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The book was utterly mesmerizing in its portrayal of Stephen and all the things that ultimately made him what he later would be. He was a broken man, as I am sure all those young boys who survived were. Yet, survive he did almost as if fated to do so. With so much carnage surrounding them, I am sure oftentimes even in survival, they wished to be among the dead.
I found that the frame story, actually a dual frame, diminished the war story tremendously. In fact I wondered, prior to the war story beginning, whether I would want to complete reading the book. Birdsong? More like Birdshit. I may have given this book one star, but I really give it 20 piles of steaming birdshit. This book contains probably the most raw accounts of war, that I have ever read. This is beautifully and skillfully balanced out with a romantic story, which I didn't think I would love as much as I have.
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BBC Culture’s Stories that Shaped the World series looks at epic poems, plays and novels from around the globe that have influenced history and changed mindsets. A poll of writers and critics, 100 Stories that Shaped the World, was announced in May.
Elizabeth did some calculations on a piece of paper, Grand-mere born 1878. Mum born…she was not sure exactly how old her mother was. Between sixty-five and seventy. Me born 1940. Something did not quite add up in her calculations, though it was possibly her arithmetic that was to blame.” oh yeah and all the women want children??? literally all of them??? excuse me but having children is not the be all and end all of womanhood.From lovelorn soldiers, knee-deep in French mud, to privileged ladies taking tea in Blighty, Birdsong is a war story that appeals to both sexes. Class war/ real war; there are so many dimensions to this thunderous epic. I have always wanted to know more about birds in an abstract way. When we decided that I would be homeschooling I decided this would be a perfect time to act on this desire. Sebastian Faulk's writing is sumptuous and pitch perfect, capturing the essence of each of the three eras he writes--the tumescent melodrama that unfolds in Amiens in 1910, the desperation, emptiness and incongruous vividness of the war years, and the practical, surging energy and wealth of late 70s London. This is a great novel, an engrossing but devastating read. Just look up every so often and take deep, slow breaths. You'll need them. And even those who can recite all of “the three hundred”: if you are unable to apply the poems flexibly creatively according to context, “what use is there for them?” In short, it was never about what the songs – all of them anonymous – originally meant, or where they came from. It was always about something else: how can you make them mean something new? Many times I have lain down and I have longed for death. I feel unworthy. I feel guilty because I have survived. Death will not come and I am cast adrift in a perpetual present. I do not know what I have done to live in this existence. I do not know what any of us did to tilt the world into the unnatural orbit. We came here for only a few months.
usually, when i study a book, my appreciation and enjoyment of it multiplies tenfold. take, for example, the great gatsby, which i had liked previously but became one of my favourite books of all time when i began to study it. Elizabeth’s love story echoed her grandmother’s but with its own spirals— History Does Not Repeat Itself, But It Rhymes . This is a powerful novel, and certainly not for the faint hearted. I read this for my local book club and I can imagine when we meet in February this book is going to make for great discussion. This is a book that, in fact, could appeal to all ages. The pictures and sounds are great for a young child to learn from, and the facts and descriptions will engage older children. It would also be suitable as a basic book for adults wanting to learn more about gardens birds, giving them the ability to start understanding basic birdsong, or even better – a good opportunity for an adult to spend time with a child, learning together. Halfway through the story we jump to 1978, where Elizabeth Benson has taken a sudden interest in her grandfather, Stephen Wraysford and the fate of the men who died in or limped home from the trenches of World War I. Here the narrative stumbles a bit. Elizabeth, now in her late 30s, seems entirely unaware of the horrors of The Great War. This rang utterly false. "No one told me," she says upon seeing the battlefields and monuments of the Somme. I think a British citizen of her generation would have been well aware of the magnitude of that war. But Faulks gives Elizabeth a strong voice and her own personal dilemmas that bring the existential quest for meaning and truth full circle. We don't stay in late 70s London for long, but we dip in and out until the novel's end as Elizabeth's story becomes woven into her grandfather's.this is an amazing little book! we have all of these birds in our neighbourhood here in Southern Ontario. my kids play-to-learn a lot for their homeschooling and since I bought the book the day before yesterday they have learned enough of the birds to be correcting each other via the sounds! this is a wonderful and extremely easy way to teach my kids about our local fauna!! I'm absolutely seeking out the other books! I also wish there were more for the birds in our area <3 I am driven by a greater force than I can resist. I believe that force has its own reason and it's own morality even if they may never be clear to me while I am alive." Here's a book that will help the young bird lover to identify some of the most common North American birds by both sight and sound... The authors provide a short description of where each bird can be found, along with basic details about their food, nests, eggs, size and behaviour. By pushing buttons on the front cover, the birds' calls come through a built-in speaker, thus enabling listeners to recognize distinct calls... This book would be useful for young, beginning birders.-- (06/01/2018)
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