[REVIEW]: The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje; translated by David McKay

At times, an editor should be able to objectively look at a good piece of literature and define the limit between enough pages, and rambling endlessly without a point to prove.

Sadly "The Remembered Soldier" is nothing but rambling endlessly without a point to prove. It is exactly the kind of book that usually pushes me away from literary prizes: excruciatingly long, rhetorical, over-written and banale to the core.  

(And as I write my review after the awarding of the International Booker Prize, I am happy to say, that perhaps the jury might have agreed with me on this one).

I shall start from the positives, those things that could have potentially made me enjoy the narration and that I will look back on with a smile, as I do not wish to be crushed by negativity immediately. 

I believe the simple plot arc of, a first world war soldier regaining memory after the traumatic experiences of the trenches, while rebuilding the relationship with his wife, family and community was straightforward, perhaps not original, but interesting enough if well executed. I always appreciate a deeper focus on the First World War consequences on the psyche of young men all over Europe. Not only, I think, it gives a deeper insight of what happened later on in history, but this lost generation deserves much more merit and literary focus than it has received throughout the years. And I believe it could have made for a moving, dramatic love story, while giving the chance for social commentary and psychological insights.

I also do not wish to completely bash Anjet Daanje's writing: the first 300 pages flew by. She masterfully used the change in narrative voice to symbolically represent the changes in the recovery process of Amand, the soldier, and it did not go unappreciated from my side. Indeed the style felt a bit forceful and repetitive at the beginning, but I am willing to accept it as a symbol of the main character's state of mind after the war.

To conclude these "silver linings", I liked that no character is painted as a perfect martyr or victim: Amand himself has not been the best husband nor human being, Julienne is a complex, at time lying and manipulative person, deeply shaken by multiple traumas and complex family dynamics. Their relationship before the war was not idyllic, nor romantic, and Julienne tries often to rewrite that, almost taking Amand's memory loss as a chance to change history. I liked the clear nuance that the author shows of human nature: the most horrifying things happen to completely common people, who may be at times insufferable but that deserve peace just as much as anyone else.

However, this book suffers of a terrible fault. It is far too long. At least 400 pages too long.

The style is lovely, at the beginning, but after nearly 700 hundred pages one wishes only to strangle the narrating voice and be afflicted by some memory loss to avoid recalling this dread of a narration. I have no issue with long, one may call them even never-ending, stories. I loved Underworld by DonDelillo and Infinite Jest by Wallace, both arguably much heavier in content, symbolism and language than "The Remembered Soldier". The difference is that, even after almost 800 pages, the former authors still found engaging ways to communicate something to the reader. Anjet Daanje does not. Anjet is just repeating the same vignettes over and over and over. I think I must have read the same scene of them in the photo-room or of him having a nightmare so many times, they all blur together in a big blob. This is not the mundanity of every day life, this is bad plot organization.

The sex scenes are awkward, almost juvenile. And while a couple of them here and there could have been endearing, showing the reader the new found intimacy between the main characters, the bad plot organization strikes again. Anjet concentrates around 150 pages of repetitive sexual description, to then move to the next "theme".

Which I believe being another weakness of the novel: it is divided into themes. And once you are able to detect them, it is impossible to go back. First we have the asylum, and the night terrors, then the new found intimacy and sex, lies and doubt, PTSD episodes, and then list goes on. It seems as if, the author had a list of main points she wished to convey to the reader, and instead of keeping it nearby as a reminder of narrative coherence she used it as a literal road map. Most tension points are mysteriously resolved as we "enter" a new theme, since the author either forgets them ( and how to blame her, I was forgetting myself too after a while) or simply is unable to give nuance to daily life.

An example that shines bright like a star are the debts contracted by Julienne during the war to keep the family alive. At the beginning it is obvious that they are financially struggling and being refused by local merchants, who would like to have their loans back. Then magically the business is all well again thanks to Amand's story and the pictures taken with war widows, and not a single mention of these struggles ever surfaces again. Even at times where it could have been relevant, for example when she is suspected of having entertained an affair with a German soldier, it almost appears as if the author herself has forgotten about it.

Each theme is repeated (repeated, not developed, let me highlight that) for 200 pages at a time. Boring at best, irritating at worst.

And with this last point, I would like to point out a discussion I had with someone in my life. Indeed for a story to be good, it does need to have character growth, or arcs at all, quite frankly the story itself does not even need to have an overarching moral and or message for it to enjoyable or interesting. Art does not need to be purposeful.

That being said, it requires and immense mastery and talent to produce literary that is purposeless, enjoyable and even fun. Anjet Daanje does not possess this talent.

I truly tried, I really persevered. But this was a waste of time. No surprise ending, attempt to a plot twist could save this truly dull story.

⭐/5