Day

by A.L. Kennedy

Alfred Day wanted his war. In its turmoil he found his proper purpose as the tail-gunner in a Lancaster bomber; he found the wild, dark fellowship of his crew, and - most extraordinary of all - he found Joyce, a woman to love. But that's all gone now - the war took it away. Maybe it took him, too. Now in 1949, employed as an extra in a war film that echoes his real experience, Day begins to recall what he would rather forget...

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, War, Scotland, World War II, Literature, Novels

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Alison Louise Kennedy is a Scottish writer of novels, short stories and non-fiction. She is known for a characteristically dark tone, a blending of realism and fantasy, and for her serious approach to her work. She occasionally contributes columns and reviews to UK and European newspapers including the fictional diary of her pet parrot named Charlie.

Reviews

[Karen· · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ms Kennedy should have a category of her own with different coloured stars, or the option to have the stars squared, 3D at the very least. She's a writer who expects a lot of her reader, and I like that. The opening chapter of this novel is a struggle, even the second time round it's not a smooth ride, no familiar easy ground, nothing recognizable, nothing we can sort into easy categories. Ms Kennedy disorientates you just as much as Alfie Day, the main character is disorientated, lost, thrown onto an indifferent shore after a storm that he barely survived, and still not sure now whether he wants to go on living. There could hardly be a more damning indictment of the havoc that war wreaks. And yet......
Kennedy's writing is often described as bleak, but this, in all its uncertainty and complicatedness, is uplifting in the portrayal of the redemptive capacity of love, the whoosh of the bold desire followed through, the reward in the answering blaze. The ending is phenomenal, a cautious release, a circumscribed completion. Yes.

[Fionnuala]

Reviewed in 2012
I like books about heroes, unassuming heroes, the quiet ones who never get promotion, never get awards for bravery. Alfred Day, turret gunner in a bomber squad during WWII is one such hero, a man of huge and noble courage who is constantly beset by his own personal armoury of fears and terrors.

I also like books where authors take risks and experiment with voice. But the author must keep the narrative sufficiently lucid, she must remember her duty to her readers. AL Kennedy takes a lot of risks with narrative voice as she lays Alfred's story before us. Her risks pay off when we come to understand how Alfred's memory works and when we are finally seduced by the childlike purity of his personality. But how many readers make it to that point? How many give up in the early stages, defeated by the crazy twists and swoops of his memory as he tries to subdue his ghosts. But for those who persist, the rewards are huge. Stick with Alfred and read a truly worthwhile argument for the senselessness of war.

[Kuszma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harminc forint, az igen kevés.

Harminc szilvásgombóc, az kezelhető mennyiség.

Harminc teljesítendő bevetés egy bombázón, na az viszont maga a fájdalmas örökkévalóság.

Persze Yossarian óra tudjuk, mi a baj a háborúval (azon túl persze, hogy alkalmasint megöl): az abszurdot a mindennapok szervezőelvévé teszi. Az ilyen helyzetek csak azok számára elviselhetőek, akik képesek saját autonómiájukat felfüggeszteni, és kritika nélkül követni vezetőik parancsait – ám a szuverén személy, aki ragaszkodik a gondolkodás luxusához, szenved. No most Day ennek tetejében még el is követ pár taktikai hibát:
1.) Barátokat szerez egy olyan szituációban, ahol a barátok csak fogyóeszközök.
2.) Elmulaszt meghalni velük együtt.
3.) És még szerelmes is lesz.
No most én nem tudom, Yossarian járt-e pszichológushoz a háború végén, de Dayre bizonnyal ráférne. Mert mikor a háborúnak vége van, ő csak üldögél, nézi a saját szétesett életét, ami leginkább egy kupac puzzle-ra emlékeztet, ráadásul valószínűleg el is kallódott belőle egy csomó darab. Mi meg ülünk vele együtt, és próbálunk kezdeni valamit a szerző által elénk vetett szilánkokkal.

(Nem biztos, hogy Kennedy teljesen újszerű regényt írt a poszttraumás stressz szindrómáról, de amit írt, az ügyesen írta meg.)

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enough about war already……or not.

At a time when we’re all sick of hearing about and seeing the consequences of war this is a book about war well worth reading. At 15 Alfred Day lies about his age and joins the RAF as a gunner to get away from his violent father and his small Midlands town that threatens a lack luster life and escapes to see the world or at least bomb it one target and mission at a time. The story is told in the third person with forays into the second person point of view and Alfie is reminiscing about his war as he plays an extra in a documentary about World War II.

This is the first book by A L Kennedy that I’ve read. She has one of the most unique and affecting voices I’ve read in quite some time. I found myself reading more slowly than usual and going back to re-read sections to understand better but also just because I wanted to taste them again. Alfie’s war seemed very true to life and therefore heartbreaking.

5/5

[Kathrin Passig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ich habe damit angefangen, weil ich "Paradise" von A.L. Kennedy sehr mochte, und weil Romane über Heckschützen in Lancaster-Bombern im Zweiten Weltkrieg selten von Frauen geschrieben werden. Der Anfang war sehr zäh, die Verwirrung im Kopf der Hauptfigur spiegelt sich in der Erzählweise, aber viele Rezensionen sagen, dass man da durch muss und es sich dann lohnt. Fand ich aber nicht, ich fand es bis zum Ende mutwillig und unproduktiv verwirrend und die Erzählfiktion (innerer Monolog in der zweiten Person, gelegentlich wird auch mal was Dritten gestanden) unplausibel. Außerdem wäre es eine bessere Welt, wenn Autor:innen, die eine geisteswissenschaftliche Ausbildung haben, nicht immerzu ihre armen Figuren in Buchhandlungen arbeiten ließen und Anspielungen auf griechische Klassiker in absolut alles einbauten.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 80 or so pages were a real slog, and I almost ditched it numerous times, feeling that I was working way too hard for too little reward (and even too little basic understanding of what the hell was going on). The only things that kept me going were the many reviews here that warned that reading the beginning was a lot of hard work, but promised that it would all be worth it in the end. They were right. I'm not sure that the first part needs to be quite so impenetrable and challenging, but I do appreciate that it settled into a poetic rhythm of memory/present day/memory, about four different strands moving back and forth. PTSD and the horrors of war are rendered with great feeling and empathy, and our hero, Alfie Day, turns out to be a fascinating fellow.

[Mohamed Gamal · Rating 4 out of 5]

في البداية لقد قرأت الرواية بسبب ترجمة عبد المقصود عبد الكريم ، هذا الرجل مترجم جيد بحق ، أعتقد أنه أنقذ الرواية فرواية بمثل هذة الصعوبة ما كان ينفع معها الا ترجمة جيدة
داي ، هو اسم البطل الذي شارك في الحرب العالمية الثانية ، و نعيش معه يوم كامل اثناء تصوير فيلم عن الحرب ، الكاتبة تستخدم الفلاش باك ، و تنتقل بين زمن التصوير و زمن الحرب ، و هو ما يتم بصعوبة شديدة و تنقل بين الأزمنة في لمحات سريعة ، خصوصا في بداية الرواية ، لكن الكاتبة متمكنة و سحرتني ، ارهقتني الرواية و لكنها اعجبتني .

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I’ll soon be celebrating the 50th anniversary of my arrival here in Australia, I still feel an inordinate sense of British pride in the WW2 achievements of the RAF. Those young men who took to the skies against Nazism are heroes to me, as they were to beleaguered Britain, fighting alone while the rest of Europe had capitulated and her American allies were still clinging to isolationism. As everyone knows, the casualty rate was shocking - while bomber crews had a better chance than the heroic pilots who took part in the Battle of Britain, more than one in two of the Bomber Command crews died. As Churchill said in his famous speech


Source: Wikipedia The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day, but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate, careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain… (Source: Wikipedia)

These stirring words notwithstanding, the young men of those bomber crews were dealing in death. They knew that they had a poor chance of surviving for very long, and that if they did survive they had every chance of losing all their friends. They also knew that they themselves were killing large numbers of the enemy. At an age when they should have been falling in love, setting up house and bringing up a family they were bonding instead with other young men who were likewise risking their lives to rain death and destruction on others. They suffered grief and loss when their friends died; they felt survivor guilt; and they were plagued with remorse for the civilian deaths they were inflicting. The psychological burden must have been extraordinary, no less so after the war.

The acclaimed British author A.L.Kennedy has taken this premise to ask the question: what was it like for one of these surviving airmen in the aftermath? In her latest novel Day, she explores the tortured mind of Alfred Day, former RAF gunner and tailman who leaves his postwar job in a bookshop to work as an extra on a POW film in Germany. It is indeed a strange thing to do.

To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2011/10/17/da...

[Mayoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

رواية تدور حول النقيب ألفريد داي الذي اعتُقل في معسكر ألماني سنة ١٩٤٩
الرواية بين الماضي ( طول معاناة الاعتقال ) والحاضر وهو اليوم الذب قضاه يتذكر ماحدث له .. حيث ان احداث الرواية تدور في يوم واحد فقط

بالرغم من كم المعلومات في الرواية الا انها مملة لأقصى درجة فلم استمتع بها على الاطلاق اللهم ما اكتسبته من معرفة من خلالها

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this more than once, finding the early pages confusing and difficult to follow, not being pulled in by it at all - but the many glowing reviews convinced me to keep trying. Was it worth it? Well, yes - the writing is technically good and the main character is complex. Is it something I'd be recommending to others? Well, no. It never did really grab me, I'm afraid. Perhaps the somewhat broken narrative is supposed to illustrate the broken character of Alfred Day, but it also meant that I never really connected with him and never found myself really wanting anything for him. Perhaps it's just that some of the stylistic choices - the train-of-thought, the second-person narrator, the structure of the story (and of the actual book) - are things that are not for me. 2-and-a-bit stars, rounded up.

[James Fessenden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't my favorite of Kennedy's books. Her writing excels when she probes the innards of the mentally and physically damaged. It's not an easy book to locate in time or place as the narrator is at time unreliable. I sometimes wished she'd do away with any semblance of a plot. Somehow the meandering of the unmoored would have suited Alfie, our main character and one of the narrators, taking turns with an almost third person narrator. Perhaps most surprising to me was the somewhat happy ending of the novel. Given the anguish and uncertainty of our narrator I found that an odd note in what was a very harrowing novel.

One thing is sure, Kennedy's mastery of language and how she uses it and her disjointed narrator to convey the emotional ennui of life after suffering tragedy is unmistakable.

[Laurie Neighbors · Rating 5 out of 5]

Technically, a brilliant example of how to write a researched novel. But also brilliant in so many other ways as well. I had started the book once before and found it a bit cold. But on this second attempt, I trudged through the early emotional distance and let Kennedy shape me into a slobbering, empathetic mess in the final fourth of the novel. Just as I like it.

[Bettie]

A.L. Kennedy - winner of 2007 Costa Book of the Year Award

Dedication: THA MÓRAN AN SO

Opening: Alfred was growing a moustache.

[الشناوي محمد جبر · Rating 1 out of 5]

لم أتم قراءتها، فبدايتها غير مشجعة أبدا من ناحية الترجمة، حينما تبدأ الجملة الأولي في الرواية بهذا الشكل مستحيل تقدر تكملها.
أول جملة فغيها كالتالي:
كان ألفريد يربي شاربا.
قد يظن ملاحظ غير متدرب أنه كان متكاسلا، عند طرف مهلهل من الريف.
ماذا يعني طرف مهلهل من الريف؟ لا أدري..!!
كلمة أخري في وسط الكلام لا أعتقد أن ترجمتها سليمة، ما معناها؟
تاريخ سيء وسكين
ماذا يقصد بتاريخ سيء وسكين؟
وما الداعي لتكرار كلمة رهيب مرات ومرات بدون معني كما يلي؟
يا هل من بؤس رهيب إلي حد ما، مع ذلك: أليس كذلك يا طفلنا؟
لا يشبهنا. نحن سعداء بقدر طوال اليوم الرهيب.
نعم، لكن هذا يوم الرهيب ليس طويلا بشكل رهيب. خمس أقدام أربع رهيبة في جوربي الرهيب، أشكرك.
قصير.
مشكلات كثيرة في الترجمة والأسلوب غير مشجعة علي القراءة بالمرة.
ذلك قصير بشكل مفيد.

[Miss Bookiverse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to read this for uni. I never would've picked it up on my own because a story about a WWII pilot just doesn't lie in my zone of interest. Even though I did appreciate the writing style here and there, I didn't care about the story or the protagonist. Also, for a story that is ultimately about love and how having someone you care about and who cares about you is what can pull you through terrible events, I didn't feel the romance at all. What did they even like about each other? They hardly knew each other and the time we spent with them never made me understand their feelings or relationship any better.

[Emer Tannam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why did I read this book? I told myself that I’d never read another book about the first or Second World War, and yet I picked up this book. It was nothing I hadn’t read before, and at times the style of writing was confusing and annoying. Never again.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Day by A. L. Kennedy is a complex at times perhaps over a complex novel about an individual’s experience of and response to war. It is set in the Second World War and crucially, its aftermath. It is a novel where the reader is presented with time shifts, changes in point of view and altered conscious states so quickly that only a slow, almost forensic progress seems possible. Though there is much to praise about the book’s non-heroic, matter-of-fact but at the same time respectful approach to its subject matter, it occasionally obfuscates rather than clarifies.

Alfred Day is the book’s eponymous principal character. He hails from Staffordshire, in the English Midlands, a place where coal mining meets ceramics factories, all within a recognizable older rural England. Alfred’s accent is working class and is often expressed phonetically, a practice that intends to preserve the sound of his voice, but often hides his complexity of meaning.

Alfred joins the Royal Air Force and becomes a gunner on a Lancaster bomber, the kind of airman who would sit alone in his glass cage trying to shoot down the fighters that came to attack the lumbering bomber. It was not a role that was often pensionable, and the regular deaths of Day’s colleagues are catalogued in all their gruesome reality.

But what is interesting about Alfred Day’s experience of war is his detachment from it. High up in the sky, his job is to defend a payload of bombs which, if the mission is to be a success, will be dumped anonymously by his aimer colleague on Hamburg, or whatever city might be the target today. The bombs are effectively dumped at random, despite their professed aim., all hitting targets that might or might not have been intended. In today’s jargon, this is where collateral damage becomes the objective. It is interesting in our language how carpet bombing is not the bombing of carpets.

Meanwhile, the airmen themselves must find ways of working together. They also must find ways of talking about what they do without ever really recognizing how gruesome or risky it will be. This often leads to a variety of euphemistic language, where expletives reign, but where expression is often lacking. The relationships made were often short-lived of necessity and, though they also had to form a team that could work together, it is generally the distance between the men that defines their fraternity. This aspect of Day is handled sensitively, even vividly throughout.

Alfred Day does find Joyce, a devoted and sincere partner. The presence of the ‘now’ in wartime seems to heighten their relationship. Neither partner seems to dream of life beyond the moment, whilst apparently constantly referring to it. War takes the relationship, as it does many others. It even seems to take the present, because when they were together it was war that dominated their thoughts, though their actions were timeless.

Alfred is eventually shot down but survives and spends time and the prisoner of war camp, where surprisingly he is quite well treated. But after the war, after his own liberation, he takes a position as an extra in a film about wartime prisoner of war experience. This later reconstruction of a reality he has in fact lived is interleaved with real experience, and for this reader, it was this juxtaposition that was the least convincing part of the novel. These different scenarios, before the war with its abusive family life, during the war flying missions and visiting Joyce, after the war on a film set, are often mixed together in a heady brew of complex flavours. Training the sense to discern location and time can be challenging. In one way, this is the book’s charm, but for many readers the experience may prove merely confusing.

Day is a moving book, but a book that does not give up in sensations easily. It is always challenging for the reader and is, nevertheless, fulfilling, though apparently never in a direct, uncomplicated way.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Day’, the title of this novel by AL Kennedy, does not refer to a period of twenty-four hours, but to Alfred Francis Day. Alfie. Rear gunner in a Lancaster in World War Two and now extra on the set of a war film. Past and present are mingled together as he starts to remember things he would rather forget. The passages in the bomber are electrifying, in their detail and understanding. The cold, the smell, the fear, how the professionalism of their training kicks in when the action starts. It is totally believable..
The timelines are mixed here as Alfred's memories are inter-mingled: when Alfred was a member of the bomber crew; his time in a prisoner-of-war camp; and as a film extra in 1949. Where the novel is not so clear, for me, is the intermingling of these three timelines, though after fifty pages everything started to clarify. If you find this, persist and everything will fall into place.
Through Alfred’s memories and his conversations with Ivor, his post-war employer at a bookshop, his bomber crew and the other film extras, we start to piece together the story of his life. It is particularly poignant when he falls in love, heavily, after a fleeting encounter during a bombing raid in London. He meets Joyce in a shelter and from then on she fills his head, when his head should be concentrating on shooting down enemy fighters as his crew drops bombs on Hamburg. ‘Turning his head and turning his head while the heath beyond him dreams, his head pressing back in his pillow and eyes closed and no clear memory he can see, only the wonder that her heartbeat was everywhere in her skin.’
Alfie is a complex character. He is a small man who reads to educate himself. He is nicknamed ‘Boss’ by his flight crew even though he is not the skipper. In flight training, he asks Sergeant Hartnell to show him how to fight and win. ‘Look, son… You’re not the first. Happens quite often in fact. Lads come along and they ask me for help… help with an argument they’ve got to settle back home…’ He tells Alfred his best bet is to hit them from behind with a bit of pipe, but when Alfred gets his chance he throws bricks.
We learn most about him as he remembers his mother and father, both of whom die during the war. In Alfred’s head, his mother and Joyce seem connected and he learns that memories are fickle, the things we would rather forget are the ones that return. ‘Some memories, the ones you’d rather keep – the more you tried to look at them, the more they wore away.’
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-revie...

[Martin Boyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

On finishing this novel I thought that I really liked it. Three months later, as I struggled to remember what it was all about and why I thought that it was worth four stars, I'm not so sure. All I could remember was that it was slow paced to the point of losing its drive.

Perhaps, as the first book of A L Kennedy's that I'd read, it was the interest of a new voice? I don't really know, but in trying to write the review and needing to recall the basic line of the novel, I was surprised that I had little or no lasting memory of nearly three weeks of summer reading.

Yes, I did refresh my memory before sitting down to write this, but this only reinforced my view that I had over-marked.

After that soul-searching, I re-identified the theme of how Alfred Day found a "home," a refuge up to then denied him, in the comradeship of his comrades in his bomber crew. And how he strikes a sort of relationship with a woman. Together, these "saviours" of his life re-emerge after the war (resurrected by his role as an extra in a war film, keeping his demons alive), awakening his rudderless post-war life and coloured by his fear of trying to find the one positive part of his wartime "homes."

Reading some passages again, I recognise the rather dispassionate writing style adopted in the narration that was quite unsettling and strong, but frequently a bit tedious. Day is not charismatic, articulate, open to others, but locked in and deeply scarred, about to get more scarred and scared. There is evident strength in the novel, but the lack of warmth or openness in any of the characters makes it hard to understand how they worked together. The passages I re-read left me feeling a cruel indifference to emotionally damaged souls: was it that that made me feel indifferent?

I'm sure that in another's hands this novel will spark emotion. But I had a similar feeling to that sparked by Kate Atkinson's A God in Ruins (also about the emotional damage of a member of a bomber crew): not my sort of novel! But I marked it "liked it" because I did think there were some strong ideas - not least the fear of the inarticulate (for whatever reason) of engaging with the things they most want: was it this that left me with a strong feeling in its favour when I finished the novel?

[Mark Desrosiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tiny WWII Lanc tailgunner volunteers as an extra in some postwar prison camp documentary, and then returns to his job at a used book store. That's the basic plot, but there's so much nasty in between. The constant shifting back and forth of the wounded narrative never lets you go. Plus, "you" are him -- the second-person voice kicks in frequently enough to make you wonder (when you're finished) whether you have a reliable narrator here. In the end -- the very last page -- things turn shifty-eyed and ambiguous, cast a pall (if palls may be cast) over many of the previous grim events. Makes me want to reread it, pry between the winks, scabs, and grudges.

Kennedy knows how to throw a description at your knees, usually things you thought could never be described, such as killing your dad with a brick, pitching desperate woo at a married bomb-shelter skirt, or (best of all) eating fear in the skies:

--thumbs firing and arse over tip into the corkskrew, thumbs firing and more noise than you can hear, thumbs firing and the gleam of tracer and churning at angles you don't understand, falling as if you will die and a bitterness filling your lungs and the belt cutting into your hip and doing no bloody good to hold you and the fit of the turret is close and you think of coffins and down Q for Queenie runs and surely you'll hit the water before you tear up, flat out, sick and staring.

Like that. Best fiction writer in the English language (not sure if she researched this shit or just imagined it, but either way...). Yes sometimes she puts out trails that seem to be metaphorical and resonant -- dead mams and dads, benighted singing Irishmen, a "Dear John" letter rattled halfway out "your" brain. The whole enterprise comes to a head, I think, in the following exchange with a Brit government functionary toward the end:

"And no need to look at me like that. I follow the line which is the government line. We must think to the future, not the past."
"Fuck you."

Memorable, sneaky, and strange.

[K. Wills · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was going to rate this book 4 stars, but a day after finishing it, it is still with me, and when I re-read the highlighted paragraphs on my Kindle, I found them heartbreaking. "Day," by A.L. Kennedy, is about an RAF airman who makes it through the war and in 1946 or thereabouts is working as an extra in a British film about prisoners of war - of which he was one, so of course his surroundings on the movie set come to haunt him a bit. There is a lot of internal dialogue in which you eventually learn his backstory and the details about his service. The book won numerous awards and was critically acclaimed, and this morning, a few hours after finishing it, I'm realizing it was perhaps better than I thought it was while I was reading it. There are passages that are fantastic - the passage where the plane cracks up and Day has to parachute out is just amazing in its insight into what a man might be thinking and feeling under such circumstances. And even though there's so much back and forth in time, the author does a skillful job and never makes the reader feel confused. My struggle was that I never liked Day very much, at least until shortly before the end and even then I only like him a little. He's clearly a bit cracked from the war, though he was no prize before the war came along. Still. The bits about disparate men forming a team and flying together, covering for each other's weaknesses, eventually growing to actually love one another ... well done. As is the psychological exploration of the mind of a man who made it through war and can't quite forgive himself for it. Thankfully, the author bails out the poor sap at the end and gives us something of a happy-happy that is believable in its context and not like a Disney movie. If you're at all interested in World War II and/or the effects of war on human beings, give this a look. A.L. Kennedy is well known for the quality of her writing, and this is no exception.

[Kris McCracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kennedy has taken a rather experimental approach with both the structure and narrative voice in this novel. Essentially and exercise in an exploration of what trauma does to someone, it's a brave task and (for mine), a successful one.

That said, it can get downright tricky at times, with a narrative voice that switches from the present to the past (told in the present tense), shooting further to the past (told in the past tense, then switching to the present tense). Then you flash to the mid-future (told in the past tense), then back to the present. Coupled with combinations of dialect and formal English, italics, the second person, the first person, and ever-running on sentences, this is not an easy read.

Still, I liked it.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

My memory of reading this for the first time (maybe a decade or more ago) was that it wasn't as enjoyable as others of A L Kennedy's I had recently bought. It seemed not unreasonable to give it a second try. And, yes, there were times when I felt Alf's inner thoughts and observations, for all they were excellently wrought, were going on a bit longer than was desirable; his challenges of others become repetitive, but in the end he had to be admired, as much for rising about the quiet suppression of his nature as his stoic near-acceptance of what could not be reasonably altered.

[Jamie Rawlings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very similar to Slaughterhouse 5: a-linear narrative which jumps forwards and back in time colouring in the life of Alfred Day. Involved in a fire-bombing, P.o.W. etc. Gives an insight into the life of a Lancaster tale gunner, the reverence towards the crew and machine, the challenges of losing it in civilian life. Challenges the general nostalgic memory of WW2

[Nick Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was left a little disappointed by this - Kennedy does a very authentic job of describing the wartime setting, the thoughts and troubles of a RAF man after the war, his time during the conflict.. his love for a married woman. Most of this, especially the latter aspects, was convincing and intelligent.

However.. I just didn't warm to it. The main character and his blokey colleagues in the forces, the scraps and toxicity, I didn't connect to this, which made up about three quarters of the novel. Much of the lives of these men, much of the wartime verisimilitude, it just felt like filler. Like well-researched, well-written filler, but I wasn't that interested. The sections dealing with his feelings for the woman he met in an air-raid and fell for, I enjoyed these more - but ultimately it felt a bit middle ground in the end.

[Penelope · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s worth persisting with this book. It seemed to me a little depressing and hard to read at first. I think this is partly because it really gets in to Alfred’s vocabulary and thought patterns. As I became familiar with them, I warmed to him more and more and, rather than hurrying towards the end, enjoyed hanging out with him. All the way through the book, he is counting the number of flights in his tour. At first, he wanted them to pass quickly, but at a certain point, there is more a feeling that each one could be his last, so you want them to slow down.

[Kate Bullock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this book twice. It is unclear to start with what's going on, I found, but the writing is completely engaging. It is a very unusual book, being told from the viewpoint of a member of Alfred day, a tail-gunner in a Lancaster bomber. He finds comradeship in his crew and the intense life they lead during WW2 is compelling.
This synopsis wouldn't generally sell a book to me but the story is told with such insight and empathy that I recommend it wholeheartedly.

[Okidoki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Utgivningsår: 2008 ISBN: 9197674419

Jag förstår att den här boken hyllats som ett mästerverk. Den är egentligen inte en roman, snarare en enda lång monolog. Alfred Day, 25 år, lider av svåra krigsminnen och det är i hans huvud som monologerna äger rum. Så fungerar vi alla: från nutiden vandrar vi fram och tillbaks i våra minnen. Men att följa Day är inte lätt, det är påfrestande. Jag tycker att berättelsen saknar dramatisk nerv.

[Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that you can’t read lightly. You have to enter into it and feel Alfie’s life as he remembers it. When you do that you can be in the bomber as it flies over the Channel or walking through bombed out London. But really it’s not about what happened so much as what he felt, the fear and the love.

[Tim Pieraccini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hesitated between 3 and 4 because at the beginning I struggled (thought it was because I was coming straight from the effortless Daisy Jones, and was relieved to see others had similar issues) and I was never as gripped as I like to be, but in the end Kennedy's command of her craft and the uplifting ending won me over. (I LOVED her On Writing, which I unhesitatingly recommend)