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1914: Goodbye To All That
Lavinia Greenlaw, one of Britain’s most eminent poets and respected literary figures, invites 10 writers from countries involved in the First World War to respond to the title of Robert Graves’ famous book. Each take the poignant phrase ‘Goodbye to All That’ as a starting point for a personal reflection on the aftermath of war, as well as on the continuing struggle for artistic freedom in the face of conflict in all its forms.
171 pages, Paperback
First published July 31, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 26, 2015
The sum is less than its parts...
In her short introduction to this collection of essays, Lavinia Greenlaw tells us that, a hundred years on from WW1, the contributors, all prominent writers, were asked to consider what it means to have your life and your identity as an artist shaped by conflict.
The fundamental flaw is that, of course, none of the contributors' artistic lives were affected by WW1. Some of them discuss aspects of that conflict, but without the ability to speak of any personal impact from it, while others have opted to discuss other more recent conflicts which have affected either them or their parents or grandparents. So from the beginning I fear the title looks like a rather shabby attempt to cash in on the centenary of the Great War, and some of the essays feel forced, as if the authors have been stretching to find ways to suggest that their own literary lives have been influenced by it.
As a concept, then, I feel the book fails. However some of the essays are still interesting, especially the ones from authors who chose to interpret the brief fairly broadly. On the other hand, some of them are pretty poor, and really contribute very little to the subject under discussion. For example, Ali Smith imagines herself in conversation with her dead father (also too young to have been in the war), remembers snatches of war poetry from school, and wallows in a level of bathos that must reach down to the bottom of the Atlantic; while Jeanette Winterson indulges herself in a little pro-Marxist polemic and an appeal for funding of the arts. NoViolet Bulawayo chooses to quote extensively from her own novel We Need New Names, which seemed a touch self-promotional, but perhaps she's just not experienced enough yet to write in this format. I guess, having selected such big names, it may have been hard for the editor to exert some form of control, but the lack of it means the collection overall has no feeling of an over-arching structure.
Moving swiftly on to some of the better contributions...
Kamila Shamsie in Goodbye to Some of That discusses her own childhood and adolescence growing up in Karachi under coups and military dictatorship. She muses on how she transformed her own early memories of that period into what she calls her personal 'Origin Story', and that this influenced her to write exclusively about Karachi in her early works. She then discusses the thrill and terror of her first experiences of writing about other places and events outwith her own personal experience. The essay is very well written and addresses the question of how Shamsie's literary life was affected by her own experience of conflict.
In A Visit to the Magician, Daniel Kehlmann tells of going to see a stage hypnotist (a subject that he had discussed in his book F: A Novel). While there, he realises that only those willing to be hypnotised can be, and finds himself suddenly comparing this to how people allow themselves to follow dictators. The essay is exceptionally well written – in a short space, he manages to say a lot about the German experience under Hitler (although Hitler is never mentioned),and more widely about a large proportion of humanity being keen to be like everyone else and to follow orders from those who set themselves up as leaders.
In In Search of Untold Stories, Elif Shafak talks of how in Turkey, not long after the end of WW1, they changed their alphabet from Arabic to Latin, and that as a result later generations have largely lost touch with writings from before then, and therefore with their literary history. Apparently, the government went further – excising Arabic and Persian words from the language, and in the process losing much of the language's nuance. This was something I didn't know about, and found this real politicizing of language fascinating and thought-provoking.
The essay that touched me most was The Community of Sealed Lips: Silence and Writing by Erwin Mortier, a Belgian writer. This is a beautifully written and moving account of the silences in his family – about his grandmother and great-uncle who collaborated with the Nazis. He discusses how those silences shaped how he thought and felt about language. Silence, he suggests, does not lead to forgetting, it just prevents a resolution.
While I think the collection failed in its aim overall, in fact failed to clearly define its aim, I'm glad to have read the essays I've highlighted, each of which individually would rate 4 or 5 stars from me. Unfortunately, the inclusion of the poorer ones brings my overall rating down to a rather more lukewarm 3½ – rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Pushkin Press.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
In her short introduction to this collection of essays, Lavinia Greenlaw tells us that, a hundred years on from WW1, the contributors, all prominent writers, were asked to consider what it means to have your life and your identity as an artist shaped by conflict.
“They were asked to consider the loss of literary innocence or ideals, the discovery of new ones, the question of artistic freedom, and what it means to embrace new imperatives or to negotiate imposed expectations.”
The fundamental flaw is that, of course, none of the contributors' artistic lives were affected by WW1. Some of them discuss aspects of that conflict, but without the ability to speak of any personal impact from it, while others have opted to discuss other more recent conflicts which have affected either them or their parents or grandparents. So from the beginning I fear the title looks like a rather shabby attempt to cash in on the centenary of the Great War, and some of the essays feel forced, as if the authors have been stretching to find ways to suggest that their own literary lives have been influenced by it.
As a concept, then, I feel the book fails. However some of the essays are still interesting, especially the ones from authors who chose to interpret the brief fairly broadly. On the other hand, some of them are pretty poor, and really contribute very little to the subject under discussion. For example, Ali Smith imagines herself in conversation with her dead father (also too young to have been in the war), remembers snatches of war poetry from school, and wallows in a level of bathos that must reach down to the bottom of the Atlantic; while Jeanette Winterson indulges herself in a little pro-Marxist polemic and an appeal for funding of the arts. NoViolet Bulawayo chooses to quote extensively from her own novel We Need New Names, which seemed a touch self-promotional, but perhaps she's just not experienced enough yet to write in this format. I guess, having selected such big names, it may have been hard for the editor to exert some form of control, but the lack of it means the collection overall has no feeling of an over-arching structure.
Moving swiftly on to some of the better contributions...
Kamila Shamsie in Goodbye to Some of That discusses her own childhood and adolescence growing up in Karachi under coups and military dictatorship. She muses on how she transformed her own early memories of that period into what she calls her personal 'Origin Story', and that this influenced her to write exclusively about Karachi in her early works. She then discusses the thrill and terror of her first experiences of writing about other places and events outwith her own personal experience. The essay is very well written and addresses the question of how Shamsie's literary life was affected by her own experience of conflict.
In A Visit to the Magician, Daniel Kehlmann tells of going to see a stage hypnotist (a subject that he had discussed in his book F: A Novel). While there, he realises that only those willing to be hypnotised can be, and finds himself suddenly comparing this to how people allow themselves to follow dictators. The essay is exceptionally well written – in a short space, he manages to say a lot about the German experience under Hitler (although Hitler is never mentioned),and more widely about a large proportion of humanity being keen to be like everyone else and to follow orders from those who set themselves up as leaders.
In In Search of Untold Stories, Elif Shafak talks of how in Turkey, not long after the end of WW1, they changed their alphabet from Arabic to Latin, and that as a result later generations have largely lost touch with writings from before then, and therefore with their literary history. Apparently, the government went further – excising Arabic and Persian words from the language, and in the process losing much of the language's nuance. This was something I didn't know about, and found this real politicizing of language fascinating and thought-provoking.
The essay that touched me most was The Community of Sealed Lips: Silence and Writing by Erwin Mortier, a Belgian writer. This is a beautifully written and moving account of the silences in his family – about his grandmother and great-uncle who collaborated with the Nazis. He discusses how those silences shaped how he thought and felt about language. Silence, he suggests, does not lead to forgetting, it just prevents a resolution.
“Writing, I have learnt, is not intended to solve riddles. It is speaking and silence at the same time, my way of dealing with the community of sealed lips. Not by breaking them open, but by giving them a farewell kiss and making their silences audible.”
While I think the collection failed in its aim overall, in fact failed to clearly define its aim, I'm glad to have read the essays I've highlighted, each of which individually would rate 4 or 5 stars from me. Unfortunately, the inclusion of the poorer ones brings my overall rating down to a rather more lukewarm 3½ – rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Pushkin Press.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
September 12, 2015
Robert Graves was one of the first few books I read about WW1. Brilliant. Maybe 25 years ago and I'm still fascinated by how much I wasn't taught at my University. So moving. I'm still reading about it.
December 28, 2019
This book uses Robert Graves title of his World War I memoir to explore the impact of the War on various countries around the world that had soldiers who fought in it. The essay writers are from 11 different countries and their essays are quite good, even if they don't address the War directly. Some essays address the War directly; while other explore other issues of history or silence about it in their own countries. I am not sure how well it addresses the War but the essays are worth reading nonetheless.
November 8, 2024
1914: Goodbye to All That was commissioned by 14-18 NOW, World War I Centenary Art Commissions and edited by Lavinia Greenlaw. It contains essays and stories by Ali Smith, Kamila Shamsie, Daniel Kehlmann, Aleš Šteger, Elif Shafak, NoViolet Bulawayo, Erwin Mortier, Xiaolu Guo, Colm Tóibín, and Jeanette Winterson. Most of the pieces have to do with World War I, but others are about other conflicts. The subtitle explains that this collection is really about writers reflecting on the shortfalls of art and language to address war, atrocity, and devastation...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
September 22, 2015
Jeanette Winterson. That's all.
August 13, 2017
some quotes that i marked in this collection of articles:
"The way we live is not a law of gravity; it is propositional. We can change the story because we are the story."
Jeanette Winterson, Writing on the Wall.
"What are our human needs? Love and friendship, family life, education, intellectual pursuit, sport, enquiry, curiosity, books, music, art in all its changing shapes and forms. We will all have things we want to add here, but the common denominator is creativity."
Jeanette Winterson, Writing on the Wall.
"where much is kept silent, silences become wandering emotions, exiles in search of something to hold onto, of a body to harbour them and perhaps finally give them shelter in language and narrative." Erwin Mortier, The Community of Sealed Lips: Silence and Writing.
"The way we live is not a law of gravity; it is propositional. We can change the story because we are the story."
Jeanette Winterson, Writing on the Wall.
"What are our human needs? Love and friendship, family life, education, intellectual pursuit, sport, enquiry, curiosity, books, music, art in all its changing shapes and forms. We will all have things we want to add here, but the common denominator is creativity."
Jeanette Winterson, Writing on the Wall.
"where much is kept silent, silences become wandering emotions, exiles in search of something to hold onto, of a body to harbour them and perhaps finally give them shelter in language and narrative." Erwin Mortier, The Community of Sealed Lips: Silence and Writing.
October 8, 2016
Interesting idea, but not altogether successful in execution, this collection of short stories and essays features contemporary writers reflecting on WWI and other world conflicts that have informed their lives and their work. It probably speaks better to a community of writers and artists than to a general population. Some of it was lost on me.
September 5, 2014
This is a well written book. Some of the authors are more direct than other about the War and it's effect. Some authors seem to not have any relevance. It is just that it's more subtle. I enjoyed it but wouldn't rush to read it again.
July 10, 2015
A series of essays on war, and writing about the experience. Most but not all deal with the First World War. An excellent range of perspectives, the strongest more than made up for the weaker entries in my experience.
April 13, 2021
Anthologies / collections are usually a mixed bag - this one was overwhelmingly good, though the texts varied in how "strictly" they were tied to the core topic (WWI and its aftermath). Very enjoyable, and it made me think about some of the knowledge gaps and biases I didn't even know I had.
December 22, 2015
definitely a must read for every writer, for every artist.
I especially enjoyed the reflections of not only the centenary but the internalized
conflict, both collective and personal of creators.
I especially enjoyed the reflections of not only the centenary but the internalized
conflict, both collective and personal of creators.
April 16, 2016
Short stories at the time period of WWI, but the stories are not necessarily war stories: viniettes of character's lives at the time.
December 7, 2022
Moving, thought-provoking and energising. I hadn’t heard of every contributor but I am now looking forward to reading more by every contributor. However, I do think I need to read it again to gain a richer understanding. I will be thinking about it for some time.
September 2, 2024
Jeanette Winterson wrote: "At Manchester, the university where I teach, our students have challenged faculty to stop peddling neoliberal economics as if they are a law of nature."
I didn't know that Coolies went to WW1 and were treated appallingly.
The terrible sights and sounds and loss.
I didn't know that Coolies went to WW1 and were treated appallingly.
The terrible sights and sounds and loss.
July 17, 2020
Phenomenal collection of stories.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews