Echoes of the War written by none other than Sir James Matthew Barrie, author of Peter Pan is a collection of four short plays about families affected by the first world war. The titles are: The New Word, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals (which is the basis for the movie Seven Days Leave,) A Well-Remembered Voice and Barbara’s Wedding. I got it for free on Kindle and read the whole thing over breakfast.
There’s a sense of nostalgia in each story/ play. It tackles human relationships, particularly between fathers and sons, and the things that people go through and are about to go through when someone close to them is about to do something that you’ve no control over. Such is the case with the great war, where people were much obligated to be part of it.
Out of all the four stories, my favorite is the elderly soldier with dementia trying to make sense of what’s happening around him. It was heartbreaking. I was so moved by it for some reason. The other three stories were good and just as interesting.
Benjamin Alire Saenz once said, “We all fight our own private wars.” And somehow in life, it is always true no matter how and where you applied that sentiment. This was a great read. Get your copy, since it’s free and it’ll very much be well worth a few hours of your time.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
eBook Publication Date: May 17, 2021
First published in 1918.
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About the Author
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM (/ˈbæri/; 9 May 1860 – 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote a number of successful novels and plays. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired him to write about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens (first included in Barrie’s 1902 adult novel The Little White Bird), then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, a 1904 “fairy play” about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland.
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