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The Wars Hardcover – January 1, 1977

by Timothy Findley (Author)

137

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Robert Ross is a Canadian officer caught up in the nightmare world of World War I trench warfare; a world of mud and smoke, chlorine gas and rotting corpses. In this world gone mad, he performs a last desperate act to declare his commitment to life in the midst of death.

Print length

226 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Delacorte Press
Publication date

January 1, 1977
ISBN-10

044009397X
ISBN-13

978-0440093978
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Delacorte Press; First Edition (January 1, 1977)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 226 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 044009397X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0440093978
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.5 ounces

Best Sellers Rank: #3,758,711 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #24,551 in War Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
137

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

137 global ratings

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alidichi

Never give up …

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2022

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This book was mandatory during high school grade 13 literature class in Toronto, Canada circa 1987. It contains subject matter that is new and difficult to comprehend for the first time especially as a young adult. However, after reading it, analyzing passages and writing many essays, what I took away from it is that life is precious no matter what life throws at you, even extreme situations as described in the book. The protagonist always wants life to go on just a little bit longer …

To summarize:
Never give up … on yourself, on your life!

One person found this helpful

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Gail

Realism and a very human account of the war experience

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2013

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A gripping portrayal of life in the trenches of the First World War. Characters very real and descriptions make you feel you are right there on the front lines. Detail carried some new information for me about this war. It's a sad book, as any realistic portrayal of war must be.

2 people found this helpful

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Philip C

The Wars tells what the media ignores

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2003

The Wars is a memory of Robert Ross, a nineteen year old Canadian Soldier who fought in the First World War, as reconstructed by the narrator through articles, photographs and interviews of those who knew him during his short life. It is before this life ended that controversy surrounds, when he is purported to have committed such unthinkable atrocities that remain unnamed until the conclusion of the tale.
Beginning with the loss of his eldest sister to the disease Spina Bifida, the story moves to his resulting enlistment to the Canadian Army, brief training in the general tactics of war, and shipment overseas to join in the all-consuming chaos of the First World War.
Spread across the battle fields of Europe, the life of Robert Ross re-enacted as the pieces are brought together. First person accounts of the utterly humiliating circumstances, impotence, and insanity he encounters as the fires that pursue him throughout his life are interwoven throughout to complete the picture of a man misunderstood for the crimes he committed.
It is these first person accounts that lead us through the plot in an attempt not to justify, but to perhaps give the reader some insight as to why Ross' life ended so clearly counter to how it had begun.
Timothy Findley set out with a purpose in The Wars, which was to illustrate the insanity of war by manipulating the conventions of how atrocity is understood, and finally tearing these conventions down altogether. To do this, he took the fictitious example of a soldier who had dishonoured himself in battle, and then forces us to understand how and why such a thing could occur. For a more in depth analysis, check out yourwords dot ca. The result is the destruction of our conventional understanding and acceptance of military law, a societal application invented by propagandists and furthered by arms dealers, therefore opening our ability to not only see, but recognize the destruction of the individual through such an overwhelming ordeal that is often minimalized through sensationalistic media-headline appointed terms such as "tragedy" or "catastrophe". It is for this reason that the book should be a part of everyone's education.

12 people found this helpful

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Michael B. Collins

One of the best

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2006

One of the best what? One of the best Canadian novels, one of the best war novels . . . take your pick.

Joeseph Jonston must only like stories where there are only good people doing nice things, and where children are sheltered from the scary fact that sometimes the world is a bad place. I think this is the problem when you have a work of art as powerful and brilliant as The Wars --- it gets assigned in high schools, and people who wouldn't know a good book from a hole in the ground are made to read it.

The Wars examines the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual wages of World War One (I think the plural in the title references the fact that there are so many other "little" wars simultaneously going on within the main character, within his family, within society, etc).

Findley explores his themes with powerful, poetic, and concise prose. The Wars is a short book, and Findley's fluid style means it can be read quickly. However, not a single word is wasted. The prose is rich with fresh imagery, but those images are never just decoration, or descriptive showmanshp --- they all have their purpose and their place. This is one of the calling cards of a great writer.

Some would say the age warning is appropriate. Some of the events of the plot and some of the images are indeed explicitly violent or sexual. They are never gratuitous, and are used to drive home the horror of World War One, but the more squeemish or puritanical readers may find them off-putting.

8 people found this helpful

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Bruce H

World War 1 fiction

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2002

This novel is about the experiences of a Canadian man in World War 1. The flow of the story is occasionally interrupted by the activities of a researcher investigating the life of Robert Ross (a Second Lieutenant in the Canadian Army) in some kind of archive or interviewing people who met Ross during his lifetime. It is never made clear what is happening; why is the researcher/interviewer doing his investigations? Why is he writing this account (i.e. the novel)? There is no real conclusion to the novel or resolution of the researcher plot. Findley has Ross die shortly after World War 1 and the researcher plot abruptly ends.
The sections of the novel that are actually about fighting in the trenches are reasonably good. I think Findley properly emphasizes how dirty, mud-filled and wretched the trenches of World War 1 were. Occasionally, there are flashbacks to the protagonist's family in Canada, which were poorly executed. Findley should have focused on the actual war and avoided these diversions.
In Canada, this novel won the Governor General's Award in 1977 but I don't see why it is so spectacular. There is a sense that the protagonist is something of a controversial figure (he deserts the army and shoots some Canadian soldiers) but Ross' history and legacy is simply left too ambiguous.
In rating this novel, I wanted to give it 2.5 stars, but alas, Amazon does not allow that. The novel simply strikes me as mediocre; there is nothing exceptional to it.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

LaRissa

Highschool English Reading

Reviewed in Canada on October 15, 2022

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This was purchased for my daughter to read as part of the English highschool credit she seemed to lile it so much she recommended for me to read it

Colin

Liked the Book

Reviewed in Canada on December 7, 2020

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Solid book

ELLICIA_ECKHART

A Classic.

Reviewed in Canada on May 9, 2014

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This novel speaks volumes in symbolism and will always be close to my heart. Through all the hard and the few good this book will make your heart sing and cry.

Gregory P. Smith

Complex read with a Canadian WW1 perspective.

Reviewed in Canada on February 10, 2020

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Author Findley had a great opportunity to portray the struggles of a young Canadian man thrust into the savage battles of WW1, but I believe he made it more complicated than necessary. This judgement was arrived at mainly because the prose was sometimes broken by the insertion of a researcher’s comments concerning an investigation of the complex and explosive life of the protagonist.
Yet parts were interesting, especially when identifying the horrors of not only WW1 but of war itself. Its difficult to criticize the judges of Canada’s Governor General’s Award, so perhaps my caution is based on personal biased expectations. Certainly worth a read if you want a perspective about a Canadian in WW1.

LSHuff

I really enjoyed it. I read it twice

Reviewed in Canada on March 2, 2015

Verified Purchase

I got this book for my English class and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I read it twice, it was a great book.

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