I read a lot. I probably read a book a week, and frequently more than that. I go into book stores and write down the titles of books that I find interesting, and then try to find them at the library or buy them as an ebook. My favorite thing is if I can find the book as an ebook from the library. Yay. No cost. I have a list of books I would like to read that numbers in the ‘teens at this point. And that, friends, is why I don’t like to waste my time reading a book that I am not enjoying.
However, I made an exception with Shoulder the Sky, by Anne Perry. Shoulder the Sky is the second book in her World War I series. (She also has a couple of other series, both which take place in Victorian England, all of which are mysteries.) I really like Perry’s writing, and I honestly believe there is not an author who can give you a better sense of place than she. When reading her books, I actually find myself feeling as though I am in the place about which she is writing. This is fine if you are in Victorian England. It is, however, quite disturbing if you are in a trench in France during World War I.
It’s ridiculous to try to determine which war was the worst. War is awful and they have all been (and continue to be) terrible events. But man, World War I was horrific. The trench fighting, the gas, the illness, the sheer length of it, the numbers of casualties, all of it made for a dreadful period of time. Shoulder the Sky captures the war environment perfectly, making it a very dark read.
In the first book in the series -- No Graves As Yet – you meet the Reavley family. Michael works for the government as a spy. Joseph is a widower who became an Anglican priest and is a chaplain in the front lines in France who struggles with his faith. Judith is an ambulance driver. Hannah stays at home and cares for her family while her husband fights. In that first book, the reader learns that their mom and dad are killed in a car accident. They determine it was murder because their father learned something about the war effort that would change the world and was killed by someone they dub the Peacemaker.
In Shoulder the Sky, efforts continue to find out who the Peacemaker is and solve the mystery of their parents’ murder. But really the murder mystery is a minor part of the plot. The major focus is on the war effort, and Perry is very explicit.
That is why I can’t say I enjoyed this book. It is really dark and realistic. Not really a book that I enjoyed reading before I fell asleep at night because I really did have war dreams and that’s not a good thing. Still, the reason I finished the book is that I think it is important to understand that period of time because as a result of that war, so much other stuff took place around the world. Definitely in order to understand World War II, you must understand World War I. And Perry’s writing is outstanding.
One of the things I found most compelling about this novel was the sort of underlying debate about the role of the press on the battle fields. World War I was such a controversial war, and evoked extremely mixed emotions. There also was no draft during World War I, so it was an all-volunteer fighting force. The debate was whether the press should report the truth about conditions on the front lines, thereby undoubtedly affecting the number of volunteers, or whether the vital importance of a victory in England overrode the freedom of the press. Being a journalist myself, I had a hard time not coming down on the side of the journalists, though the main characters (and so, I suspect Perry) believed that victory was more important. Interesting.
The series continues, and I will likely read more of the books. Still, I will definitely take a break. Shoulder the Sky was a hard book to read.
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