In 1914, war feels far away to Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood. They're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that his best friend is in love with him, always has been.
When Gaunt's mother asks him to enlist in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, he signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings. But Ellwood and their classmates soon follow him into the horrors of trenches. Though Ellwood and Gaunt find fleeting moments of solace in one another, their friends are dying in front of them, and at any moment they could be next.
An epic tale of the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, In Memoriam is a breathtaking debut.
Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy and Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks are among my favourite books of all time and so it was inevitable that I should be drawn to In Memoriam. Perhaps the biggest surprise is how long it took me to actually start reading it. It was one of the last books I read in 2023 and being able to read it over the Christmas break proved to be perfect timing. This is a very special novel and I really appreciated having a few hours to set aside to truly savour it.
The novel opens with extracts from The Preshutian, the school newspaper of fictional public school, Preshute. The first is from June 1914, as the war clouds are gathering and we learn that the Debating Society recently met to discuss the motion, 'In the opinion of the House, war is a necessary evil,' with Sidney Ellwood proposing and Henry Gaunt arguing against 'in a most cowardly fashion'. The foreshadowing engendered here is potent, of course and sure enough, the next extract, dated October 17th 1914, and so a few months after the outbreak of the Great War, lists the Preshute men who have been killed in action, died of their wounds or been wounded. The 'In Memoriam' notices are full of the patriotic Dulce et Decorum est fervour which beguiled young men, many little more than boys, into seeing war as a heroic adventure. At Preshute they continue to play war games despite reading about the deaths of their former schoolmates, and Ellwood in particular is an ardent believer in the beauty and history of England, and convinced of victory, "We're the greatest empire that's ever been." Gaunt isn't as certain, especially because he has Bavarian cousins but his German name – Heinrich – and his loosely pacifist beliefs inevitably result in him being accused of cowardice or worse. He is initially reluctant to join up, in spite of his mother's pleas, but soon after he is handed a white feather. Beset by shame, he enlists, despite only just turning eighteen.
Shame is one of the most dominant emotions examined in the book and although they share a mutually intense longing for one another, neither Gaunt nor Ellwood dare admit to their forbidden attraction. The risk of exposure as an 'invert' is terrifying, of course but both are also paralysed by the idea of the other rejecting them. They both have sexual relations with other boys at the school but though they tease and torment one another, their love remain unspoken; they accept that their future means abiding by society’s rules and thus marriage to a woman, with Ellwood likely to wed Gaunt's twin sister, Maud.
Although the letters the pair write to each other when separated begin to mark a change in their relationship, Gaunt is furious when Ellwood joins him at the Front. Alice Winn describes the full horror of trench warfare with her searingly brutal prose but while the constant death, mud and noise of Loos, Ypres and the Somme is almost viscerally portrayed, it's her devastating exploration of the damage to the mental health of the soldiers which is most effectual. Gaunt is always the more introspective and pessimistic, while the poetic Ellwood is initially more exuberant, although always mercurial in nature. Alice Winn's thoughtful, sensitive characterisation allows for a powerful, poignant exploration of how the two men are physically, mentally and emotionally broken by their experiences.
The brief moments of solace and passion between the pair are sometimes tender, often angry and utterly convincing. These are two young men, who both expect to die soon and their desperate fear for the other amidst the constant loss of their friends and comrades is almost palpable. However, despite the heartbreak and hopelessness, this is an exciting and even humorous read at times and though the subject matter may be heavy, the writing is anything but. The title is taken from Tennyson's poem as well as the obituaries in the Preshutian. His other poem, Charge of the Light Brigade features too and while written to celebrate heroism, it becomes something far more harrowing here. As these young men are aged by what they are forced to endure, so the exponentially increasing lists of dead, laid out starkly with their names and ages becomes even more agonising, especially when the comforting lies told to parents are juxtaposed with the awful truth.
The tragedy of the First World War is well-known but this empathetic microcosm of the Lost Generation magnifies and personalises the horror. That it is also a tender, beautiful and ultimately hopeful story of love surviving in the face of prejudice, fear and loss is remarkable. In Memoriam is an incredible, exceptional debut novel. It will stay with me forever and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
About the Author
Alice Winn lives in Brooklyn, where she writes screenplays. She grew up in Paris and was educated in British boarding schools. She has a degree in English Literature from Oxford University. IN MEMORIAM is her debut novel.
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