A Son of War

When Sam Richardson returns home to Wigton, a small village in Cumbria, after World War II, he recognizes his limited future there and the social barriers. Because his wife Ellen and small son Joe have spent their entire lives there, however, he chooses to remain, rather than go to Australia to start a new life, and he must now learn to adapt to peace as effectively as he once adapted to war. Wigton, however, represents "his limitations, his predestined mediocrity, his inevitable failure to be at the full stretch of himself," and he feels stifled. Small events and everyday life, not dramatic plot lines, become the focus of the novel as Sam works at the local factory, tries to reestablish his relationship with his wife Ellen, and serves as a masculine role model for his son Joe. Sam is an Everyman--a man without an education who is dependent upon "the system" for his family's welfare, a man who must put up with slights and insults by his factory bosses if he wants to keep his job, a man for whom there is little or no opportunity for independent thought and action. Sam's big decision to set up his own business is a decision he makes alone, even though it will require enormous sacrifices by the whole family. The daily lives of the Richardson family reveal the social, political, and economic issues of rural England from the end of the war through 1954. Dividing the novel into several sections, Bragg conveys the viewpoints of Sam, Ellen, and Joe through plain-spoken dialogues and interior monologues, short sentences, and simple vocabulary. We see Ellen's joy at finally having a house of her own in Greenacres, a public housing development, but also her dislike of the distance from town. We understand Sam's joy at having his business but recognize how hard the entire family works and how little privacy they have. Young Joe, on whom much of the book focuses, suffers almost overwhelming fears, and we empathize with him because there is no one in whom he can confide and still be a "man." Bragg's interest is not in creating an artificially "literary" novel as much as it is in recreating real (ordinary) lives. In this he is completely successful, creating a broad picture of the postwar era through the details of one family's struggle. Mary Whipple

This deceptively quiet and simple book, a sequel to "The Soldier's Return," is one of the finest novels about postwar England that I have ever read--and I have read many on that subject, almost more than I care to divulge."A Son of War" continues the story of the Richardsons, a working-class family in the north of England whose father, Sam, fought in the vicious Burma Campaign and came home scarred and emotionally battered to his young wife and son, Ellen, and Joe. In the last book, we saw Sam slowly and painfully come to terms with the limitations in his life until he could somehow squelch his dreams of finding something better (eg, relocating to Australia, a recurrent dream). The book was basically Sam's story, poignant and memorable.In this followup, young Joe is the protagonist, as we see his parents' lives--and his own--from his point of view. When the book opens, Sam is still restless, but Ellen is content and happy for the first time when they move into a brand new Council house (tract houses that were offered at very cheap rates to returning servicemen and others). And young Joe begins to bloom.Unfortunately, this is short-lived. Sam makes a move that profoundly changes the lives of Ellen and Joe, in ways he could never predict. Joe's intensely personal encounters with his inner demons make up the exqusitely poignant story as we follow him from young childhood to his early teens.I can only hope that Melvyn Bragg plans to continue this brilliant series. The first two books have taken a place in this reviewer's mind as some of the finest contemporary novels written in the last few decades. I hope for more to come.

I'm an avid reader from way back of Melvyn Bragg's fiction, and it has never disappointed. Too little of it, I think, has made it to this country, and sometimes when it has, it's been diluted down for what some seem to assume is the short attention span of U.S. readers. Maybe that assumption is changing? First The Soldier's Return undiluted; now A Son Of War. And this time Bragg has outdone himself. I'm jazzed!In England, Melvyn Bragg has often been compared to Thomas Hardy, but I defy anyone to find an American writer this side of John Steinbeck or William Inge who can better evoke the understated drama of a small town, whatever the nation. A Son of War is not a piece to be gobbled up at poolside like fast food, but rather to be savored, in a hammock under dappled sunlight or in a sofa by a wood stove. It's an emotional story well told, to be reflected on, and the author's use of the English language is, as always, to be relished.From where I sit, A Son Of War is Bragg's most intimate and moving work to date. I recommend it to anyone who loves reading. I recommended it to ... anyone!