My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You

Product Information

It seemed to Purefoy that if your legs are shot to pieces no one expects you to keep going, but if your nerve, the machinery of your self-control is shot to pieces, they do. It’s not your will, your desire, your willingness to fight on—it’s a separate part of you, but it’s one they don’t understand yet, because they never yet put this much on a soldier. Ainsworth had talked about that—how they had never before given heavy industry to war” (124). Riley: He has a bit of a same sex encounter and decides to run off to war to prove he's a real man, not a "nancy." I was terribly put off by this bit.. wasn't expecting it. His parts also contain the "f" word a lot. This did not bother me, but I know it will bother other readers. So make a note of that if you are offended by profanity. There are some aspects of the style of Young's writing that didn't always appeal to me; she's fond of a list and some of the passages are a bit 'choppy', but there's no denying the powerful story telling and the book's ability to add something new to the extensive literary subject matter of World War One is impressive. It's a book that will stay with me for a long time and whose characters will live long in the memory. His wife is equally repulsive, though her character raises another intriguing issue: Is being a housewife enough? Can a woman live without her man? She has issues. When her baby is born, she allows her mother to take it away. When her husband comes home on leave and does not wish to have relations with her, she goes bizerk and obsesses that she is not pretty and this and that. She's a very weak woman who needs male attention to feel useful. A letter, two lovers, a terrible lie. In war, truth is only the first casualty. ‘Inspires the kind of devotion among its readers not seen since David Nicholls’ One Day’ The Times

My Dear I Wanted to Tell You by Louise Young poignantly portrays the horror of war, insightfully revealing the effects on men and women, soldiers and medical teams, those at the front and those at home. She uses three young women and two young men to carry much of the story and bases some of what she writes on real people and actual medical practices and advancements, particular in plastic surgery. When the war is over, all are wounded and needy. The ability to bear the unbearable gives them the strength to keep on. (Spoiler alert. Summary follows quotes.) In general, Young is better at the female characterisation than the male and, while we spend some time with Riley and Peter on the front, much of the focus is on how those at home cope with the pressures of loved ones at war and on the impact of relationships. The casualties of war are not only the physical injuries but the mental ones, both on those who fought and those left behind. My dear I wanted to tell you is a 2011 novel by Lousia Young about young up-and-coming officer Riley Purefoy, the girl he loves, his CO, the girl he loves, and his cousin, whom nobody loves. Meanwhile, Julia and her cousin Rose are dealing with the war effort the way only women can. Julia is hell-bent on Peter coming home to a perfect little wife. Rose is working under the revolutionary doctor, Major Gillies, and helping him to patch-up wounded soldiers with horrendous facial scarring. Miles away and Nadine is also working as a nurse, helping wounded soldiers and imaging Riley’s face in all of them. . .This novel further opened my eyes to how an entire generation was altered and affected by the war, especially how women’s roles shifted during the void the men left. This was especially evident with the dotting housewife, Julia, struggling with the feeling that she had no purpose with her husband away and striving to be the perfect housewife for his return. I loved how Rose, who was never expected to marry and felt ineffective because of it, suddenly felt she had a place in the world. Young has a historian’s eye for the private details of war, and a warmth to her prose that makes her small cast emotionally engaging ... Through Riley, however, the novel achieves an appeal to compassion and courage that deserves to reach a wide audience ... Hindsight tells us peace will not be final, but Young conveys, beautifully, the universal wish that it might be’

Already short listed for the Costa Prize, it wouldn't surprise me to see it appearing on the 2012 Orange Prize list as well. Still though, any novel that can still make you feel the pain and horror of hte trenches (or rather, imagine you can), and the visceral exhaustion and suffering of the nurses who also served (one passage where Young describes nursing conditions of "8 days on the trot underwear", fleas, and cold water washing really hit home), while also being genuinely entertaining, is worth reading. The great strength of the book is the main characters. Young takes time to build them up and this is probably why a third of the way in I was thinking 'it's good, but I don't see what all the fuss is about'. But it means you really care for them when the story develops. By the end, I certainly knew.The prose took some getting used to and not having read any of Young’s previous works, I’m not sure if it’s her style, but the lengthy descriptive sentences with excessive comma’s aggravated me at times, but that could have been just me. I like description intertwined in the story, not thrown so blatantly at me. This probably went hand in hand with the slower start I found to this novel. I found My Dear I Wanted to Tell You equal parts fascinating and horrifying. Although heavy with romance and war, this novel portrayed none of the romance of war. It took me a while to sink into the plot and the characters, but once I did they appeared in my thoughts when I put the novel down and although I enjoyed this novel and thought about it when I wasn’t reading it, I felt it could have been much more captivating. The setting of this book is two locations in England and then mostly the worst battles of WWI. The story begins with Nadine and her brother meeting the young Riley, the son of a working class couple contrasting with Nadine's higher class. Riley is adaptable and is taken in by a high class, artist, Sir Alfred, which provides the young couple access to one another throughout their late childhood. Romance begins to bloom when Riley makes a rash decision and enlists in the European conflict, regretting it mightily. Riley’s friendship with Nadine Waveney grows and prospers over the years, until they both come to a realization of love. But when Nadine’s mother objects to the unsuitable courtship Riley turns his mind to the war effort and naively signs up to fight ‘for the duration of the war’. One of those books that doesn’t leave you, and probably never will.”—Jacqueline Winspear, New York Times bestselling author of the Maisie Dobbs novels

The second true historical story that is central to this novel is the work of Harold Gillies – a doctor who was also an Army Major. After experiencing front line fighting in the trenches, Major Gillies returned home to open a hospital in Aldershot which was dedicated to facial reconstruction; treating the facial wounds that were very common during trench fighting and carrying out pioneering work in plastic surgery to try to make his patients look as normal as possible. After the Battle of the Somme, Gillies treated 2,000 cases of jaw and facial mutilation and a key part of this novel is the telling of the tragic stories of some of the patients that were treated during this time.

The explicit theme of the book is the effect that the First World War had on people’s lives – not just those who fought but those left behind – all of the characters lives are turned upside down, all have faced horrors and all have to face a world where “it” is “over” and they have to rebuild their lives knowing they are forever affected and having to choose (as a poetic piece at the end of the story sets out) whether to allow the horror to overwhelm them/continue to try to shut it out or whether to accept it and move on through a healing process. With echoes of The English Patient, Atonement, and a touch of Ford Maddox Ford’s The Good Soldier, Louisa Young’s adult debut novel is haunting and mesmerizing....The dark and gritty battle scenes contrasted with the pining love letters sent from the front lines of battle blend perfectly together to give an accurate and honest portrayal of life during wartime”— Bronwyn Miller, BookReporter.com A testament to the frailty and heart of mankind, Louisa Young’s My Dear I Wanted to Tell You vividly paints an intimate portrait of life on the home front and battlefields during the First World War.”— Cathy Marie Buchanan, author of The Day the Falls Stood Still But throughout the novel there is Riley and Nadine, and their enduring love . . . the light in a novel of stark misery and wartime suffering. And it’s all the brighter for its counterpoint.

For the next few days he watched the other patients. Patience. He was looking for good cheer among them. How did they bear it? How could they bear it? This was not a rhetorical question. He wanted to know how the others bore it, what they actually did to bear it, because he could not bear it. And he could not suddenly start to bear it just because it was over. No one ever wins a war, and wars are never over:” (265). While fighting on the frontlines, Riley experiences the gruelling horrors of war. He is dehumanized and built up again by the barrage of gun fire. I was deeply moved by the relationship between Riley Purefoy and Nadine....So sweet!!!!! But falling in love during in a war zone was never easy. Dayum, and their social class mattered so much too! Such a pain they put these young lovers through! Young interweaves these characters with some fictionalised versions of some very real people, not least the inspirational Major Gillies whose work with injured soldiers was brilliant not least as he was making it up as he went along. His techniques have led to the growth of today's cosmetic surgery practices, a point whose irony is clear from the book.

There was one thing I liked though. I liked the facial reconstruction stuff. I didn't really get into the novel until the facial reconstruction came into it. Gruesome but absolutely fascinating. I also appreciate the parts of the story that dealt with people's reactions to facial injuries. Can you still love your man when his face is a mess? Will you be disgusted? It's interesting to see how different people react and how others must realize a monster on the outside does not necessarily mean a monster inside.. The narration sets it up so that readers get to know Nadine and Riley in their early years and the timid beginnings of their love, which helps not only anchor the emotional arc of the story but the connection readers feel to them both. Nadine is from an upper class family with artistic roots — her father is a famous conductor — and Riley is from a working class family. Both end up under the tutelage of Sir Arthur, a famous artist, who sees potential in Riley and Nadine. Eventually, they are separated by her parents who refuse to send her to Sir Arthur’s for lessons if Riley is still working there, which ultimately pushes Riley to see his fortunes through a different lens and join the military.