1914:

By: Jean Echenoz

Page number: 109

Published on: 2014

"Clutching his rifle, he himself now felt ready to stab, impale, transfix the slightest obstacle" (pg. 53)

1914 is story of four French soldiers who were assigned at the Western frontiers during the First World War. The book begins in a peaceful day in August where Anthime takes a bicycle ride through the woods. In an abrupt manner, he, along with four others from his close circle, get assigned at Ardennes to fight at the frontiers against German military.

The battle is bloody, the trenches filled with corpses, diseases roam within the troops, and hunger and discomfort are a given. Anthime's brother Charles, who is in a relationship with the infamous factory owner's daughter Blanche, gets assigned to less- risky position within the Air Forces. However, his death comes before any others'. Bossis dies soon after from a spinning metal piece that flies into his body. Arcenel gets wrongfully accused for desertion and gets killed by the French Army. Anthime gets what's called a "good wound", one that is bad enough to remove you from the front, but not too bad that you die from it. He goes back to his hometown and gets together with Blanche. After the war ends, Anthime runs across Padioleau, another of the soldiers he fought alongside with, and realizes that he had been blinded by the gas during the war. Unable to see and fend for himself, Padioleau is a changed man.

The book depicts how low the survival rate was for the French men at the frontier. They were powerless against the heavy artillery. Death was common, it was everywhere. 900 French men and 1300 German men were killed everyday between August of 1913 and November of 1918. The casualties were strongly felt by both nations during the aftermath of 1918 where the population and reproduction decreased dramatically.

personal rating of the book: 7/10