Classics for Beginners discussion

Hi!
Welcome to the May Group Read - The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. Apologies for the thread being a few days late.

Book Summary (from Goodreads)
Set during World War I on an isolated country estate just outside London, Rebecca West’s haunting novel The Return of the Soldier follows Chris Baldry, a shell-shocked captain suffering from amnesia, as he makes a bittersweet homecoming to the three women who have helped shape his life. Will the devoted wife he can no longer recollect, the favorite cousin he remembers only as a childhood friend, and the poor innkeeper’s daughter he once courted leave Chris to languish in a safe, dreamy past—or will they help him recover his memory so that he can return to the front? The answer is revealed through a heartwrenching, unexpected sacrifice.

Wikipedia page about Rebecca West
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebec...

Wikipedia page about 'The Return of the Soldier' (WARNING SPOILERS)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_R...


I'll be reading along as well, and I look forward to everyone's thoughts.

I found it to be a quick read, as expected. The plight of any soldier returned from war is a reminder to us all of their sacrifice. Chris is a man without a secure future, living in a tenuous past. His faulty memories may be all he will ever know. I can't say I enjoyed the tale, but were we meant to? Or as I suspect, it's a warning for all of us about the hazy days of memory.

Started it yesterday, and probably would have finished had I not started reading it after 7pm. Am about 1-1/2 chapters from the end, so I know I will finish it tonight.

Read the book a few days ago and honestly, while I thought the idea was an interesting one, I didn't enjoy the execution or any of the characters enough to really care. There was an awful lot of really tortured purple prose telling us what was the irritating narrator thought of everything and not much of anything else. I liked the ending, and the twist on what the 'return of the soldier' really meant, but everything else was very blah.

A classic for its impact/significance at the time (eg. one of few WWI focused stories from a female perspective and by a female author) rather than because it holds up as a good story today, I think.