The Soldier's Return

This book has been read by myself and others in a reading group. Without exception, the group consider Melvyn Bragg to be a gifted writer who didplays a sensitivity and emotional deftness that's belied by his public persona.

I was very impressed by this book. It really sums the sense of 'making do' in post war Britain as well as dealing with the social constraints of the time. At times I wanted to shout at Sam & Ellen to stop them making a fateful mistake! ...read this book.

It's a theme repeated endlessly ever since the Odyssey, and yet this story of a soldier's weary return from war reads like it's all brand new.Following a grueling and horrendously brutal campaign in Burma in the waning days of World War II, Sam Richardson returns to his home, a tiny village in England's Lake Country called Wigton. There, as he has dreamed of for months and years, he is reunited with his pretty young wife Ellen, and his young son Joe, a baby when his father went off to war.Soon enough, it becomes apparent that the happy reunion was only the tip of the iceberg. A tangled web of emotions, frightening to both Ellen and Sam, and unspoken by both, threatens to destroy the relationship they both want so badly to keep. Sam is haunted by the atrocities and death he has seen in the war, and can hardly keep in his own skin as he dreams of escaping to far-off lands to make a new start. Ellen, used to being on her own, is frightened by this stranger with her husband's face, and clings even more desperately to the village of her birth and the way of life she is accustomed to. And in between them is little Joe, accustomed to having his "mammy" all to himself, and now misplaced by a stranger he must call "daddy."Alongside this very private drama of three very private people is the larger story of the village of Wigton, which suffered all manner of privations during the war--but whose people are still clinging strongly to village ways.Bragg, who grew up in the Wigton area, has created a masterpiece, in my opinion. It is followed by "A Son of War," a continuation of the Richardson saga, and something I intend to read immediately.

Homecoming is not always the pleasant experience we want it to be. This is true of Sam, returning to rural England from fighting the Japanese in Burma. He is trying to rebuild his life, fighting his own inner turmoil with flashbacks of the horrors of the war he experienced. At the same time, his wife does not want to give up the jobs and independence she gained in his absence. Their communication is nil, further jeopardized by Sam's jealousy of the mother/son bond formed during the many years he was away. The author takes the reader into the lives of many touched by the war, with every attention to detail and sensitivity.Their frustrations become very real. With the offer of relocation to Australia, Sam has a renewed spirit, but Ellen is not willing to go and leave everything she knows behind.This is a great read about the struggles, sacrifices, and bonds of soldiers during war, and those very same concerns that surface with their homecomings.

Bragg does a fantastic job bringing this little town from the English North West to life. Bragg's treatment of his characters is very sympathetic and well rounded. His slow meandering way of describing people and event serves to let us know the people very well. Bragg does that not just for Sam and Ellen, but for all the characters we come across in this wonderful work, no cardboard here, they are all very real.Sam, an ordinary working class man returns home after 7 years fighting on the Japanese front in Burma. Sam returns clearly suffering what we call now post combat trauma, living through it and fighting it. Many from his town were with him in Burma, many never came back, a close friend is suffering a sever case of trauma. Ellen and Joe lived with Ellen's aunt and uncle during the war. Bragg deals very well with the struggle the family goes through coming together after such a long absence, this at the time of Sam's internal suffering from his memories of the war.For Sam, a major element of his suffering and to a certain extent his resentment is his feeling that his years of war and service have done little to advance his status in England. Eventually Sam decides with a friend to move to Australia to start a new life; the old life was just too painful to endure after all that he had been through. But Ellen, who lost her parents as a child and grew up with her aunt and uncle, is a fixture of this little town. The town means a great deal to her; it is her anchor. Ellen chooses to stay and Sam decides to go.Bragg's sequel, Son of War is even better. Both books are wonderful, very human, very real. Bragg does succeed in taking us completely into his world of 40's England