The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West

This is a sad tale of the return of a shell shocked WWI soldier who has lost all memories for the past 15 years.  His elitist wife and adoring cousin have kept up home and appearances and are quite shocked to receive news of his injuries from a woman who appears to be in a league much below their standing.

Wife to Chris, Kitty is an unsympathetic upper crust lady of the house.  More concerned with appearances than her husband’s well being, she easily accepts his fate as a consequence of “snapping him out of his shell shocked condition”.

Margaret Grey, resigned to a difficult life, briefly reunites with a long lost love and then has to be the impetus to propel him back to a reality he’d managed to escape.  This looked down upon woman has more empathy and selflessness than those around her and her strength leads her to be the one who must deliver the jarring blow to bring a broken man back from the edge.

Never truly revealed, Chris Baldry seems quite content reliving a life as a very young and carefree man.  The problem is the 15 years he has somehow forgotten after being sent to fight in France during WW1.

Quotes:

She was repulsively furred with neglect and poverty, as even a good glove that has dropped down behind a bed in a hotel and has lain undisturbed for a day or two is repulsive when the chambermaid retrieves it from the dust and fluff.

I pushed the purse away from me with my toe and hated her as the rich hate the poor, as insect things that will struggle out of the crannies which are their decent home, and induce ugliness to the light of day.  

and in the front of the shops stand little women with backs ridged by cheap stays, who tapped their upper lips with their forefingers and made other feeble, doubtful gestures as though they wanted to buy something and knew that if they did they would have to starve some other appetite. 

I suppose that a thing that one has looked at with somebody one loves acquires for ever after a special significance.

I believe I’d enjoy being in the company of West.  Her keen sense of both the lower and upper echelons of society gives her that rare insight that authors relish.  I’m sure I’d gain much from just being in her presence.

My rating for The Return of the Soldier is an 8 out of 10.

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Next up, Newton Thornburg’s Cutter and Bone…