A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin

This novel came highly recommended to me by a co-worker. To be honest, I started the book a couple of times only to put it down due to lack of interest. The next time I promised myself I would push through so that I could discover the amazing book that my co-worker told me about.

The book is written as an extended flashback. It begins in 1964, with an elderly Alessandro catching a streetcar to Monte Prato, a city approximately 40 miles from Rome. While on the streetcar, he notices a young man on foot trying to catch up. Alessandro forces the driver to make an unscheduled stop and ends up outside with the young man, Nicolo. As the bus was the last one for the evening, the two set out on foot. Alessandro, a professor of aesthetics, begins a conversation with Nicolo, an illiterate factory worker.

We have early flashbacks – of Alessandro when he is 12 and accompanies his father on a trip to the Alps, of Alessandro as a young man racing his horse, climbing mountains and wooing the neighbor girl. However, the majority of the story takes place during Alessandro’s time as a soldier in World War I – the Great War. Knowing it is only a matter of time before he is called up to the military, Alessandro enlists in the Navy in an effort to avoid the almost certain death that was the infantry.

At this point, the story now finds Alessandro a member of the 19th River Guard – a group of naval men that have been assigned an infantry position guarding a tower on the river. From this point on, we follow Alessandro’s life in the military – from the tower along the river to an attack on Sicily to apprehend deserters and even to prison where he himself is awaiting execution for desertion.

Although the story follows Alessandro throughout his life during the war, the reader does not get the gritty experience of war. Alessandro’s experience is more surreal and always balanced by Alessandro’s faith and love of beauty.

Rating: 4 Stars