalty to them wins out in the end. He hates the war but won't abandon his comrades in the field.

This is a great war memoir written by a poet who survived and was changed for life by his experiences in it.

I already knew Siegfried from his poetry. Little did I know or suspect what a madman he was on the battlefield. Makes the poetry read a bit differently. He led raid after raid (and voluntarily!), possibly hurling more havoc and grenades on the enemy than any other single soldier. Luckily he was on our side. Toward the end of the war this highly decorated soldier begins to have his doubts about the madness of it all but few practiced it with more gusto. I first read about his heroics in Graves' Goodbye to All That(which is another excellent war memoir,& which also features a strange meeting at Oxford with that other legend you have probably heard of, T.E. Lawrence), both books will give you the war experience from the insiders who lived it. I would make a quick mention of the best war book of them all All Quiet on The Western Front but you read that already I'm certain, as well as that gem by Hemingway A Farewell to Arms. Graves and Sasson belong in that company.
....Ghastly dawn with vaporous coasts/
Gleams desolate along the sky, night's misery ended.
(from Sassoon poem "Wirers")

Even if you are not a student of history or the First World War this is an interesting read. Sassoon paints pictures with his words which not only perfectly describe his surroundings but also give the reader a unique glimpse into the mind of a man suffering, yet unable to help those around him.
This book is important historically not only because it is a first-hand account of almost the whole of The Great War, but because it is a record of a psuedo-successful personal revolt against the British Military establishment, as well as giving the reader the author's experiences with meeting some very famous people, including winston churchill.

This book, along with Robert Graves' "Goodbye to all that" are simply the best combat memoirs ever written by officers. Horror is mundane, desultory; selflessness is the literal order of the day. Yet senior officers are lost in form as always. Even better both men served in the same division, although never together, and even better yet, were prewar friends. This book is Sassoon's answer to Graves' book, and I don't believe anyone can feel the full impact of the mindless brutality on the Western Front without reading both. These books convince me that the Western Front was a lot like Vietnam without end, the years came and went... and Sassoon became an accomplished killer for God and King.

While perhaps best known for his poetry written during WWI, Siegfried Sassoon was a very talented wordsmith in general, a trait that is demonstrated in his second semi-fictionalized autobiography, "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer". Sassoon chose to fictionalize his accounts of his life, an odd technique that allows him to distance himself from these experiences as he intimately describes the raw emotion and response behind them. In his three memoirs he is George Sherston, a thinly veiled version of himself, who thinnly veils the real-life characters he encountered during these times.

Readers are automatically flung into Sassoon's war experience, from the disjointed and fantastical training, to the brutal reality of life in the trenches. Sassoon describes these experiences in vivid detail, the sheer misery of trench warfare, the almost callous attitude toward the dead on both sides, and the surreal life led by those back home. Sassoon, nicknamed "Mad Jack" for his stubborness and seemingly sheer lunacy at times, was awfully lucky during his battle campaigns. He was wounded a few times, always sent back home to England to recuperate, and almost happy to return to the war.

However, after one session as an invalid, Sassoon begins to recognize that the war may not be all it's cracked up to be, that those in power are not telling the truth about their war aims, and that he may just be a lowly pawn in a game he doesn't want to play. Towards the end of his narrative, Sassoon tells of his decision to speak out against the war, even if it meant being court martialed. This act, filtered with courage and fear, is achingly portrayed as an act both necessary and questionable: as Sassoon places himself in danger, he questions his true beliefs in the matter. This account ends just as Sassoon enters the hospital in Scotland, avoiding court martial with a diagnosis of shell shock, 'lucky' as usual.

"Memoirs of an Infantry Officer" is a vividly descriptive account of life in the trenches during WWI. Sassoon is a gifted storyteller, who can make even the direst settings come to life. He offers a unique insight into the soldier poets who first questioned whether or not war was such a noble and glorious pursuit and if the sacrifice of lives was worth the price in the end. While a little slow at times, the last quarter of the narrative which details Sassoon's questioning of the war, is a brilliantly written firsthand look at how a too little celebrated writer finally found his voice.

Siegfried Sassons' "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer" is a first-hand account of life at the front line during World War 1. This is not a just a historical document or diary however. Sassoon writes via an alter-ego called George. In real life, Sassoon was an infantry officer who fought at the front, but eventually grew suspicious of the reasons for the continuation of World War 1, and as such became a dissenter. This book may be fiction, but it is based on fact and it gives an impressive account of what life must have been like in those trenches, nearly a hundred years ago. Sassoon's incredible ability with words paints a much more vivid picture than any war movie will ever provide.

George was a middle-class officer who had the luxury of a university education and was an avid reader of classic English literature. He juxtaposes the themes and ideas in this romantic poetry with the realities of life at the front to great effect. Although a tad repetitive in it's ideas (perhaps to get the point across clearly), this book is rewarding and still relevant this whole century later. As one character in the book says, "In war-time the word patriotism means suppression of truth" .

All kinds of worthless people go around writing poetry and never fought in a war (myself included) but Sigfried did it all -- fought maniacally and was wounded several times and wrote poetry, good poetry. And this is a good book.

"Memoirs..." is the kind of work that appeals even to people who have no interest in war, the military, or nationalist issues. I sometimes think that this work was created exactly for those people. It shows, sometimes graphically, the humanity of the most extreme conflict of this dying century. It reminds all that soldiers, officers, friend and foe, are people who have looked into the abyss and found the will to survive. This book will move even the most jaded heart. The only true pacifists are those that die so we may live.

This was an extraordinary book. Some of the descriptions of battle are unforgettable and have seared themselves forever in my memory. The author brilliantly paints mental pictures that leave you thinking about them for days. I was also struck how ahead of its time the book seemed. Though written prior to WWII, the disallusionment and hopelessness expressed by the protaganist as he is expossed to more and more action in the trenches read much like a Vietnam era work. Would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a front line, junior officer's account of WWI and just plain good writing.

Sassoon did a great job writing this book, it shows the war in an other perspective than most books about WWI. I think he sees the social misunderstandings brought to the trenches and he does also see that some deeds are totally irrelevant to the duration of the war. Really good to read.-Thomas Scheuer