Birdsong
Sebastian Faulks · 1993
WWI and a love affair that haunts three generations. Stephen Wraysford and Isabelle Azaire's pre-war passion, and what the war makes of the man who loved her. Faulks is unsparing about what violence does to the capacity for love, which makes the love all the more necessary. The tunneling sequences are among the most devastating in modern war fiction.
The case against
Faulks splices the trenches with a 1978 frame in which a granddaughter researches her family, and those chapters are dead weight; the novel stalls every time she appears. The prewar affair runs hot to the point of romance-novel purple. The tunnel warfare is extraordinary and earns the reputation. Skim accordingly.
Romance · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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