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A daily record of what I'm thinking about what I'm reading

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Sunday, June 16, 2013

That British obsession with WWII


I've posted on this many times before most recently in posts about Parades's End but the issue comes up again - how and why is it that English writers to this day are so obsessed with the effects of the two world wars? Ok I get it that the wars hit England much more profoundly and directly than they they touched American lives and of course the us and Canada have had our share of war novels - mailer jones Ondaatje to cite 3 off the top - but honestly these have long been eclipsed by novels of recent wars but not in England - no, it seems at least to me that the war esp WWII is the dominant theme in much British fiction (and tv?) still - two generations later.  Reading now Jane Gardam's very good novel first of trilogy Old Filth and seeing that once more the character of the eponymous lead character formed by his wartime experiences - in section just read he is about to head off to oxford when his best friend Pat delays college to join RAF just after receiving word brother shot down over channel. Filth aka Eddie feathers is humiliated because estranged father insists he be evacuated to Asia for safety - in part because of his own horrible war memories. Gardam handles material v well but this such familiar ground by now - don't British agents, publishers, readers ever tire of this topic? When will WWII become a "historical" topic like the wives of Henry VIII?

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