Returnees
It took me far too long to read it but I have finally finished "The Soldier's Return" by Melvyn Bragg. It is a novel laced with autobiographical elements and as the title might suggest, it's about a soldier who has returned from war. Specifically, Sam Richardson has come back to Cumberland in the northwest of England from wartime in Burma where he witnessed unspeakable things. He tries to settle back into his old life with his young wife Ellen and their little son Joe who was but a baby when World War II was declared. Sam is restless and bad-tempered, finding it hard to pick up where he left off. He comes close to running away to Australia but abandons that plan at the very last minute, clearing the way for a sequel. I could go into detail about the plot but I won't bore you with that. Suffice it to say that I found the book all rather slow-moving and frustrating. I wanted to slap the writer and say, "Come on! Let's move on!" The language was ...