A Soldier of the Great War

[Paul Hederer]

"A Soldier of the Great War," by Mark Helprin. 736pp, paperback. 1992

Of all the fictional accounts of the Great War, this is my favorite.

This is the story of Alessandro Giuliani, an Italian who was a soldier during the Great War.

Mark Helprin is one of our most gifted modern authors. His vivid imagination and masterful prose make any of his books well worth reading.

"A Soldier of the Great War,” caught my eye when it was first published, due to its title. I had never heard of Mark Helprin at the time. I bought the book because of my interest in the war. Once I started reading I couldn't stop.

For anyone looking for a great read this winter I can well recommend this book. It's a fictional account of the war, one filled with imagination, fantasy, and some of the most developed and unforgettable characters you will ever meet on paper. I have never laughed so much as when I read this book.

Paul Hederer

[andigger]

sounds interesting... any one else read this? Andy

[Sapper Will]

sounds interesting... any one else read this?  Andy

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I read this some years back and thought it was quite moving. From what I remember it was very long and eloquent. We first meet Alessandro as an old man in the 1960s. He gets off a bus to walk with a boy who couldn't get on. For the next seventy pages it's just the old timer and the boy walking along, discussing this and that. An unusual way to begin a war novel but it works very well. There's the obligatory "horrors of the trenches" section, but it isn't the main focus of the story. The upper-middle-class protagonist seems to be on a quest to experience as much of life as possible, including the war.

My main objection to Helprin's writing is the cliched characterizations: Alessandro, of course, is handsome, athletic, intelligent, and supremely self-confident; every single woman he meets is just so incredibly beautiful that words can't describe her, etc., etc. This gets annoying after awhile. But overall I really enjoyed this work and it captures what it must have been like in Italy during the Great War.