Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks Reviews

This was recommended to me by several people and all I can say is: What a terrible book. I have never been so bored in my life. Historically inaccurate (re: the relationships between elisted men and officers) and the descriptions of the battles and life in the trenches have been lifted from the reference tome 'My Big Book Of WW1 Cliches'.

The characters are dull, the descriptive passages contrived and some of the passages made me laugh out loud (but not in a good way), and at the end I couldn't care less what happened to ANY of the characters.

I beg you: Please Don't Read This Book.

There have been many books about the First World War, but Birdsong is one of the best I have read. A few years ago, I was asked to curate an online exhibition of letters home from soldiers who had fought in the First World War, including some that had eventually fallen at Ypres and the Somme. I had to read many heart-wrenching letters ...

I bought this book mainly because I am keen on warfare and its effect on people etc etc. This is the first novel I'd read on the first world war having read a couple of historical accounts etc which were good from a battle point of view and knowing what went on but were short on emotional impact I thought. The first 100 pages were not ...

I picked up Birdsong with great anticipation. I'd heard wonderful things from many people - sadly I have never been so bitterly disappointed in my life. The descriptions, whilst detailed in depicting trench warfare, are contrived and clunky. The section of the book set in the 1970s is laughable - adding nothing of worth to the narrative; it is ...

Birdsong is the most addictive book i have ever read. I have read it over and over again, and would reccomend it to anyone. If i could change one thing in the Highschool coriculum in England it would be that all pupils would read this book in year 11. I read it in year nine on a trip to France with school and it really opened my eyes. ...

Sebastian Faulks quit his career in journalism to become a professional writer in 1991. Birdsong was his fourth novel, published in 1994 and in the intervening decade, has come to be seen as a classic in the field of war literature. In contrast to the majority of books based around experiences of war, Birdsong is set primarily ...

The legacy of the First World War continues to inspire literature and the arts after eighty years, with its powerful messages of unnecessary slaughter, ineffective leaders and the relevance of women in society among other things. Sebastian Faulks’ interest in the conflict and its effects is clear from his bibliography and 1993’s ‘Birdsong’ has ...

In the front of Birdsong, there are many quotes of authors, critics and newspapers. And one of those critics writes that once he finished reading it he turned back to the front page and started it again. This is exactly what happened to me. I have now read this book 5 times, and I am reading it for the sixth time at the moment. It conjures ...

Having just read Birdsong for pleasure then realisiing I have to read it again for the synoptic module of my A Level Eng. Lit. course I am feeling pretty good. Literally ten minutes ago I read the last page, taking a good minte to do so - something that I always do and I find that the thing that Stephen hated the most, birds now ending the book. ...

There are many words that can describe this book, Visionary, poignant, astounding. However it only needs one. Powerful. This book was an astonishing look at the life of a world war 1 soilder, Stephen Wraysford. It is powerful from the beginning to the end. Stephen is a young englishman blessed with an ability to speak excellent ...

Up and Down and round and round - Advantages: Good book, invigorates imagination - Disadvantages: Thoughs are swung about your head

A friend recommended Birdsong to me. I'm afraid I'm more of a sex & shopping type of reader but I thought I would give it a go even though I had already decided I'd hate it. I took it on holiday with me to Italy and started reading it on the drive through France. I finished it whilst lying under the sun by a pool and I must admit I ...

There are some books, where after I have read them, I am compelled to consult my bookshelves and re-read another book that echoes the plot or style of the one I have just read. After reading ‘Birdsong’, I re-read ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. One of these, I concluded, is a great novel and the other ...

Birdsong is an immense novel, capturing the futility of war and the horrors of life on the battlefields of the First World War. In addition to this there is an intriguing love story of 20 year old Stephen Wraysford who begins an affair with the wife of a prestigious French textile baron whilst in France on a business trip. Seeing that she is ...

Well worth reading despite its length, and well worth reading over again. Highly recommended! - Advantages: Really opens your eyes to the tragedies of WW1 - Disadvantages: Just that bit too long

A character in ‘Birdsong’ believes that ‘when art is put to practical ends it loses its essential purity’ but that ‘if any song can touch the heart then one should value it’. Faulks could easily be talking about his novel here, since although it is indeed both beautiful and touching, something is lost ...

Now I am going to tell you about one of the best book's I think has ever been written and the amazing thing is that Sabastian Faulks has achieved what I thought no author could and thats to write a book that contains enough for every type of book lover. Birdsong is essentially a simple story about the life of a man who after a bad ...

I bought Birdsong out of an airport newsagents. It's not the kind of place where you would expect to find something that would utterly change the way you think about life. Airports are all about sameness of place. New York or London, they feel the same. Even the regional airport in Galway, Ireland has a similiar sense of transience. ...

It is very difficult to be rational in a crisis. I have read "Birdsong", by Sebastian Faulks, in the aftermath of Sept 11th, and the war against Afganistan is currently ongoing as I write. There is likely to be little pride in a decade's time, with a war where the richest country in the world (aided and abetted by ...

I considered myself a fairly informed person about the 1st World War, until I read this book. It is one of the most disturbing accounts of the effects of atrocities upon the human mind I have ever read. A friend of mine who is a psychiatrist, and specialises in the effects of shock on the mind, borrowed this from me and was impressed with the ...