1914: A Novel

A graceful, poignant, realistic, and ultimately sad account of a young Frenchman at the dawn of WWI. This 100 page novella reveals a more serious side to Echenoz whose "I'm Gone" I just finished and found to be highly entertaining, wholly original in style and inspired my purchase of 1914.The first world war is a subject I'm interested in and Echenoz gives us a very personal story of a soldier, his comrades and their experiences. The story is quite simple but the takeaway here is the vivid, evocative and poignant telling of the story. The novella can be seen as just one of the thousands of soldier experiences (both sides) that made up WWI. Told objectively, the battle scenes, not many, are all the more harrowing for it. "So silence seemed intent on returning - when a tardy piece of shrapnel showed up, from who knows where and wonders how, as clipped as a postscript: an iron fragment shaped like a polished Neolithic ax, smoking hot, the size of a man's hand, fully sharp as a large shard of glass. Without even a glance at the others, as if it were settling a personal score, it sped directly toward...and willy-nilly, lopped off his right arm clean as a whistle, just below the shoulder."Discovering Echenoz the writer has been a highlight of my reading this year. "1914" for an intimate view of history and "I'm Gone" for an intelligently quirky and stylistically original fun read.

Rather than a novel, this is more of a short story that nevertheless manages to describe in gory detail the four years of World War I as experienced by five young Frenchmen. It begins with the call to mobilization in the summer of 1914 in France, a “nation at arms” i.e. most if not all young men were members of military units that could be summoned to battle on a moment’s notice. There is relatively little to no mention of the international events that led to the call to arms, and even the enemy is rarely mentioned by name. (The author assumes the reader knows the history of the war.) When the war ends four years later three comrades are dead and a fourth is missing an arm. There is relatively little joy in “victory” and most of the young men who fought the war are just glad it is over. Written in a lyrical style, the story could have been presented as an epic poem, organized in stanzas rather than paragraphs. As part of his creative style the author eschews quotation marks.)

This book is a short, impassive account of WWI-basically Anthime, his brother Charles, and three friends go to war; some die; those who don't return back to their town. None of these individuals are fleshed out, so they aren't characters in the book; just simply names. Reading this book is akin to looking through a photo album of WWI.

This is a beautifully written little book. Although it is couched in a narrative of sorts, it is more of a meditation on or prose poem about the experience of being a soldier in World War One. It is one of those little gems that can be read in an afternoon; and although I read it on my Kindle, I kind of wished that I had purchased it as an actual book. Some books are meant to be owned and cherished. This is one of them.

To say that Jean Echenoz' novel, '1914', is worthy of the subject is an understatement, but of all the World War I literature I have read, I found his story most peculiarly told. It moves fast, as would be expected for its brief 109 pages, but some of the subjects Echenoz focuses on, such as the furniture in Blanche's room, or the litany of edible and non-edible animals available in the trenches, my seem trivial handled by another author. But, he creates his own form of interest, succeeding well.'1914' is not 'A Very Long Engagement' or 'Birdsong', two brilliant WWI novels, but Echenoz keeps it lively, and more than any other part of the book, he gave this reader a very satisfying ending, something many writers seem to work hard at NOT achieving. In a novel this short, there is no time for great character development, so Echenoz choses instead to develop the character of the war itself. And he succeeds.

Its main virtue is its length (short). I liked looking at the war from two points of view, but none of the characters is sufficiently well-developed to make one care about him/her. Also, the title is somewhat mis-leading, as the book ends with the Armistice in Nov. of 1918.

Jean Echenoz is considered to be one of Frances's finest modernists. Since I don't read French, however, I can't give an intelligent opinion on that. But this translation allows the power of the novel's theme and story shine through. I'll seek out more of his writing as a result. It's an excellent addition to your library of WWI novels, and rather harrowing as a result.

How can you say you "like" a book that put you in the battles and trenches of a terrible war? But this novel had a distance to it that made it tolerable without losing the reader's empathy. Good characterization, great descriptions, very fast read.

I found the story line slight. Such details as there were ( the furnishings of a bedroom for example) seemed irrelevant.It was too scanty and too sketchy to make an impact. I had expected some insights, some depth, but was disappointed.It seems to add nothing to the literary exploration of the Great War.

This novel is in the hallmark style of Echenoz: succinct, dry yet with hints of colour and emotion the draw the reader in and keep pages turning. An unpleasant subject matter but a good read nonetheless.