The Good Soldier (1915)

This book, first published in 1915 is about the relationships between two married couples, in the early 20th century. It is narrated by Dowell, now widowed, as he recalls the events starting ten years prior, leading up to his present circumstances. It is not told in a sequential format but wanders, as does ones mind, when recalling people and events. Dowell thought he knew the Ashburnhams well but realises he didn't know them at all. That what they presented was a facade.
I found it hard to like the characters some who were deceitful, promiscuous and arrogant, the narrator - idle, however I accept that they are reflective of a select group in society at this time. ( )

Written in 1914, with the title The Good Soldier you'd be forgiven for expecting this classic to be a war novel. However, the nearest we come to notions of war in this novel are those of the domestic strife kind concerning two couples who Ford refers to as "good people".

Ford Maddox Ford was an interesting character. Rubbing shoulders with the literary greats of the time, he co-wrote several novels with Joseph Conrad (touchy subject - Conrad got all of the credit from the publishers), published works in The English Review (which he founded) by the likes of Thomas Hardy, H.G. Wells, Conrad, Ezra Pound and Yeats, and in Paris published work by Hemingway, Joyce, Jean Rhys and Gertrude Stein in The Transatlantic Review. Despite prolifically writing his own memoirs, poetry, novels and critical essays, Ford was ultimately left disappointed and disillusioned that so many of his writing contemporaries, whose work he had championed as a publisher, left him in their wake with their much greater literary successes.

That being said, so much about this book fascinated me, despite at times befuddling me. In the introduction (written post it's original publication), Ford claims it was his best book, and I think it deserves to be remembered alongside the much better known publications of the era from his contemporaries. He insists that the book was in his head for 10 years, but as it was about personal friends he had to wait until they'd passed before being able to tell their story. Knowing as we do his own backstory of extra-marital affairs, one suspects that you might not have too look too far to find where his "friend" inspiration came from.

Originally Ford wished the novel to be called The Saddest Story before his publishers put their foot down, given the already sad enough reality of being a country at war. This theme plays out throughout the novel as the narrator reflects on the wasteful tragedy of the spiralling events that take place, and the sadness of a story where none of the characters ultimately find happiness.

The Good Soldier has been both criticised and revered for the manner in which it is narrated, a chronological hotch-potch that skips back and forth and round and round rather than being a linear retelling. Although I had to check back every now and then to make sure I hadn't missed something important, I'm definitely in the 'it works' camp. The narration style creates complex layers which definitely make you work as a reader, piecing together disjointed narrative which segues and digresses between what was known at the time and what was discovered later by the narrator to be true. However, in making sense of the story as you read it takes you on what feels like quite a literary journey, and when I reached the end and the last piece of the puzzle slipped into place it felt like I'd just experienced a pretty fine novel.

4 stars - I doubt that this will be my favourite novel of the year, but it was a good read nonetheless. ( )

I found this book to be amazing. The psychotherapist part of me loved it the most. I may be wrong in this but I think those who do not do my job may not be aware that such toxic, incredible, unbelievable...people and relationships actually exist undercover among seemingly “normal”people. This novel is fiction but, truly, as Dowell says, “It’s a queer and fantastic world...with broken,tumultuous lives” ( )

A classic novel dealing with the dissection of three marriages. But the narrator himself is revealed as unreliable, so where is the reader left by the tales? In addition Ford writes this novel in a series of flashbacks, which aids the general air of revelation, and dissonance. It is good to read, though finally not so much entertaining as engrossing. ( )

A book that I did not particularly like. Its 'all over the place' telling of the story was the thing that confused me most and that eventually very much afflicted my opinion on the novel. It didn't make a huge impression, as a matter of fact, I had a hard time keeping my attention to it and, if I left it to do necessary things, pick it back up.

The upside is, that it wasn't a very big novel and that I've crossed one off the list, although I don't think this will last long. ( )