I was reading an inteview with an author, and they mentioned this author/book, and I realized I had been meaning to read it for some time now, and never gotten to it. So, ordered an ebook version of it then and there, so I could start reading it that evening.
Well, more than a little disappointed. It may be that since I have read a lot of original WWI material, even though decades ago, this rehash of WWI experiences just did not impress me.
Too many characters and stories going on. The electric shock therapy story seems to come out of nowhere and added on for whatever reason. The pages of psychological self evaluation I found tedious and unconvincing. Too bad, I was SO excited to dive into this book. The good news is, it was done quickly.
The additional good news is, reading this got me to go back and begin to reread some of those first hand, personal experience memoirs of WWI. Also, some of the homefront scenes here were informative/interesting, and I probably will go ahead and read the second volume of this trilogy somewhere down the line. I find it rather quizzical that people love and rave about this novel so much. But, that being said - go read the original materials instead. And Fussell's critical/historic work.