From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Birdsong

Sebastian Faulks

Start date: September 15, 2014

Finish date: October 1, 2014

Discussion: Reading List

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Reading List

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
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What Members Thought

Sep 17, 2014 Ruth rated it liked it

I can’t help thinking what a better book this would have been had Faulks had a better editor. I almost drowned in all the excess verbiage. Faulks seemed to ascribe to the idea that if a thing is worth saying once it’s worth saying again. And again. And again. Also, description is all well and good to set scene, but need we have pounds and pounds of description that doesn’t help the story along at all?

Agree with everyone who says that the first section was slow. I almost threw in the towel.
The w ...more

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Sep 12, 2014 Mary Ellen rated it really liked it

Shelves: wwi-related

This is really 3.5. Amazing depiction of life and death in the trenches of WWI, but the writing is uneven - the author is capable of scenes of great power but also some wince-inducing expressions.

After a slow start, including the most awkward sex scene I've ever had the lack-of-pleasure to read, the book picked up once the central character, Stephen Wraysford, is in the British infantry in WWI. Then, a bit over half-way through, the author made the inexplicable decision to insert what would norm ...more

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