I have finally found the time to read `Songbird`, and I thank all of you who recommended it to me. If you haven`t read it yet, and intend to, don`t read this thread yet!

I found the book profoundly moving. Not so much for the storyline, more for the insight into a war that I know very little about. I suppose it was the shock of taking time to think about the misnomer `soldiers`. It was with such sadness that it began to dawn on me that these people weren`t `soldiers` at all. Maybe because I haven`t lived through a war where people were called up or volunteered, the ter `soldier` has meant something different to me.

Of course, I knew about conscription and of people volunteering to fight, but I guess I always thought that they were trained to be soldiers before being sent to the front. This book, I have to say, has had a real impact on my thinking. I can`t even begin to comprehend the horror of being at the front, the number of deaths and casualties, and the lifelong crippling effect this war must have had on the survivors.

I happened to catch the end of an interview on radio 4 about post trau,matic stress. The chap being interviewed was a Geordie, or certainly had a North Eastern accent. He was describing `flashbacks` that he had lived with since the war, and nightmares. His tremulous voice, still so full of sadness, describing how he had to collect parts of bodies and put them in coal sacks brought me to tears. What scars these people have carried, without professional help until recently, beggars belief.

Well worth reading.(:o|

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2000

Answers

Apologies for the typos in the previous posting.

Someone asked if I had read `American Psycho`. Well, I got halfway through the book, and then couldn`t take anymore. I enjoy books that are really frightening, but this book didn`t do anything for me, apart from making me feel queasy. Graphic descriptions of sex which are well written and erotic, I don`t mind, but the sex in this book was unpleasant to read. Probably the author`s intention, but it made me not want to read on. As I say, I kept going for about half of the book, but decided that I was getting nothing out of reading it.

Needless to say, I felt queasy because of the killings too!

I`d like to hear from anyone who finished the book - and their conclusions. Also, anyone read the book and seen the film? I can`t see how this guy can have been turned into the charismatic villain he seems to have become in the film! I heard him compared to Hannibal Lecter - but from what I read, I couldn`t se a comparison. (:o)

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2000

Hi Galaxy

I've not read the books you mention but I did catch the Geordie on R4 who had collected up body parts and put them in sacks. Very moving and sickening at the same time.

My own favourite novel about the madness of war - indeed my favourite novel on any subject, is Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. Brilliantly funny and very moving. Recommended.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2000

I read American Psycho a couple of years ago....I'm not really certain what to say about it.....about the best description I can give it is to say that I found it strange.......

Not really disturbing but just bizarre!....for those who haven't read it, something like 70% of the book is dedicated to description of clothes (what goes with what etc etc..), health care products, business cards and other such twaddle....

The actual killings, sex and other stuff only make up a small part of the book...

Haven't seen the film but really can't see how it was made at all since the majority of the book is descriptions of what the guy is seeing, thinking.....I might catch it on video though....

I think probably the most disturbing book (i must be sick cos I found it amusing!) that I've read was Pigs by Irving Welsh, Galaxy...if you struggled to get through Am Psycho then you wouldn't last a chapter of pigs :))

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2000

Who wrote 'Songbird' Galaxy? Which war was it about - WW1? I don't read much fiction, but have an interest in WW1 so I might give it a go.
Think I'll skip 'American Physco' though - I found 'Hannibal' - the sequel to 'Silence of the Lambs' bad enough.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2000

I read Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Not recommended. Very depressing, no happy ending.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2000

Clarky - `Songbird` was written by Sebastian Faulkes(sp) - well worth reading. And yes, it is about the First World War. `Hannibal` was a total disappointment - nothing like as good as `Silence of the Lambs` or the earlier `Red Dragon`(which I thought was the scariest).

Jonno - for some reason I have never gotten round to reading `Catch 22` - I shall add it to my list.

Gibbo - not a lot of fun, I grant you. Comes pretty close to `Silas Marner` which I had to read a long time ago for my `O` levels! (:o)

Gav - Pete has also read `Filth` - and totally agrees with you. He actually thought it was well written, but way outside my tollerance levels. He suggests you read his favourite book `The Man with Two Shadows` - which is the biography of Ascari, the racing driver - a good read, apparently!

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2000

How stupid of me to get the name of one of my favourite books wrong!...must be those bloody bouncer training course tapes I'm listening to every morning :))

I'll certainly try and dig that book out and have a read...I'm almost at the end of my current reading material (Fantasy story....bit of child at heart!)...so I need something else to read :))

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2000

Well - I think it`s time I left this BBs now! Don`t have a clue where that came from - word association I guess! I`ll go get my medication while you ring for Dr Ziggy! (:o)

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2000

I loved Jude the Obscure. Far more tedious reading was Henry James' Portrait of a Lady. And Faulkner...can't remember the title of the book we had to read. It was so traumatic, I've blocked it out. Ahh the memories of university. ;-)

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2000

Jonno - Catch 22 is my fave book as well. I find it both moving and side-splittingly funny. As well as dead clever. Its like it was written and then thrown in the air and put back together the way it landed. Strangely, though, i have noticed that while a lot of my male friends like it, my female ones do not. Have you ever read the Good Soldier Svejk - a lot of people say it is very similar. I am not so sure, but a good read nonetheless. There was a Catch 22 sequel called Closing Time a few years ago. Alright. Strangely - they changed the chaplain's name - I wonder why? I yearn for you tragically. (R.O. Shipman (Chaplain))

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000

Galaxy,
Read American Psycho all the way. What intrigued me was the contrast between the microscopic detail of how the characters were dressed - makers names etc. - and the matter of fact way the murders were described.

Can't say I really enjoyed it, and apparently the film tries to play up the black humour side of the book, which can't have come off, because I can't remember any humour in the book at all. Brett Easton Ellis - ee's a nutter.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2000