Strange meeting susan hill. Strange Meeting [Audio] by Susan Hill 2022-10-11
Strange meeting susan hill Rating:
6,6/10
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reviews
"Strange Meeting" by Susan Hill is a thought-provoking and poignant novel that explores the complexities of war and the impact it has on the lives of those who experience it. The novel follows the story of John Hilliard, a young soldier who is killed in World War I and finds himself in an otherworldly place where he meets other soldiers who have also died in the war.
Throughout the novel, Hill expertly weaves together themes of loss, grief, and the search for meaning in a world that often seems chaotic and cruel. Hilliard grapples with the loss of his own life, as well as the loss of his comrades, and he struggles to understand the events that led to his death.
One of the most striking elements of "Strange Meeting" is Hill's portrayal of the soldiers' experiences during the war. Hill conveys the horror and brutality of the conflict in a way that is both raw and authentic, and she does not shy away from depicting the physical and emotional toll that war takes on those who fight it.
Hill also delves into the psychological effects of war, as Hilliard and the other soldiers confront the traumas they have experienced and the ways in which they have changed as a result of their experiences. Through Hilliard's interactions with the other soldiers, we see the different ways in which each of them have coped with the horrors of war and the struggles they have faced in the aftermath of their deaths.
Ultimately, "Strange Meeting" is a poignant and powerful meditation on the human experience of war and the enduring impact it has on those who experience it. Hill's prose is beautiful and evocative, and she handles the difficult subject matter with sensitivity and grace. If you are interested in exploring the themes of loss, grief, and the search for meaning, "Strange Meeting" is a must-read.
Tusitala
WWI as a literary setting is powerfully attractive to many people, as Hill says in her Afterword, and I am no exception. Barton is new to the war and has yet to experience the terrors or feel the effects of the war on him; he is a younger man who is untouched by the effects of the war. We are with David and John, wishing against the knowledge of our contemporary hindsight, that their friendship has a future, that the gentleness with which it develops won't be touched by the violence and arbitrary destruction of war. This shows just how insignificant the loss of life was in this time. This is when Raleigh has just finished his first mission as an officer in the trenches.
Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels I would go up and wash them from sweet wells, Even with truths that lie too deep for taint. Lieutenant John Hilliard belongs to a family of stiff-upper-lipped Britishers: his only close companion is his elder sister Beth. Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled. Hill masterfully contrasts their personalities. He also acknowledges that some men enjoy the experience of war and some actually flourish. Spine creases, wear to binding and pages from reading.
This monologue from Barton to Hilliard will stay with me: "That Private who was snipered - looking at him I could have wept and wept, he seemed to be all the men who had ever been killed, John. He is concerned that his letter may be censored by the military but he wants to tell those back home the truth. Of the two men, one is already emotionally scarred by his experiences, but the other is as yet untouched by this dreadful war, and has yet to discover what it meant to serve on the front line. However, after being exposed to the war, the effects it can have on a person show through. Osborne has just died, and to him he has just lost one of his closest friends and one of the people who he trusted his life with.
It's a lovely tale of friendship on the front line something that rarely occurred and also of two characters personal developments due to said friendship and the war around them. Hierarchy is presented strongly between the two at first, and because of their different social and military status in the war they are treated differently. Hilliard cannot express his feelings openly but has to have someone who he can trust greatly and feel safe with. Salinger uses the museum and to prove that growing up is more difficult without healthy coping mechanisms and communication skills. Book has a visible forward lean. And there is a recurring, underlining theme of Hilliard refraining from touching Barton a few times. Strange Meeting BY WILFRED OWEN It seemed that out of the battle I escaped Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped Through granites which Titanic wars had groined.
The Corruption In ‘Strange Meeting` and ‘Journey`s End
. A short but beautiful book. As the novel slowly proceeds to its inevitable tragic conclusion, John Hilliard realises that he has finally gained a real family through Barton's letters in which he featured prominently - a family which his own can never hope to emulate. The home he loved, the sister he loved, stand on the other side of the chasm, one of them no longer any comfort and the other far divided from him by a lack of understanding. It brought the war, its h Set in the First World War.
It is not a panorama of the whole war, but a peek into a microcosm which it performs very well. Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned, Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred. One of those unexpected gems that just sit there begging you to pick them up, Strange Meeting turns out one of the most beautiful WWI love stories and certainly one of its most unique. Pages remain bright and clear with minimal tanning and foxing. Where Hill finds grace is that Hilliard and Barton acknowledge mutual love and the reader knows that it is real, that there is absolutely no doubt the two characters love each other but not exactly as two lovebirds would love each other in any romantic story. There is no more beautiful moment that the closing lines of the second part of the novel, an exchange that perfectly reflects the two characters, a soaring juxtaposition of said and unsaid - a simple 'Yes' to an 'I love you'. In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells and they moved to Stratford upon Avon.
While in many ways a subtle novel, missing a lot of the overblown, overwrought "movie-moments" found in other war novels, it seamlessly captures the agony and ugliness of a war that devoured a whole generation of young men. He is shocked to find that, of the officers he had previously served with, most are dead or disabled, and those few who are not suffer from severe mental and emotional wounds: rage, bitterness, despair, madness. Said relationship is ambiguously homoerotic, but I read it as an intense romantic friendship. It is not about war. But there was no way I could have done that or wanted to: I have never been interested in that kind of book, neither as a writer nor as a reader. Having read a lot of Hill's other works, this is clearly an early piece and is a novelist finding her way through the 'literary' field.
Truths are told which have been repressed before. It in no way glorifies the war, and presents it as what it is: unadulterated, irrationa I don't think this is a very well known or celebrated book, but with the exception of Barker's Regeneration Trilogy, I can't think of another World War I story that has moved me as deeply. It is not a panorama of the whole war, but a peek into a microcosm which it performs very well. Why do we yearn for connection and this sense of release through being with another and talking openly and without fear of judgement? Strange Meeting tells the tale of two young soldiers placed in an environment that breaks people. Her first book, The Enclosure, was published during her first year at university.
However, in the dramatic text that Sheriff is showing us, we see just how quickly relationships can be formed in conditions such as the ones these men are facing. I am the enemy you killed, my friend. It was very moving to see the tw Despite the inevitability of their being sad and depressing, I will persist in reading novels about the First World War. But the love that is established between the two of them is one that is devoid of any form of physical attraction; it's love in its most elevated, its strongest, purest form. We suffer along with John in being desperately frightened for Barton, in wanting him not to be tainted. The emotions are a slight rollercoaster of events and this whilst having to read this several times, due to having to study this for my lit exam, has very few dull moments.
Set in the First World War. Scuffing to front free endpaper. It reflects the hopes of the army ahead of life in the trenches and the feelings of a just war. Because this is essentially the tale of two young men - one serious and reserved, the other jolly and outgoing - and their unlikely friendship. . I read the afterword by the author, who claims that completing the novel was a catharsis; an exorcism; a tribute they needed to write for every young man who suffered in WW1.
