A Tale of Love, Loss, and Hope: 'Lovely War' Book Review
Favourite Quote:
I think you’re right”, he tells her. “About Olympians being unfit for real love. About death and fraility being essential.” She leans closer to the fire. “We say a building is made of brick,” she says , “but it’s the mortar, filling in the cracks, that holds it all together. That provides the strength.”
BOOK RATING:
4.8 out of 5
My Thoughts;
I have always loved reading and learning about Greek Mythology since I was a child and I loved World War 1 and 2 history and Romances. So when I found out about this book, I combined all my favourites into one book. I thought this book was ambitious, but it executed it really well. I was fairly impressed.
The book follows the story of ongoing recollection of the two romances through the perspective of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love to escape judgment from Mount Olympus. It follows the story of Hazel, a classical pianist and James, who would-be architect turned into a soldier. Aubrey, a Harlem-born ragtime genius in the US army and a Belgian orphan with a breathtaking voice touched by the tragedy of the war, Colette.
The story is happening against the background of World War One, describing the impact of the war during certain places such as London, America, France and Belgium. What makes this better than the other books I have read is the perspective of the five Greek Gods. So Aphrodite talks about the process of love from the first moment to the first argument/goodbye between the two couples, while Ares talks about the war, describing the trench and the basic training. As Apollo is the God of the Sun and Music, so if you listen to the audiobook you have Jazz and ragtime music playing while listening to Apollo’s perspective on Aubrey and Colette’s story. You also have Hades’ perspective as you can’t have the war, which accumulated many deaths so having the God of Death and the Underworld definitely highlighted the importance of courage, love, integrity and endurance.
One of the reasons why I like this book is that it goes deep into the character development of each character and shows the dots, and connects them with their other half so much more clearly. It is a slow burn (nothing raunchy happening), but it takes you through the emotional rollercoaster of the relationship against the backdrop of war. The author had a fantastic ability to feel the emotions as the reader watching what is happening, making you feel that close to the characters but distant as you cannot do anything.
I should also point out that this book did a great job of highlighting civilian trauma and guilt against the war in a way that I have not seen it depicted before. You get to see how the war affected every corner of one’s life, not something happening in the distant background. The only downside to this is that it is a pretty long book, but the journey to read it does make it all the more worth it.
