Requiem for a Wren

Product Information

Nevil Shute is a rare breed of writer. His books are full of danger, romance and other dynamics. But the principal theme in all his work is dignity amid and often accompanied by death. In On the Beach Shute depicted a group of Australians awaiting radiation fall out and subsequent death with strength and forbearance. A Town Called Alice showed a group of Australians living and dying amid the Pacific theater of WWII. The Breaking Waves mines familiar terrain. It follows a group of people through WWII and the subsequent decade or so afterward. Shute’s thesis in this book is that war can go on killing and affecting people long after the final battle. Also, Shute argues that peace is often impossible because people who fight wars in their youth become nostalgic for the war, without realizing it’s their youth they actually miss, and thus will support future wars rather than peace for a chance to return to that excitement. Nothing they realize will ever touch them the way the war did, and they long to return to that feeling all their days. If this sounds heavy for a novel, rest assured Shute is a master at plotting and keeps events moving.

The late 1940s story concerns two English women, Wrens, and two Australian brothers. It is narrated by one of the brothers, Alan Duncan. His elder brother, Bill, a Royal Marine frogman, has been killed in action, and Alan is now returning to his wealthy parents' prosperous sheep station (ranch) in Australia. Alan has studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and fought as a RAF pilot in World War II before being injured in action, losing both feet when his plane crashed. He has recently qualified as a barrister ( called to the bar) in England. The inimitable Nevil Shute has an impressive resume as both a writer and an aeronautical engineer. His intelligence shows in his writing, his attention to detail, his understanding of the mechanics of war, and his knowledge of wartime operations. But what makes him a great writer is his ability to tap the souls of his characters, breath life into them, and imbue them with all the heroism and weaknesses that war can reveal. I suppose the best modern term to describe these war veterans is "adrenalin junkies". The war is over and everything is now an anticlimax. They queued to get into the Korean War and were turned down. What can they do and what don't they end up doing? Have read this one twice, both titles ... bit of a tear jerky ... definite recommend for readers of Nevil Shute.I was delighted to have the opportunity to reacquaint myself with one of the favourite books of my youth.

is create newer and more destructive weapons for the "secret war", and yet he loved the excitement ! However, novels like this rise or fall on their characters. Shute does a great job exploring how each of the surviving characters processes the war and the long years after the war. Some of the characters adapt and move on as best they can. Some don’t move on and Shute explores their agony with respect. Alan is a decent and good man, but he has flaws and the novel traces how he resolves his past mistakes by actually learning from the experience of his brother and the Wren. Shute’s saga involves the wartime exploits and subsequent search of former RAF pilot Alan Duncan for a Wren that was involved with his brother in WWII. Through his search Alan revisits his brother’s wartime death, meets some of the Wren’s friends, and offers some insight into his own war injury and complicated recovery. Shute was an engineer and a RAF pilot, and his experiences provides a nuts and bolts approach to wartime work, duties involving both risk and boredom amid day to day living. So many novels explore the excitement and danger of war but provide little insight into what that work actually involves. Shute’s novel goes into great deal of the work of the Wrens, scuba divers and pilots in the war. It's still great. I'd forgotten about the Irish Terrier, Dev. I used to have Irish Terriers and I loved both dearly, Bridget, then Colleen. Naturally, it made the story all the better.Shute reveals the end at the beginning, but only part of it, the devastating part. A young woman's suicide that seemingly has no rhyme or reason starts the returning home Aussie pilot on a journey through his past. The attention to detail is fantastic and the reader learns much about the nitty gritty of maintaining the gunnery parts of British WWII ships. I had no idea that there was such a thing as Ordinance Wrens in the War. They were an integral part of the War Effort and they suffered as much of what we know now as PTSD as any of the soldiers that saw action. Setting aside my few complaints, I enjoyed the story immensely. The characters were so well drawn I felt like I knew each one of them. As I got to know Janet I kept hoping that she, who committed suicide at the beginning, would somehow be found alive.... perhaps the dead body was mis-identified ....and the ending would be a happy one, as I've come to expect from Shute. Shute also tends to write in a fairly stilted manner, using phrases that seem ridiculous —“The breakfast came upon the table”— and referring to characters by their nationality or occupation —“The Australian”, “The scientist”, “The Commander”— which grate with constant repetition. The book’s central theme is about the repercussions of war after its end. It is not true that deaths cease at war’s end. People are forever changed by their experiences. There is an exhilaration to war. Look at the appeal war literature has on readers. Those participating in wars may become entranced with the idea that they are doing something vital, something important. Guilt plays in too. After a war, many have difficulty readjusting to civilian life. These are the themes dealt with in the book. Requiem for a Wren is a sad story of the consequences of those servicemen/women who served in WWII. War may be over, but for them, it'll never be over. The ghosts of the past haunt them, the guilt weighs them, and an unexplainable restlessness possesses them. They know that they must put the past behind them and adapt to civil life as best as they could. But this is not easy.

He certainly takes a similar approach in Requiem. The writing can be corny sometimes and feel a bit like a 1940s film with everyone talking in a rapid, clipped manner where every word is focused on moving the storyline forward. It can make for some one dimensional characters. But the odd thing is, I love this about Shute’s book. The Breaking Wave is one of Nevil Shute's most poignant and psychologically suspenseful novels, set in the years just after World War II. I'm trying to guess how many books I've read which in one way or another are about the Second World War. I've read a couple just in the last month, Wilcox's Japan's Secret War and Linebarger's Psychological Warfare. As usual, I was gripped by two contradictory emotions: horror and fascination. I think most people have a similar reaction. The war was monstrous and appalling, but it was also the most exciting, extraordinary period in human history. New techniques, new ideas, new ways of thinking were invented and turned into weapons within a couple of years; sometimes a couple of months. Nothing was impossible, and everyone knew what the purpose of life was. It was to win the war. As I said this was my second Nevil Shute book and what amazed me again is that in both the books, his women characters are super strong and totally amazing. You've got to read this book to know what she does in Army and how. Imagine a broad shouldered girl with a square face who claims she isn't much of a beauty but what she does with Guns is something everybody watches with their eyes popping out. One unfortunate mistake in the course of the war for which she is never blamed by anyone changes her life for good. Where that episode leads her and how it all ruins her life to no repair is the story is all about. Heart-breaking yet a emotional roller coaster ride of the three amazing characters and their friends and family is totally out of this world experience. Nevil Shute's stories are totally smooth and his narrative is just so gripping yet simple that I found the book to be totally unputdownable as my heart kept asking me to go forward and solve the riddle. Plus I wanted to race to the end to know how it all ends. As I said it was one of the most emotional stories that I ever read, it is very tough to point out the moments it made me super emotional. The entire journey of one brother to find his dead brother's lover touched me deep inside, every-time his search fails, my heart cried out. Also the girls struggle after her loss and after so many deaths, the point where she finally loses something which makes her cry for the first time was the moment my tears just rolled out, unable to control the barrage. Wow, that was just wow moment and I feel totally out of words to explain why and what I felt at that moment. If you read the book, you will certainly know and agree with me on that. Glorious read and the first "war book" that spoke of the postwar stresses... not PTSD but "war is over! what shall I do now" stress. I've heard a second hand tale from one children of a war veteran (RAF Group Captain) who said "the war years were the best years of my life" and then he added "never tell that to your mother".

Refine Search Results

My spouse and I have been watching a program called Foyle's War. It's essentially a British cop show, but set in WWII. It's a wonderful show, but it got me started thinking about WWII-era things, and I decided to dust off this gem from the past.

His arrival home is marred by the apparent suicide, a few hours earlier, of a young Englishwoman named Jessie Proctor, who was his parents' housekeeper. [2]

Blog Archive

Like some infernal monster, still venomous in death, a war can go on killing people for a long time after it’s all over.” It's a simply, but beautifully written story of the heroism and staunch optimism of the British people during the dark times they faced during the early and middle 1940s. One of my all-time favorites. Like some infernal monster, still venomous in death, a war can go on killing people for a long time after it’s all over. While I like the message the book conveys, how it is conveyed is neither convincingly nor elegantly drawn. Only in the description of rural landscapes around the family estate Coombargana, in the Western District of Australia, did the writing truly resonate for me. The simplicity of the writing does have a charm. The slower parts of this story might have worked better for me if this audiobook had a different narrator. I must admit that I found myself laughing at the narrator at times, particularly his heavy upper crust English accent which was so inappropriate for this particular book. His reading was also very monotone with little to no inflection of his voice.