Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2014-08-07 16:32:57.577853 Bookplateleaf 0003 Boxid IA1146308 City Leicester Donor The book’s central theme is about the repercussions of war after its end. It is not true that deaths cease at war’s end. People are forever changed by their experiences. There is an exhilaration to war. Look at the appeal war literature has on readers. Those participating in wars may become entranced with the idea that they are doing something vital, something important. Guilt plays in too. After a war, many have difficulty readjusting to civilian life. These are the themes dealt with in the book. While the story is more or less revolved around the narrator/protagonist, a good part of it is spent on the story of the wren officer, Janet Prentice. With slow accuracy, Alan brings to life Janet, and her story wins the reader's sympathy. Her life is weighed by grief and guilt, and the resulting PTSD completely unmans her. Life afterward is nothing but just a struggle for survival, which battle she loses at the end.

Shute also tends to write in a fairly stilted manner, using phrases that seem ridiculous —“The breakfast came upon the table”— and referring to characters by their nationality or occupation —“The Australian”, “The scientist”, “The Commander”— which grate with constant repetition. removed until everyone who knew those exciting times is gone, is short-sighted and overly dramatic. The Breaking Wave is one of Nevil Shute's most poignant and psychologically suspenseful novels, set in the years just after World War II. The "wren" in the book’s title refers to those enlisted in the women's branch of the UK's Royal Navy Service. A requiem is the religious ceremony performed for the dead. It can be more loosely referred to as an act or token of remembrance for a deceased, and so Requiem for a Wren is to be interpreted as a token of remembrance for the fictional character, Wren Janet Prentice. All of this plays into Shute's story and is worked beautifully into a story of love, war, regret and family. While the author pulls no punches, he does not dramatize, he tells it like it was, laying bare the hearts of the characters. Even knowing of the eventual end of the pivotal character does not take away from the dramatic tension Shute creates throughout the story. He brings us to slow realizations in a wonderfully artistic manner, dawn breaking finally revealing the true depth of each character.Setting aside my few complaints, I enjoyed the story immensely. The characters were so well drawn I felt like I knew each one of them. As I got to know Janet I kept hoping that she, who committed suicide at the beginning, would somehow be found alive.... perhaps the dead body was mis-identified ....and the ending would be a happy one, as I've come to expect from Shute.

Though this is somewhat a sad story, it is a hopeful one as well. Alan Duncan, though considerably changed by his war experience, comes to terms with his life and adapts as best he could. He pursues his studies which were left unfinished and comes home to settle for good on his parent's sheep farm in Australia. Although Alan doesn't find love in the quarter he seeks, there is hope for him in another quarter. When things like this happen, there's just nothing to be done about it. Even suffering itself is a mere waste of time... is create newer and more destructive weapons for the "secret war", and yet he loved the excitement ! Shute's talent for description allowed me to feel like I was right there in the Australian family home/estate/sheep farm looking out at the gorgeous rural landscapes. Equally effective were the descriptions of the other settings in France, England, and America.

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While I like the message the book conveys, how it is conveyed is neither convincingly nor elegantly drawn. Only in the description of rural landscapes around the family estate Coombargana, in the Western District of Australia, did the writing truly resonate for me. The simplicity of the writing does have a charm.

Disabled fighter pilot, Alan Duncan, must confront his own ghosts and fears. His brother, a marine sergeant, has died in Normandy and he wishes to learn the true details. The brother's girl, a wren officer, is lost to him without a trace, and he must find her for his brother's sake. His fear of flying and the fear of facing life challenges in his new disability are personal hurdles that he must overcome.Janet was haunted by a decision she made in the course of her war duties. After that one mistake, she loses all her cherished people, one by one, as the war takes them, which she comes to feel is justice for her unforgivable act. As a character she is heartbreaking; as a symbol she embodies the impossible burdens of war. Meanwhile, Alan, who needs his own healing, has become obsessed with his quest to find her. The cruellest accident of all is Alan's arrival at the house in Australia, too late to meet her in person. As we read, the pressure of this timing grows to tragic proportions; if he had come home just a few months earlier, would that have saved Janet in some way? Could she have forgiven herself? Would it have saved him? I was delighted to have the opportunity to reacquaint myself with one of the favourite books of my youth. Shute’s saga involves the wartime exploits and subsequent search of former RAF pilot Alan Duncan for a Wren that was involved with his brother in WWII. Through his search Alan revisits his brother’s wartime death, meets some of the Wren’s friends, and offers some insight into his own war injury and complicated recovery. Shute was an engineer and a RAF pilot, and his experiences provides a nuts and bolts approach to wartime work, duties involving both risk and boredom amid day to day living. So many novels explore the excitement and danger of war but provide little insight into what that work actually involves. Shute’s novel goes into great deal of the work of the Wrens, scuba divers and pilots in the war. However, novels like this rise or fall on their characters. Shute does a great job exploring how each of the surviving characters processes the war and the long years after the war. Some of the characters adapt and move on as best they can. Some don’t move on and Shute explores their agony with respect. Alan is a decent and good man, but he has flaws and the novel traces how he resolves his past mistakes by actually learning from the experience of his brother and the Wren.