Sergeantens son

by Alan Sillitoe

Raised by a career soldier, a working class Englishman tries to find his place—both in and out of uniform—in this compelling novel of love and war
 
Charlie Scorton sees his best friend killed beside him in the mine, and resolves to join the army. His father throws him out for deserting the coal miner’s life, but Charlie never looks back. For twenty-four years, he roams the empire, a king’s soldier who is finally left with no choice but to come home. He has a child, his wife dies, and the old soldier dedicates himself to raising his boy.
 
Charlie trains his son, William, to be an artilleryman from birth. William finds a home in the army, the sort he has always longed for, and makes his mark during World War II, performing heroically during the retreat at Dunkirk, risking his life to save thousands. But soon, he will be forced to answer the question his father never could: What does a soldier do when war is over?
 
Alan Sillitoe, the bestselling author of The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, examines where the fight ends and life begins for a soldier in this story of love and war, and the blurred lines between them.
 

324 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Alan Sillitoe was an English writer, one of the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s (although he, in common with most of the other writers to whom the label was applied, had never welcomed it).
For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sil...

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

From my 1992 notebook: reading Sillitoe's TWS at the doctors, an explosive ending. Writing in red paint in the bedroom, wearing his wife's underwear to the dinner party, about the worst thing for this upright soldier, but so appropriate somehow. Yes, he won me over.

[RYD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably because I'm about to become a father, I was touched by some of Alan Sillitoe's descriptions of the main character's relationship with his dad. Sillitoe handles it with a lot of insight, and I could relate a lot of the scenes he presented to my own childhood. Here's one passage I highlighted:

"Hearing such tales [by his father] about Aldershot and Shorncliffe, of his travels and of his time during the Great War, he knew early on that his father was no mere postman, but a man of the world, who for some reason had now to earn his living like anybody else. Not that he made this apparent to his mates at school and during the two hours a week he was allowed to play in the street. It was only in his daydreams that both worlds mixed and it struck him how much out of the ordinary his father was. Many years passed before he realised that maybe he wasn't such a rare person after all, and that most boys thought the same about their fathers."

[Pi. · Rating 2 out of 5]

El libro es el relato de la vida del hijo del viudo. Comenzó muy bien relatando la infancia del susodicho y su relación con su padre; especialmente la incapacidad de este ultimo para ser cariñoso aún amándolo profundamente. El clásico masculino de "soy super duro por tu propio bien, para que te hagas un hombre" que estropea todo.

Luego el chico se fue a la guerra y yo me aburrí mortalmente con los relatos bélicos (estrategias, ametralladoras, batallas, etc).

Una vez superada esta sección comienza su vida adulta y se casa con un chica. El matrimonio es un desastre y la chica aparece como muy desiquilibrada y caprichosa pero nunca se nos explica nada sobre ella, me olió a que el autor lo dejó de esta manera "porque las mujeres son así -incompresibles- y punto".

Por último el protagonista casi no supera la ruptura y tiene montones de conversaciones internas sobre el sentido de la vida que, supongo, trataban de dar profundidad psicológica al personaje pero es tan evidente esta intención y tan llenas de clichés que resultan tediosas y me las "leí" en grandes diagonales.

Finalmente muere el padre del protagonista y este inicia una nueva y mejor vida (resumida en pocos parráfos) porque entre todo esto, finalmente, se "encontró".

[Austin Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll have to consider and weigh my opinions on the book in a more formal critique. While I think the story has spectacular elements, and having never read Sillitoe before, I'm eager to delve further into his oeuvre. At the same token, I feel the book retains certain weaknesses that might prevent a four or five star review, but I would have to justify this in the midst of the very strong positives about the book – most notably the hypnotic, concise approach to the passage of time, as well as the penetrating analyses of his characters, their thoughts, their motivations, and their actions.

It's a good book though, don't get me wrong. It is heartbreaking even as it raises the reader for gasps of fresh air, and speaks to many of the struggles that bond humans to one another in mutual experience and misery.

I guess, all this is to say: formal review awaiting. Tentatively providing three stars, but it could be a four star. I just need to check my notes is all.

*EDIT* I've thought it over more, and this does deserve four stars. Not a perfect novel, but an exemplary novel, nonetheless.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lesser work, but still quite perceptive.

[Róisín Prendergast · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong book. Strong to hold and to smell, as it's a 1970s hardback. And a strong story laid bare, of a man's life lived to the best of his ability despite curtailment, doubt, and change. I had reservations about embarking on this book due to the military aspect, (and the loss of a star in my rating is due to the battle scene chapters in which I'm sorry to say I got quite bored and zoned out) but I had flicked through enough before fully starting to know there were passages of tenderness and human nature. And my goodness there is enough of that. I would say the story is 20% military life and action, 80% gut-churning civilian emotion - beginning with childhood roots and Nottinghamshire grit, and progressing into a raw and adult existential whirlwind of regret, wonderment and faith. William Scorton is a young soldier, modelled and set up in life by his stern and overbearing father, who had also been in the army and maintained a strong reverence for how a career in service can shape a man into his best form. William's life journeys through war and marriage - only one of them breaks him and turns him inside out. Overall, a tremendous but eloquent tale of inner turmoil at whether a life has been lived to it's fullest - a fear I think most of us battle with.

[J.C. Greenway · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Widower’s Son is the story of William and his dad Charlie, that begins with Charlie witnessing his best friend’s death in a pit accident and resolving to join the Army rather than go back to the mine. It is an act that sees his own father throw him out the house and sends him off to life as a professional soldier, first in far-off parts of the British Empire and then the trenches of the First World War. Coming home and marrying, his son William is only young when his wife dies of the flu and leaves him widowed. Charlie is a tough man on the outside and he has some regimented ideas of how William should be brought up, coaching him through the entrance exams for boarding school and his own start as a gunner. Once set on that path, William is the right age to be in the thick of the Second World War and the chapter on Dunkirk is extensively researched and one you probably won’t be able to put down until you reach the end – as I couldn’t!

Read my full review - and many more! at my website ten million hardbacks

[Joan Barton · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF, not for me ,too much about war .

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

1992 notebook - read the end of this in the doctor's waiting room - an explosive ending. Yes, he won me over. Writing in red paint in the bedroom, wearing his wife's underwear down to the dinner party, about the worst thing for this upright soldier, but so appropriate somehow.