4.5. Flanders is the Southern Gothic World War I novel you didn't know you wanted, and is a significant entry in the "war is hell" genre.

Our Texan narrator, the surprisingly compelling and uncorny Travis Lee Stanhope, signs up to be a British sharpshooter and struggles with all sorts of demons and ghosts, both figurative and (ambiguously) supernatural. An epistolary novel composed of letters whose destination becomes increasingly unclear, the prose is sharp and evocative and Travis Lee is an unforgettable character.

The novel's rhythm is set by the company's tour of duty, with intense days in the trenches followed by days of respite in the rest area. This cyclical structure manages to capture the boredom, anxiety, and angst of front-line combat in a way I've rarely seen.

That said, the dense repetition and slow pacing made this book at times a slog. Yet I was sufficiently invested in the story that it kept my attention to the end. ( )

An interesting perspective on WW1. In addition to that, the book is written completely in letters written by the main character. It is also magical realism in the sense that the main character can see ghosts. The book touches on topics of abuse, being gay during the war, and alcoholism. Overall it is a good book but not a great book read if interested in a slightly different than the average WW1 novel. ( )

Rating: 4* of five

The Book Report: Travis Lee Stanhope leaves Harvard for France to join in the fighting of The Great War (WWI to thee and me), as so many of his generation of young American men did, on the side of the Allies. He chronicles his experiences as the lone Texan among European officers and men who, unlike the cruel and dismissive Yankee boys he's been spending his education among, chaff him good-naturedly about his accent and his origins.

He becomes, by virtue of his origins, a sharpshooter, and develops a track record of success in his task. He also makes some very...well...some discoveries, shall we say, that completely revolutionize his view of the material world, and what it contains, and what it conceals.

War isn't hell. War is only the gateway to it.

My Review: This wasn't a bestseller in 1998, when it was published. It wasn't widely reviewed. It wasn't a succès d'estime. High Literature, as defined by the unofficial and unconstituted American academy, excludes all forms of genre fiction...that condescending little shudder-word used to mark off the territory of Serious Books by excluding those which a writer without an MFA from Iowa, or a PhD in Literature, might wish to produce and an ordinary person might wish to read.

I'd direct those academicians, self-appointed or recognized at large, to books like this one Magical realism isn't simply a Latin American phenomenon. This epistolary work (and right there is the reason it was never a bestseller) rivals the storytelling gifts of Mujica Lainez or Cortazar or Vargas Llosa.

Oh. Bobby, I can't remember what he said—I only recall the joy of it, the terror of watching the dark approach. Then we were at the cypress; O'Shaughnessey had to see it coming. He had to. The dark took up all Here, all Now. I wanted to run, but with the helplessness of dreamers, I trailed O'Shaughnessey inside.

I don't remember closing my eyes as we passed through that shadow membrane, but I remember opening them. Around me lay the broken countryside of No Man's Land. That was all. Nothing frightening, but a place like a thousand others—a spot where ghosties wander, searching for the land of the found,

O'Shaughnessey stopped, offered his hand in a goodbye, no extraordinary power but that of affection in his touch. “Travis?” he said.

“Yes?”

He leaned close to whisper a secret. His breath was warm and smelled of chocolate. “It's love.”

Don't overlook Travis Lee's magical adventures. You'll be the poorer for it. ( )

Story:
Travis Lee Stanhope is a misfit that doesnt fit in at school or home. So he volunteers to join the British army at the onset of WW1. Travis quickly shows a talent for sharp shooting that moves him to the front lines. It's not long before the constant battle and terrible conditions begin to wear on Travis. When he sleeps he begins to dream of a peaceful grave yard where a girl wearing a calico dress walks among the graves. Even more frightening to Travis is that he begins to see the people he has shot and his dead squad mates in the graveyard and they even occasionaly talk to him. To deal with all this Travis begins to drink heavily which lands him in all sorts of trouble and gets him paired up with the disturbed Leblanc. Leblanc is the companies most decorated solider but he has some very dark demons that he cannot control and Travis finds himself in the unwelcome role of keeper to a man he does not understand and has no way of controlling. This is the beginning of Travis's long journey to understand his self, his puropose, and what lies beyond the darkness of the grave yard he seems to be the unwilling caretaker of.
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This is a different book I will say that. There aren't many supernatural war stories and proably even less are set in war world one. The author does a good job of protraying the main characters gradual decline from college kid on a summer lark to a severly depressed, shell shocked no -mans land survior to a man that has come to a grim acceptance of his past and his presnt. This definetly is not a Hollywood take on World War 1. People die and often it is not in heroic circumstances. One minute Travis is talking to someone, the next they were a little to slow to dive into the trench or little to slow to put there gas mask on and then there not there anymore and it turns out the ones that get shot or blown up are the lucky ones. What I'm getting at is that if you don't like violence or the aftermath of it, this book proably isn't for you, the author doesn't shy away from the horrors of the world war 1 trenches. I would reccomend this book to anyone who is looking for a different kind of historical fiction book. I would also recommend this to any one who likes stories such as Odd Thomas.
m.a.c ( )

I was a bit gobsmacked by this book. Unrelenting and lovely all at the same time. Travis Lee is a great character, and Patricia Anthony has a well-defined moral view-point that doesn't get in the way of the characters or the story. The final battle scene is really grim and I wept at the end of the book. Something I haven't done in a long time. ( )