A sort-of book blog

The Return of the Soldier is an interesting read for several reasons, not least because it is a female authored book about the very male topic of the shell shock that often resulted from World War One. It's stylistic, and overly simplistic in places, and yet despite this it is extremely effective in showing the difficulties in coming to terms with the personal effects of the war.

At the beginning of the novella, I had little sympathy for any of the female characters involved. They seemed to be deceitful and dishonest with each other, and their idea of what Chris was before the war seemed far more important to them than the relationships they should have built between each other. The narrative voice at the start seems to give little away, but over the course of the book, grey areas creep in, and the reasonings behind the characters acting in the way they do become clear.

Ultimately, they have to decide between letting the man that they care for so much be happy at their expense, and "curing" him so that he can resume his former duties, both at home and presumably in the war effort.