Customer Reviews

Small Wars: A Novel

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a riveting achievement -- perhaps the most personal and devastating novels about the effects of war on the human soul that I have ever read.

At the center of this book is Hal Treherne, a major in the British Army, called to duty to the British colony of Cyprus. There, he and his beautiful young wife, Clara, and their two baby daughters, set up life in the midst of escalating skirmishes.

Like the mythical Dorian Gray, Major Treherne initially becomes infatuated...with the glory of war. But his euphoria quickly fades. Early on, he directs a siege, where an ambush group pours petrol down the exit shaft of a cave, followed by grenades, and stands by as men -- either blackened or burned -- come stumbling out. Gradually, this, and other debaunched acts, darken his soul while outwardly, he gives the appearance of being successful and in command.

Even finding comfort with Clara becomes impossible. Sadie Jones writes: "Without looking at her, he took his eye down her horizon...small hill for head, little steep valley into neck, hill off shoulder, deep valley to wait...not a home landscape then, an island." The love and sustenance this couple found in each other disintegrates; although it is not defined, this is a devastating portrait of post traumatic stress disorder.

As Hal and Clara each struggle -- separately and alone -- to remain human in an inhuman world, the atrocities begin to hit home. And Hal is faced with a choice: to make a separate peace or to continue the insanity.

This is an extraordinarily polished book; Sadie Jones knows just when to lead the reader with lush detail and when to step back and let the reader's imagination take over. It evokes books such as Ian McEwan's Atonement,Hemingway's Farewell to Arms, and Kate Grenville's The Lieutenant, but yet carves a niche all its own. I will not soon forget it.

Small Wars is built around one of the native insurrections that eventually destroyed the British Empire's colonial system. Dedicated young Major Hal Treherne is posted there to help maintain Cyprus as British territory in opposition to the Cypriots who desire union with Greece. His wife Clara and young children join him there, all of them thinking this would be a pleasant posting and an excellent career move.
Greek Cypriot nationalism is increasing. It is 1956, and a revolution is brewing. Terrorist attacks are getting bolder - and Hal's assignment is to catch and bring in or kill the revolutionaries and their supporters. As the attacks - by both sides - increase, Hal spends more and more time away from his family. The British arrest and interrogate many Greek Cypriots. As Hal participates in the fighting and killing, and becomes aware of the severity of the torture involved with the interrogations, he begins to question the actions of his soldiers and superiors.
Meanwhile, Clara is becoming more and more frightened for herself and her children. The terrorist attacks have reached the British compound, and she is afraid to go out of the house. Hal, her only real emotional support, is seldom home and she feels escalating concern over his safety.
The reader cannot help but become involved with this family and the events that batter them. While the war in Cyprus is considered a small police action by the British authorities, it has a devastating impact on the soldiers' families.
Small Wars is very timely and is well written.

Don't let the the cover of this book fool you as it did me. This is no light War Love Story. It is the story of when the British Military were in Cyprus during the 1950's. This is the account of a battalion who got "caught up in the battle to defend the island against Cypriots seeking enosis, union with Greece."

Major Hal Treherne, his wife Clara and their young twin daughters are all in Cyprus together. Families of soldiers are allowed to live with them at this posting. Hal deals all day with some pretty gruesome battles, faced with making decisions that civilians would and should never have to make. He is also in charge of many men under him. In turn he returns home to his family almost daily trying to behave as a "normal" family man. It is not so easy.
There are many things I found hard to read yet it gave me a much better understanding of what really happens in war,what men and women are capable of if put to the test.

It is also a study of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, although it is never mentioned in the book. I found this to be a very good book by this author.

I was drawn to this book because it is set in Cyprus when the British were trying to keep the peace. I had family in the Royal Navy, which had been a part of the British forces in Cyprus during the period covered in the book. Having grown up on stories of the conflict I was all set to enjoy a tale about it. But with "Small Wars" I found myself picking it up and putting it down just a small time later. Each time I made a strong effort I found I couldn't stay with it without a real effort of will.

It falls to the author to use words to paint a picture of the world as she wants her reader to see it. The problem comes in the writing style of Sadie Jones. It seems to be almost myopic in its use of descriptive words. Sadie focuses in very closely on the thing she wants you to know about and it is well done but then she seems to forget the rest of the world.

For example early on the lead characters are at a graduation ball at Sandhurst. Jones goes into detail about the dress one woman is wearing and comments that half the men in the hall were wearing uniforms and half formal wear but other than that, nothing. We don't know the size of the hall, how big is it? Is it empty or crowded? White walls or wood paneling? Carpet or boards or linoleum? The picture painted by Jones is of a woman in a strapless gown, midnight blue to match her eyes, moving through a vaguely described group of people in a completely undescribed room. It takes on an annoyingly dream like quality for what is a waking world.

When going into a Greek village it is said to be build along a narrow street but are the houses brick? Wood? Clapboard? Adobe? Painted? New? decrepit? We're told it is so very different from England or Germany where the officer was previously posted, but they could be igloos for all the description we're given.

Hal, the lead character's, regiment is not named. We are to accept he is a newly promoted Major and sent out to take command of a new battalion but in the British army an officer's standing was often determined by his regiment. To have a battalion commander of an unnamed unit is unheard of. He would have as much pride in his regiment as in his own family. Maybe Sadie is looking to avoid being accused of really writing a `tell all' about a real officer, but she could get past that by just following the time honored tradition of British authors and inventing a regiment.

In another example of the maddeningly vague descriptions, there is a conversation between Clara, the heroine of the book, and a Mrs. Burroughs, described as "kindly with a long face." The dialogue is so well written that the reader quickly knows that Mrs. Burroughs is what my grandmother would have called a `chatter box' and you understand her perfectly. That is good writing. The problem is that without any other description of her from the writer she might just have well have been a disembodied mouth floating in the air.

It could be said this is just my taste but overall I found it too distracting. Jones' dialogue sparkles and she shows she can provide description when she wants too but her choice of where to put that attention creates a world picture that is more like a Monet print, vague and unclear. However, because there are points that have diamond clarity you don't know if the vagueness was intended or not and this results in a level of frustration that I just couldn't get past.

"Small Wars," the second novel by Sadie Jones, hauntingly describes the impact war can have on a soldier and his family, and vividly details one man's detachment from himself and those he loves in the face of extreme brutality.

The story begins with Hal Treherne's graduation from the Sandhurst military academy in 1946, and highlights his pride in serving as an officer in the British military, but also his growing love for his future wife Clara Ward. After marrying, Hal is stationed in post-war Germany, where he and Clara have twin daughters. Hal laments his lack of combat during his first posting and naively wishes to take part in serious fighting. Finding himself transferred to Cyprus, which is the midst of rebelling against the dying British Empire, Hal is soon joined by his family and they begin to settle into an environment in which the local population becomes increasingly hostile to the British presence.

Tensions on Cyprus steadily increase, with the Greek Cypriots seeking union with Greece, and the Turkish Cypriots allying themselves with the British. Hal finally gets his wish to participate in military skirmishes, but after an initial high has to deal with the reality that soldiers under his command were killed. As violence swells and British soldiers find themselves increasingly under attack Hal realizes that, in retaliation for the loss of their comrades, some of the soldiers under his command are participating in brutal acts of revenge against the local population. Additionally, fearing that British attempts to win the "hearts and minds" of the Greeks could be irreparably damaged if such information were leaked, Hal's commanding officer orders such incidents covered up.

These experiences deeply affect Hal, who is shocked that members of the British military could be responsible for such heinous acts. Clara, increasingly alarmed at her husband's behavior, attempts to remain a stoic military wife but cannot understand what is happening to the man she loves. Rather than confide in Clara Hal increasingly distances himself from her, physically and emotionally, and ultimately perpetrates shocking acts of cruelty against her.

Ms. Jones' writing and storytelling skills are superb and will draw readers into her story immediately. She successfully captures the complex emotions that pass between a couple who experience violence in different ways, while at the same time describing the rich historical details that are the catalyst for the breakdown of Hal and Clara's relationship. Ms. Jones carefully illustrates how war can impact not just combatants, but also the families of those directly engaged in the fighting, and while her novel is based on the British experience in Cyprus in the 1950s, the story could be applied to the modern experiences of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and the toll those wars have taken on them and their families.

"Small Wars" successfully combines historical fiction with a compelling story of two people struggling to define themselves and their relationship in the midst of a brutal conflict. It is an excellent read and highly recommended.

Sadie Jones, the author,has produced a novel which witnesses to many of the wars of life. There are wars of intimacy. Social wars.Wars within the self. In SMALL WARS the British presence in Cyprus is the background for a group of characters who find themselves unable to escape the consequences of their backgrounds and the culture of the people they are defending. The British regard themselves as the protectors of Cyprus, though they do not always behave this way.The citizens of the place resent a foreign presence and fight against it.The real stories are within and between the people, especially Hal and Clara.What appears to be an extremely weak marriage has surprising sources of strength and endurance.The author gives great attention to detail. This increases the reader's identification with the scene and the people. The British "stiff upper lip" approach to life is actually presented with deep emotionality. SMALL WARS has rich writing and a real plausible if heartbreaking story.It is well worth a read.

This was simply the best book I have read about war. It takes place in the 1950's war with Britain trying to hang unto it's Empire by holding unto Cyprus, which is trying to join Greece. Hal Traherne is the officer in charge. He is a fine soldier, trained at Sandhurst with a lovely wife, Clara and young twin daughters. His previous command was not a real war. The occupation of Cyprus by the British will be very brutal with the Cypriots fighting for their freedom from an occupying force of a large army. There can be seen examples from the brutality of the troops against many ordinary citizens in wars that are being fought today. The troops are in an untenable position and Traherne finally has to choose between duty and decency.This not to summarize the book. It is too good for me to even try. It makes you rethink a lot of things and is such an engaging story that you can't stop reading although you might want too. It certainly gave me some idea of why there is so much Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after every war.

An exceptional writer whose prior novel The Outcast established her talent for compelling characterization, Sadie Jones presents a unique love story against the British colony in Cyprus in the 1950's. Major Hal Traherne is stationed for a month with his Clara wife Clara and their two daughters Meg and Lottie in Limassol, where the army has rented them a house. Amid the sounds of motorbikes and Cypriot voices, the banging shutters of other houses, Hal and Clara find themselves immersed in a war of intelligence and a war of subterfuge and of rumor. Three years of conflict so far has seen restaurant bombings and soldiers' vehicles ambushed on remote roads, along with street fights, graffiti ads and countless arrests. Certainly a fledgling desire for Cypriot independence has hardened into a terrorist campaign where the British Government is backed into a corner.

Hal, a man from a staunchly military family, is full of idealistic zeal through trying to change the Cypriots hearts and minds. The idea is for protection as well as rule and Hal is here to root out terrorism and to protect the population from it. While Clara attends to the girls, together with Adile, a Turkish Cypriot, Hal, acting on orders from his superior, Colonel Burroughs, goes away for a stint of "proper fighting." His task is to root out the terrorist Loulla Kollias, a member of the EOKA organization with the mission culminating in a raid on his farmhouse. Left alone at home Clara tries to accept the reality of their situation. The house is empty and there's evil around her, hiding itself. She didn't want Hal to think that she wasn't coping. She befriends Mark and Deirdre Innes, and later, Captain Davis who experiences a shared, unspoken sympathy for Clara that is mysterious and comforting. Davis is battered by his obsession with Clara or perhaps by love.

Cushioned by familiar desire and rejection, Jones' novel centers in the moral dilemmas of Hal and Clara, and that of Davis who becomes romantically fixated on the wife of a man whose authority and principle he admires and resents in equal measure. While Clara seems to be immune to the careless beauty of the world, and the soft shifting of her new baby inside of her, Hal dreads the darkness where the smallest defiant act could extinguish another British life. Alone in his command, he can feel the shifting mood around him: "A clarity of purpose, there was division and grief." Beyond Hal and Clara's fragile love story are the scenes of violence and turmoil - an ambush in a cave with twenty jerry-cans of petrol, the screaming of the men loud and echoing. And a land mine explosion on a beach, the two dead soldiers, along with graphic descriptions of carnage and blood and sand, a horse shot, sand on its breathless muzzle. The recreation of Hal's battles are chillingly atmospheric, filled with authentic historical detail and the empty despair of Britain as she tries to keep her slender grasp on Empire.

Later in the novel as the focus shifts from Cyrus to England, Cypriots and soldiers continue to play out the long game of complicity and enmity welcome and rebellion. The bloodshed entrenching each position as firmly as the friendship did. Peppered with complex characters, with Hal and Clara undoubtedly at the center, this novel paints a compelling portrait of a country on the edge, a soldier and his wife trapped in a rapidly disintegrating world, even as their love for each other continues to hold strong. Hal's only solace seems to be back in the arms of Clara, where the soft things happen to him as he lurches between disintegration and the struggle for control. Mike Leonard March 2010.

The above title quotation continues, "...it was a sinister time of terror and repression." Small Wars: A Novel tells the personal stories of Major Hal Treherne and his wife, Clara, who are stationed in Cyprus in 1956. The British are intent on suppressing the Greek violence perpetrated by factions (such as the EOKA) demanding independence. As with all conflicts between occupiers and those occupied, each time someone is abused, injured, or killed on one side, the bitterness ratchets up and leads to retribution in kind or even more harsh.

Hal is a man devoted to his duty, but prior to arriving here, he had fairly "soft" postings. So, when he has to lead patrols into villages and search houses for terrorists, and when he has to arrest teenage boys caught with the makings of pipe bombs and pistols, it begins to take its toll. Soon, he is faced with the humanness of his own soldiers when an atrocity is committed...and he witnesses the results of an interrogation taken to extremes. Hal's British reserve keeps his feelings about all this bottled up, at least in terms of words. Consequently, his relationship with Clara suffers.

Clara, with small twin daughters to care for, has to deal with the stress of being posted on this dangerous little island too. She is a soldier's wife, and also wants to do her duty. But while her husband goes on missions and comes home uncommunicative and sometimes seemingly unfeeling, she is either stuck in base housing or she is in Nicosia, the largest city in Cyprus, separated from Hal. Seldom does she forget that violent attacks could occur at any time, anywhere.

SMALL WARS provides an intimate view of how both warriors and their spouses can be worn down by the grim realities of geopolitical conflicts far from home. Not only does the title refer to the armed struggle on Cyprus but, of course, also to the toll it takes on marriages and on the individuals in those marriages. Sadie Jones has written a cogent, sensitive, realistic novel about both. One could delete all identifiers of which small war this was (Cyprus, Greek and Turkish Cypriots, British, etc.) and substitute Iraq or Afghanistan or Bosnia or Lebanon or India, or any other country where similar conflicts have been fought or are still being fought. Clara's plight as a military spouse in harm's way wouldn't apply in those zones where spouses are not permitted, but otherwise, the same patterns of violence would play out, and those in the fray could end up like Hal. SMALL WARS gets kudos as a straightforward tale of life under the gun. It reminds us that despite hopes for progress as a civilized world, human nature, when subjected to the pressure cooker of war (small or not) is apt to react the same way time and time again.

This was a fascinating look at an earlier time when the British had enclaves in so many parts of the globe - and, in each, they tried to live in their own way - and expected the citizens of that country to adopt their ways, too. Hal Treherne, a major in the British Army, has been posted to Cyprus in 1956, and he's taken his young wife and twin daughters with him. There, they live with servants - spending most of their time at the "club" - while the poor Army fights off a group of insurgents on a daily basis. Get up, go to war, and come home and have a chatty little dinner with your wife and young children. Try watching your troops being blown to bits during the day and making love to your wife at night. Treherne is able to pull if off up to a point.

In the meantime, we are feeling what it's like to live this life in Cyprus - great descriptions and settings, realistic dialogue, real characters. Jones puts it all together expertly - and she reminds me of one of my all-time favorite authors - M.M. Kaye - who wrote delightful mysteries - Death in Zanzibar, Cyprus, etc.

I love to be transported to another place and time - and I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which leaves you really wondering about the ending right up to the last page - and I will leave you wondering, too! Grab this one - time well spent!!