I don't know if this is my kind of book, since I find war novels and memoirs unsettling, but the excerpts and chapters I read convinced me that Manning - a delicate, largely English figure who shared some familial relationship with Australia - wrote the fantastic WWI novel that many critics of the time felt this to be.

For me, the most affecting moment is when the narrator recalls a loss of spirit halfway through the deployment, once the men have seen real action, and realised that the Germans on the other side know as little about the complex politics and motivations of the war than they do. Wow. ( )

I found this book to be both monotonous and beautifully rendered at the same time.

Set in World War I, the book focuses on the lives of ordinary soldiers in the trenches, mostly as seen through the eyes of one particular soldier, Bourne. The first three quarters of the book focuses on the every day lives of the soldiers as they wait for something to actually happen. There's a lot of obtaining of rations and going out for drinks. In addition, some soldiers speak in an uneducated dialect that's hard to follow. And there are whole paragraphs in French. My high school French was partially up to the task of translation, but if I hadn't had that, I never would have known what was said. Not that it really mattered.

You can tell Manning focused on writing and teaching poetry. His writing itself is really evocative of time and place. I credit him highly for that. There are numerous exquisitely rendered sentences that make you go "oh wow". But the rest of what makes novels great seemed a bit missing.

He isn't big on building suspense. Honestly, until the last quarter of the book, I just felt like I couldn't keep going at times. Oddly paralleling some of the sentiments of the soldiers. But when I am reading for pleasure, this feeling really isn't a plus.

The ending (which I won't elaborate upon), when battle finally came, was very well done, and you almost felt like you were in the war yourself. That part was five star.

All in all, I just don't think this is a book I'd recommend anyone read for enjoyment. If you enjoy literature about war and the military, you may want to read it. I think it would be a great book to teach in a literature class even just to expose students to the writing itself. But it is a book I'm glad to have read, but was really sorry I was reading while I was reading it. And it's a book I just wouldn't go around recommending to regular readers; but if you were an English lit major or read and love fiction about war, this one may be for you. ( )

Reason Read: Reading 1001 BOTM, July 2022
A WWI story of trench warfare. No surprises in the story. I appreciated the character development of the various men. So sad. ( )

Every so often a book comes along that defines a generation in a certain time and place. This is just one of those books. Her Privates We tells the story of the ordinary men fighting for Britain in the trenches at Somme in the summer and fall of 1916. The language and events described are raw and unflinching. They are not the idealized, separate world of the officer corp, but the war as it was, filled with filth and muck, anger and apathy.

We are told this story through the third person narrative of a soldier identified only as Bourne. He is a little different from the rest of the men, clearly of a different class. It is evident in his age, his, manners, his speech, and his education. It is clear to not only the fighting men, but also the officers who both resent and respect him. He is told repeatedly to go in for an officer's commission, something which he tries to avoid but eventually accepts as his duty.

There are times when this book moves slowly. This can be hard on some readers, but I think it was intentional and used to show what war was like. It was filled with waiting, endless drilling and parades, and when they moved to the front, it was just quick and violent, over almost before you knew what had happened, only to be replaced with more of the interminable waiting.

Bourne is modeled on the author himself and is loosely based on his own experiences. He wrote this book at the urging of a friend in 1929, when it was published anonymously, under the name The Middle Parts of Fortune. At the time of publication it was considered vulgar and had to be edited and an expurgated version was released the following year, the original version all but disappearing until 1977.

This book was quite popular among leading literary figures and other personages of the time. Included among them are Lawrence of Arabia, who counted it among his favorites, and Ernest Hemingway who described it as "the finest and noblest book of war among men." I am inclined to agree with that sentiment. ( )

4.5 stars. Full review on my blog with photos but highly recommended book!

http://thereadersroom.org/2015/03/26/1001-book-review-her-privates-we-by-frederi...

Her Privates We refers to the common soldiers who fought during World War I. The novel is the fictionalized account of the author’s own experiences as a soldier. It is a extraordinary account of the lives of foot soldiers that is told with the elegance and emotionally-evocative brilliance that only the best authors can achieve.

Manning first published this book under the title, The Middle Part of Fortune. Both versions of the title are derived from a passage in Hamlet, and each chapter begins with a quote from Shakespeare. The term “privates” has meaning in both the military sense and as an allusion to sex (which is appropriate in that it reflects the vulgarity of language we hear from some of the soldiers in the book).

The novel centers primarily on one soldier, Bourne, who is not quite like all the other foot soldiers. He is charismatic, resourceful, well-respected and intelligent but there is a sense of alienation between Bourne and the other soldiers. Bourne closely resembles the author and is the reason this is considered to be a semi-autobiographical novel. Manning was born in Australia and served as a private in WWI. He was selected for officer training but failed the course and some historical accounts indicated that he drank heavily and was frequently in trouble with his superiors. Like his protagonist, Manning fought in the Battle of the Somme and experienced life in the trenches.

Since embarking on the 1001 challenge, I’ve read lots of war books (or books prominently featuring WWI & II) including: The Things they Carried, All Quiet on the Western Front, Storm of Steel, Birdsong, & Atonement. I’ve appreciated all the books I just mentioned, although I don’t typically enjoy reading books about the combat. This book was different than other war books. There was much less graphic description of war atrocities (injuries, deaths, etc) and while those things are not ignored or glossed over, the book is more about the emotional experience of average soldiers even before they get to the front line.

Her Privates We is a gem among even some of the best books about the war. The writing is beautifully elegant and emotionally evocative. The dialogue between the soldiers feels very realistic, at times crude, at times funny and at other times filled with incredible emotion and pain. Hemingway referred to this book as “the finest and noblest book of men in war” and it is hard to disagree with him.

As you can probably tell by now, I very much enjoyed this book. Although it started off a little slow for me, halfway through I was hooked. For my professional life, I work with military veterans and I found incredible similarity in how Manning describes the emotional impact of being in the trenches and how the veterans I work with describe their own emotional experience of war. I really felt for these soldiers and the book packed an emotional punch for me. Manning provides readers with a understanding of the tension between officers and foot soldiers and immerses readers into the complex emotional and psychological states of soldiers while they prepare for combat. Your heart breaks (and I may have even shed a few tears) for these young men as they move ever closer to their own deaths.

To get a feel for the writing in this book, I’ve included some additional quotes:

There is a gulf between men just returned from action, and those who have not been in the show, as unbridgeable as that between the sober and the drunk.

The war might be a damned sight more tolerable if it weren’t for the bloody army.

There is nothing in war which is not in human nature; but the violence and passions of men become in the aggregate, an impersonal and incalculable force, a blind and irrational movement of the collective will, which one cannot control, which one cannot understand, which one can only endure as these peasants, in their bitterness and resignation, endured. C’est la guerre.

They don’t know what we’ve got to go through, that’s the truth of it,” said Weeper. “they measure the distance, an’ they count the men, an’ the guns, an’ think a battle’s no’ but a sum you can do wi’ a pencil an’ a bit of’ paper.”

one seemed to be traveling through some sterile landscape in the moon, or some soulless region on the shadowy confines of hell.

They had been brought to the last extremity of hope, and yet they put their hands on each other’s shoulders and said with a passionate conviction that it would be all right, though they had faith in nothing but in themselves and in each other.

One could not separate the desire from the dread which restrained it; the strength of one’s hope strove equal the despair which oppressed it; one’s determination could only be measured by the terrors and difficulties which it overcame. All the mean, piddling standards of ordinary life vanished in the collision of these warring opposites. Between them one could only attempt to maintain an equilibrium which every instant disturbed and made unstable.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in WWI and the experience of soldiers who fought in this war. ( )