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The Soldier's Return #4
Remember Me...
It was not love at first sight. It proved to be not much of a conversation...Nothing should have come of it.
A passionate but ultimately tragic love affair starts when two students - one French, one English - meet at university at the beginning of the sixties. From its tentative early stages, the relationship develops into a life-changing one, whose profound impact continues to reverberate forty years later.
A passionate but ultimately tragic love affair starts when two students - one French, one English - meet at university at the beginning of the sixties. From its tentative early stages, the relationship develops into a life-changing one, whose profound impact continues to reverberate forty years later.
551 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2008
22 people are currently reading
196 people want to read
About the author
Melvyn Bragg
137 books143 followersMelvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg, FRSL, FRTS (born 6 October 1939) is an English author, broadcaster and media personality who, aside from his many literary endeavours, is perhaps most recognised for his work on The South Bank Show.
Bragg is a prolific novelist and writer of non-fiction, and has written a number of television and film screenplays. Some of his early television work was in collaboration with Ken Russell, for whom he wrote the biographical dramas The Debussy Film (1965) and Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World (1967), as well as Russell's film about Tchaikovsky, The Music Lovers (1970). He is president of the National Academy of Writing. His 2008 novel, Remember Me is a largely autobiographical story.
He is also a Vice President of the Friends of the British Library, a charity set up to provide funding support to the British Library.
Bragg is a prolific novelist and writer of non-fiction, and has written a number of television and film screenplays. Some of his early television work was in collaboration with Ken Russell, for whom he wrote the biographical dramas The Debussy Film (1965) and Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World (1967), as well as Russell's film about Tchaikovsky, The Music Lovers (1970). He is president of the National Academy of Writing. His 2008 novel, Remember Me is a largely autobiographical story.
He is also a Vice President of the Friends of the British Library, a charity set up to provide funding support to the British Library.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
April 19, 2008
A novel can be approached in a number of ways: as a narrative pure and simple, as a picture of manners and time, or as the vehicle for a certain philosophy of life. What we don't often get is a work which encompasses all three. Remember Me is one of those. This is not one of those clever little books, those cocktails of fiction, which for so many years have replaced longer, more elaborate works of storytelling. It is the account of a man called Joseph, now old, recalling his youth, and an event which has shadowed his life ever since. He is putting the past into words for his daughter as well as himself, in an effort to lay to rest the pain and the guilt. This is a bleak, powerful, remarkable work: not entirely fiction, for in this fourth novel of a semi-autobiographical series, Bragg is recording a true remembrance of time past. It may seem long, too explanatory in detail, but that's because in ridding the mind of guilt nothing can be left out. Though the protagonist does his best to convince the reader that he was mostly to blame for his wife's state of mind, I didn't believe him. Women are always older than young men; men take longer to grow up and know themselves. She was touched with a sadness bordering on madness before he met her, and yet he insists on taking the blame. It's as though every beat of his heart echoes the words "through my fault, my fault, my most grievous fault".
March 10, 2009
This is the first of Melvyn Bragg's 20 odd novels I've been minded to read and I was deeply moved by its power, perception and insight. It appears to be about 99% autobiographical and took about 5 years to write and apparently would not have seen the light of day had his eldest daughter not approved the final draft. It's easy to see why as pain and regret seems to seep from every sentence as Bragg disects what went wrong with his first marriage with events leading to a seemingly inevitable tragic conclusion. The romance described is intense and deep and though the couple are mismatched they are very much in love , perhaps even too much so as it begins to unravel. What might have been 544 pages of introspective self-justification turns out to be a gripping, page turning love story with a fascinating insight into the lure of Swinging London and burgeoning media luvviedom.
March 15, 2011
This is quite an epic tale (although I've read longer books), partly due to it's intensity. To put it simply, it's a bleak love story. I didn't find it particularly easy to read; it requires some effort from the reader but is rewarding in return. Another reviewer described it as "elaborate", and that's certainly a good description. MB must have done a lot of soul searching in his life because he knows how to put it across. This is proper literature, getting quite rare nowadays.
April 7, 2012
I wanted to like this book. There is some clearly stylistic writing but at about 1/4 the way in nothing really has happened. The characters are so tragic I don't really care what happens to them. Abandoning it as a lost cause.
November 10, 2013
I would really give this book 2.5 stars as I wouldn't go as far as to say I liked it, but there were things in it I enjoyed.
This is the fourth novel in Bragg's semi-autobiographical series of novels which began with The Soldier's Return. I've already read the first two books and really enjoyed them, haven't read the third and then found this, the fourth, in my local discount store for the princely sum of £1.
I really wanted to like this novel and very much enjoyed the first section during which Joe meets Natasha and their relationship begins. This part of the book captures very well the fever of young love at university and how it leads Joe to neglect his studies, his friends and his family. However, as the book went on I began to enjoy it less and found myself growing impatient with the constant internalising and minute examination of everything that is done and said.
Given the semi-autobiographical nature of the book I was also uncomfortable that I was (inevitably) only seeing things from Joe's point of view, and was equally uncomfortable that the author was exposing such an intimate side of his life. It made me wonder to what extent he was editing events to reflect better on himself.
I hate books where one character knows something but doesn't say it, leading to confusion and to later events. This is very much one of those novels and I found this aspect of it irritating.
This is the fourth novel in Bragg's semi-autobiographical series of novels which began with The Soldier's Return. I've already read the first two books and really enjoyed them, haven't read the third and then found this, the fourth, in my local discount store for the princely sum of £1.
I really wanted to like this novel and very much enjoyed the first section during which Joe meets Natasha and their relationship begins. This part of the book captures very well the fever of young love at university and how it leads Joe to neglect his studies, his friends and his family. However, as the book went on I began to enjoy it less and found myself growing impatient with the constant internalising and minute examination of everything that is done and said.
Given the semi-autobiographical nature of the book I was also uncomfortable that I was (inevitably) only seeing things from Joe's point of view, and was equally uncomfortable that the author was exposing such an intimate side of his life. It made me wonder to what extent he was editing events to reflect better on himself.
I hate books where one character knows something but doesn't say it, leading to confusion and to later events. This is very much one of those novels and I found this aspect of it irritating.
September 18, 2009
This is a heart-rending and emotionally draining 'novel'. I say 'novel' because I had to keep reminding myself that I was not reading Melvyn Bragg's autobiography. I think it would have been impossible to have written a novel of this intensity without having experienced the emotions that are being described. The book raises a lot of questions but I think 'blame' is the main one. Was anyone or anything to blame for what happened to Joe and Natasha? There was so much soul-searching - did analysis help (I'm inclined to think not). Would the outcome have been different if Natasha and Joe had stayed together? In the second half of the book, although Joe does describe his state of mind from time to time, the focus is very much on Natasha and by the end of the book Joe is still a bit of a mystery.
Having read Bragg's previous 'Joe' novels I can appreciate how the boy from Wigton must have struggled to fit in, first in Oxford, and then in the burgeoning media world of London in the 1960s. After 'Remember Me' I don't know if there will be another book bringing Joe up to the present day but I'd like to think it would have a happy ending.
Having read Bragg's previous 'Joe' novels I can appreciate how the boy from Wigton must have struggled to fit in, first in Oxford, and then in the burgeoning media world of London in the 1960s. After 'Remember Me' I don't know if there will be another book bringing Joe up to the present day but I'd like to think it would have a happy ending.
July 1, 2010
oh this book is boring..... so boring... and I am still reading it...
January 2, 2020
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Brave and Honest Account
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 January 2016
This is the first book I've read by Melvyn Bragg, and found it very difficult to rate. I enjoy his radio series 'In Our Time' and as I work at his old school in Wigton I was curious to know a bit more of his background. The book is written as fiction, but in fact is very closely autobiographical. It covers the period of his life from when he meets his first wife, aged 21, in Oxford to when their marriage ends in tragedy ten years later. I was confused as to why he decided to make the account fictional, which basically just meant giving everyone false names (except the places), and occasionally shifting viewpoint (which must have entailed speculation on his part as to what others were thinking or saying). It might have been more straightforward to write it as an autobiography in the first person. However, it is a very personal, revealing and brave account of his relationship with 'Natasha'. Though he doesn't spell this out, the reader can deduce that Natasha suffered enduring damage as an infant due to the death of her mother, and subsequent emotional neglect. When they first meet, this seems not to matter, as they share a love of literature, writing, art, and both share the dream of leading a life where they are free to be creative. As time goes by however, the psychological issues rise to the fore, and psychoanalysis seems to make things far worse for both of them. There are some sections of the book that can seem to drag on about things that might seem trivial (eg agonising about whether to move house due to aeroplane noise). Some (eg I) might think they were extremely fortunate to have a house at all. But in a way, this is the point - that it is possible to be materially very lucky, but still miserable. The last quarter of the book must have been difficult to write, dwelling as it does on the couple's inward-looking attempts to resolve their unhappiness, their failure to do so, and Joseph's lingering guilt about what he might have done differently.
A Brave and Honest Account
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 January 2016
This is the first book I've read by Melvyn Bragg, and found it very difficult to rate. I enjoy his radio series 'In Our Time' and as I work at his old school in Wigton I was curious to know a bit more of his background. The book is written as fiction, but in fact is very closely autobiographical. It covers the period of his life from when he meets his first wife, aged 21, in Oxford to when their marriage ends in tragedy ten years later. I was confused as to why he decided to make the account fictional, which basically just meant giving everyone false names (except the places), and occasionally shifting viewpoint (which must have entailed speculation on his part as to what others were thinking or saying). It might have been more straightforward to write it as an autobiography in the first person. However, it is a very personal, revealing and brave account of his relationship with 'Natasha'. Though he doesn't spell this out, the reader can deduce that Natasha suffered enduring damage as an infant due to the death of her mother, and subsequent emotional neglect. When they first meet, this seems not to matter, as they share a love of literature, writing, art, and both share the dream of leading a life where they are free to be creative. As time goes by however, the psychological issues rise to the fore, and psychoanalysis seems to make things far worse for both of them. There are some sections of the book that can seem to drag on about things that might seem trivial (eg agonising about whether to move house due to aeroplane noise). Some (eg I) might think they were extremely fortunate to have a house at all. But in a way, this is the point - that it is possible to be materially very lucky, but still miserable. The last quarter of the book must have been difficult to write, dwelling as it does on the couple's inward-looking attempts to resolve their unhappiness, their failure to do so, and Joseph's lingering guilt about what he might have done differently.
June 29, 2024
Recently, I listened to an interview with Melvyn Bragg (My Cultural Life - BBC Sounds). He talked about his life and included this book. It is a slightly fictionalised account of his first marriage, which ended tragically.
Here, the narrator, called Joseph, is telling their daughter the events that happened long ago. Most of the book is in the third person, but switches to Joseph’s own words when he tries to share with his daughter how things felt, what he knew or didn’t know at the time. This allows us to have the immediacy of events as they are told in the story and then the perspective to look at them from the distance of time.
There is always an uncomfortable feeling that Joseph is Bragg and that he really did write about his first wife, sharing his writing with their daughter as he went along, getting her agreement to have it published. Joseph shares Bragg’s biography. No doubt the people he refers to at university or at the BBC which they both joined, had their equivalents in real life. A few ‘real’ identities can be guessed. As tragedy looms, you are aware that this isn’t just a story, but real people and events.
I did enjoy the book, if that is the right word. It is long and very slow as details are piled upon detail. I did wonder of it should have been edited down. There were times when people who you last read about on page 100, reappeared over 300 pages later and you had to try and remember who they were and their relationship to the central couple.
I appear to have come in at the end of a quartet of novels, perhaps I should go back to the earlier ones in the sequence.
Here, the narrator, called Joseph, is telling their daughter the events that happened long ago. Most of the book is in the third person, but switches to Joseph’s own words when he tries to share with his daughter how things felt, what he knew or didn’t know at the time. This allows us to have the immediacy of events as they are told in the story and then the perspective to look at them from the distance of time.
There is always an uncomfortable feeling that Joseph is Bragg and that he really did write about his first wife, sharing his writing with their daughter as he went along, getting her agreement to have it published. Joseph shares Bragg’s biography. No doubt the people he refers to at university or at the BBC which they both joined, had their equivalents in real life. A few ‘real’ identities can be guessed. As tragedy looms, you are aware that this isn’t just a story, but real people and events.
I did enjoy the book, if that is the right word. It is long and very slow as details are piled upon detail. I did wonder of it should have been edited down. There were times when people who you last read about on page 100, reappeared over 300 pages later and you had to try and remember who they were and their relationship to the central couple.
I appear to have come in at the end of a quartet of novels, perhaps I should go back to the earlier ones in the sequence.
May 4, 2021
Oh dear, this was a disappointment. Having read "A Son of War" and "A Soldier's Return, enjoying them both, I was eagerly anticipating this story, but it just didn't work for me. I believe that this is the fourth book in the series the first two of which were the aforementioned titles. Perhaps it would have helped if I'd read the overlooked third book. As it was, I felt "Remember Me" lacked heart. I found I was unsympathetic to its main characters and found their dialogue a mixture of the pseudo-intellectual and psycho-babble with an emotional vacuum. I stuck it out as I hate to be beaten by a book, but I couldn't wait to get to the end.
September 17, 2021
I loved Melvyn Bragg's early novels set in Cumbria, but this one was too long and endlessly repetitive for me.
The basic story of a working class Northern lad who made it to the dizzy heights of Oxford, and beyond, who fell in love with a French lass fallen from aristocracy by choice, had the makings of a good story. His descriptions were rich, but each sentence construction was in a 'dying lilt' so that you knew it was leading to a bad ending. It just took a long time in getting there, and I even skimmed over the last section of the book.
Disappointing.
The basic story of a working class Northern lad who made it to the dizzy heights of Oxford, and beyond, who fell in love with a French lass fallen from aristocracy by choice, had the makings of a good story. His descriptions were rich, but each sentence construction was in a 'dying lilt' so that you knew it was leading to a bad ending. It just took a long time in getting there, and I even skimmed over the last section of the book.
Disappointing.
January 20, 2026
6/10
Could have been a lot worse given its subject matter and male perspective of it (not least considering how heavily autobiographical the content is). But I've always thought the real heart and soul of Bragg's Soldier's Return Quartet were his mum and dad's post-war struggles to keep their lives and love afloat. And with their prescence greatly diminshed here, it turns out the author really is the least interesting character in his own story, so you just have to strap yourself in for pages upon pages of regurgitated 1950s/60s cultural milieu.
Could have been a lot worse given its subject matter and male perspective of it (not least considering how heavily autobiographical the content is). But I've always thought the real heart and soul of Bragg's Soldier's Return Quartet were his mum and dad's post-war struggles to keep their lives and love afloat. And with their prescence greatly diminshed here, it turns out the author really is the least interesting character in his own story, so you just have to strap yourself in for pages upon pages of regurgitated 1950s/60s cultural milieu.
January 23, 2019
I don't know how I feel about this book.
I know what I felt at some point; remorseful, vibrant, selfish, hopeful, bitter...uncertain, restless, drained...and that's just it.
I should wait until I can compose myself to better express Joe and Natasha's love story.
I know what I felt at some point; remorseful, vibrant, selfish, hopeful, bitter...uncertain, restless, drained...and that's just it.
I should wait until I can compose myself to better express Joe and Natasha's love story.
August 18, 2018
I was relieved to finally finish this book, as I became very impatient with the two principal characters continually analysing themselves, and each other.
May 5, 2021
Beautifully written and very moving. The tragic story of Bragg's first marriage.
November 23, 2021
Far too long and introspective. Needed a really good edit. As always his descriptions of Cumbria are wonderful and so evocative
March 4, 2022
Beautifully written book but found it a bit too long.
June 27, 2022
One of the saddest books about a relationship I have ever read.
March 24, 2023
540 pages to describe a pair of chain-smoking, drinking Poms who love then hate each other.
I did get to the end!
I did get to the end!
March 20, 2024
A beautifully written, slow read: loved it!
December 24, 2024
First book I've read by Melvyn Bragg. Not an easy read. Subject, honesty and style are challenging at times. I considered giving up but, I'm glad I didn't.
March 26, 2012
This is the fourth book in the The Soldier's Return Quartet. However it stands perfectly well on its own and can be read and appreciated without having previously read the other 3 books.
It is very autobiographical, opening in the hero's Oxford days falling in love with a french artist. It then follows Joe and Natasha through their life together and explores the intensity of love and how that love is affected as the relationship develops and matures and the pressures of living intervene. However there is also a dark undercurrent to the personalities of the two main characters: their respective pasts. Is this real or just perceived by the other? What is it?
The book is well written, honest, intense and does pull the reader in and carries them along.
The only criticism I would make about how it is written is that it flits between a narrative by Joe and a third person narrative by the author. True, they are effectively one and the same but this just didn't feel right for me. A minor criticism of an otherwise excellent book.
It is very autobiographical, opening in the hero's Oxford days falling in love with a french artist. It then follows Joe and Natasha through their life together and explores the intensity of love and how that love is affected as the relationship develops and matures and the pressures of living intervene. However there is also a dark undercurrent to the personalities of the two main characters: their respective pasts. Is this real or just perceived by the other? What is it?
The book is well written, honest, intense and does pull the reader in and carries them along.
The only criticism I would make about how it is written is that it flits between a narrative by Joe and a third person narrative by the author. True, they are effectively one and the same but this just didn't feel right for me. A minor criticism of an otherwise excellent book.
August 16, 2015
Biographical fiction, the story of a doomed love affair between a young student with ambitions to become a writer and a poet/artist a few years his senior. This book was a birthday present and after watching a programme on Melvyn Bragg, I've been looking forward to reading it. It took a bit of getting into and I had to concentrate but it was well worth the effort. A sensitive account of a flawed relationship but written in such a way, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for both characters. The ending is heart-breaking.
August 2, 2011
I found this genre hard to deal with. It is supposedly fiction but it is autobiographical and knowing that made the outcome obvious and it loomed large throughout! The overlaying of thoughts to the other main characters I found somewhat presumptious, especially when there must be some subjective justification of questionable actions. Not being a massive believer in the benefits of psychoanalysis, I wondered whether eschewing this would have been beneficial to all concerned.
August 21, 2012
A little too self indulgent for comfort at times. Clearly autobiographical and very one-sideodd count. Fascinating at a voyeuristic level and strangely compelling but some of the emotion does feel very raw and I found that quite uncomfortable at times.
Want to read
January 31, 2009Recommended reading by Ken Follett-author of Pillars of the Earth
August 13, 2010
Really enjoyed the first half, but couldn't stomach the second. I didn't actually care how it ended because I couldn't feel anything for either of the characters.
March 24, 2010
compelling, honest, moving
January 21, 2016
I said in my review of Crossing the Lines that I hoped Bragg would continue the series.
Well, I changed my mind after reading this one.
Well, I changed my mind after reading this one.
July 22, 2012
So heartbreaking it took me 4 months to finish. Beautifully written.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews