Book Club #1: "A Long, Long Way". Now with Plot details (not necessarily hidden)

OldGoat

Hey, I voted for getting Fajitas photography recomendation so I'll go through the russian tattoo book. Wimmin prisoners I'm assuming. :P

trout

OldGoat wrote: »

Perserver Will. Plough on through it. Give it 5 pages a night and you'll finish it soon enough.

We'll have worse to read in the future. :eek:

Ugh ... not Dan Brown again :eek:

Amazotheamazing

Didn't really like this book, half the time i felt the author was making fun of the main character for being a halfwit. It's also a cheap rip off of All's Quiet on the Western Front, which is a superior book in just about every single way, imo.

tbh

well lads, so far it seems to have gone down like a french kiss at a family reunion

sorry that most of ye didn't seem to like it, it's still my favourite book!

I just loved the way that the main characters were all just normal, decent - albeit very innocent - boys who's lives were changed for ever for the most stupid of reasons.

All poor Willie Dunne wanted to do was the right thing - he wanted to earn the respect of his dad. He thought that the people back home were supporting him, and then he went home and discovered that the people there despised him, and going back to the front, they looked down on him there too. You have to remember as well that this is the story of so many real people, people who were just like you and me, normal guys and not professional soldiers. They were lied to and tricked into signing up ("we'll be home by christmas") and when they did what they thought they were supposed to do, and they didn't even get gratitude in return. I think the last seven words of the book will haunt me forever.

Now, bring on Dan Browne!

OldGoat

tbh wrote: »

I just loved the way that the main characters were all just normal, decent - albeit very innocent - boys who's lives were changed for ever for the most stupid of reasons.

That sense of innocence came across a little too well. I appricated it during the run up to the first few engagments in the trenches but Willy never seems to lose that innocence after all the time and the trials he undergos. To lose so many comrades, to endure the horrors and yet still be a little wide eyed like an eager puppy seems a little far fetched to me. I kow it was a different time and he was living under the threat of executation for shirking duty but it still seems a little contrived.

I didn't dislike the book, it just failed to engage me.

Now, bring on Dan Browne!

/Shudder

tbh

OldGoat wrote: »

That sense of innocence came across a little too well. I appricated it during the run up to the first few engagments in the trenches but Willy never seems to lose that innocence after all the time and the trials he undergos. To lose so many comrades, to endure the horrors and yet still be a little wide eyed like an eager puppy seems a little far fetched to me. I kow it was a different time and he was living under the threat of executation for shirking duty but it still seems a little contrived.

I know exactly what you mean, but I think that it was a reflection of his upbringing - the "system" was so ingrained in him that he just couldn't accept or believe that it could be wrong. That's what stings me so much - the betrayal.

Amazotheamazing

tbh wrote: »

well lads, so far it seems to have gone down like a french kiss at a family reunion

sorry that most of ye didn't seem to like it, it's still my favourite book!

I just loved the way that the main characters were all just normal, decent - albeit very innocent - boys who's lives were changed for ever for the most stupid of reasons.

All poor Willie Dunne wanted to do was the right thing - he wanted to earn the respect of his dad. He thought that the people back home were supporting him, and then he went home and discovered that the people there despised him, and going back to the front, they looked down on him there too. You have to remember as well that this is the story of so many real people, people who were just like you and me, normal guys and not professional soldiers. They were lied to and tricked into signing up ("we'll be home by christmas") and when they did what they thought they were supposed to do, and they didn't even get gratitude in return. I think the last seven words of the book will haunt me forever.

Now, bring on Dan Browne!

All I can suggest is read the book "All quiet on the Western Front" to see what a pastiche Long, Long, Way is.

tbh

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

All I can suggest is read the book "All quiet on the Western Front" to see what a pastiche Long, Long, Way is.

ah I've read it alright, I don't think ALLW is a pastiche, a homage maybe I was just interested in the Dublin aspect, it muddys the waters slightly.

trout

I've read All Quiet on the Western Front, and other books "inspired" by it, such as Legion of the Damned (don't read it, trust me).

I don't think ALLW was a pastiche at all ... I do think the characters are awfully one-dimensional ... Willy is the innocent abroad, his father is the strong silent type, tortured by grief and the stress of his job/life/outlook. The sisters are mna n hEireann ... throw in a few noble priests, sophisticated officer types, Dub-a-lin gems, coarse militant political types, idealised parents, pillars of the community and bamph! All you need now is a love interest, preferably poor as a church mouse, but with a beautiful spirit ... oh, wait ... we have one of those too.

Ooh, ooh! I know, a plot twist! Let's have Willie's one outbreak of lust backfire spectacularly ... this is where I lost faith ... even the most innocent of us would go ape in this situation, and surely deliver a few digs ... no ?

I only realised after reading the book that many of these characters appear in other novels by Barry ... perhaps if I had read those, I'd have a fuller sense of the characters ... as it stands, I won't be rushing to read any more.

That's not to say I didn't like the book ... well ... I didn't like it, but I can see why people do. It is very well written, and the prose & lyrical language is delightful.

I would have guessed the author is a play-wright, and this strikes me as a book which would make an excellent play ... the ideas and characters are broad brush-strokes on a striking canvas of Flanders and the Easter rising. This was the most interesting thing about the book, and the least developed, in my humble opinion. I would love to read more about this experience, and it must have been a bitter, dark pill for those soldiers to swallow.

Maybe I'll pick up another book by Barry, and give it another shot.

nkay1985

trout wrote: »

I've read All Quiet on the Western Front, and other books "inspired" by it, such as Legion of the Damned (don't read it, trust me).

I don't think ALLW was a pastiche at all ... I do think the characters are awfully one-dimensional ... Willy is the innocent abroad, his father is the strong silent type, tortured by grief and the stress of his job/life/outlook. The sisters are mna n hEireann ... throw in a few noble priests, sophisticated officer types, Dub-a-lin gems, coarse militant political types, idealised parents, pillars of the community and bamph! All you need now is a love interest, preferably poor as a church mouse, but with a beautiful spirit ... oh, wait ... we have one of those too.

Ooh, ooh! I know, a plot twist! Let's have Willie's one outbreak of lust backfire spectacularly ... this is where I lost faith ... even the most innocent of us would go ape in this situation, and surely deliver a few digs ... no ?

I only realised after reading the book that many of these characters appear in other novels by Barry ... perhaps if I had read those, I'd have a fuller sense of the characters ... as it stands, I won't be rushing to read any more.

That's not to say I didn't like the book ... well ... I didn't like it, but I can see why people do. It is very well written, and the prose & lyrical language is delightful.

I would have guessed the author is a play-wright, and this strikes me as a book which would make an excellent play ... the ideas and characters are broad brush-strokes on a striking canvas of Flanders and the Easter rising. This was the most interesting thing about the book, and the least developed, in my humble opinion. I would love to read more about this experience, and it must have been a bitter, dark pill for those soldiers to swallow.

Maybe I'll pick up another book by Barry, and give it another shot.

I was basically going to come on here and write exactly what you've said, but not so well.

Like Trout, I certainly didn't dislike the book; I tore through it when I was reading it but I wasn't spending every spare minute I had reading it like I would with a book I really enjoy. I liked the language a lot but the characters are definitely too one-dimensional for the book to be truly engaging.

That being said, the end of the book did have a slight tug at my heart-strings so I must have connected in some way.

I feel anyone coming on here slating this book is being overly harsh but I can't put it up there as one of my favourite books, unfortunately.

Still, a very decent start to this book club I think. And, sure, wouldn't it be awfully boring if we all agreed.


P.S. I really agree that it would make a very good play.