An Ordinary Soldier - Doug Beattie

The Crown, Bathford, March 29th 2012. Good ale!

It was clear from the outset that this book would not be one of our literary classics, which was disappointing in that Doug Beattie MC was assisted by his co-writer Philip Gomm, who as a journalist probably has an A level or a Degree in English.  Notwithstanding this we are in a “book club”; not a “literature club”.  If the literary style irritates – tough – it was easy to read and had few if any grammatical errors.

Doug Beattie was clearly a man with a particularly interesting life.  Who else amongst us has shot their best friend; suffered systematic bullying; guarded Rudolf Hess; served with the UN peacekeeping force in the terrible Balkan war; was part of the initial invasion of Iraq, serving under the Col Tim Collins who made the widely broadcast pre-invasion speech to his troops. Doug Beattie’s account was frank and honest. That gave the book considerable credibility, however many of these failings grated with me/us.  As for the assault on Garmsir it was amazing how chaotic it all appeared and how much “lead” flew around without hitting much.  The chaos was not unexpected; there is a saying in military circles that all plans, however well found will not survive first contact with the enemy, due to human error, communications or technical breakdown.  In spite of this they (the British OMLT) seemed quite fearless standing up in their un-armoured Land Rovers to return fire against the Taliban.  Neil needs a big thank you for pointing out the U-Tube link to the documentary about this assault on Garmsir.  It is well worth a visit, giving a different perspective and adding context to the book. 

There were comments below about the unfairness of the war in that air strikes can be brought in “at will” (not so in the book), but this is an asymmetric war where the Taliban attack at their time and place of choosing and lob mortars into areas populated by their own people.  The only moral call here is that probably the Taliban have more right to kill their own people than we do, although we have been invited Afghan Government to be there.  (I don’t intend opening that particular can of worms, it was just a note on the morals of how the war is conducted.  Don’t blame the messenger – tell Mr Blair.)  Each day in Garmsir seemed similar to the previous one.  It probably was and all credit to the ANA, ANP and OMLT for sticking to their task, retaking the town and actually encouraging the locals to return home and open shops etc.  It was not the author’s fault that the mission was inevitably going to fail when the ANP & ANA could not hold the town as the support was withdrawn.  It was a gutsy hard won battle and an inspiring read for it.

The following additional comments were offered:

Steve had not finished the book, being about half way through.  Doug Beattie tries to be introspective, but his experiences were so profound that he could not find the words to tell the story.  The writing style was naïve and cliché overloaded – in particular the description of the suicide bombing in the opening chapter.  It could have been a better book if the co-writer had done his job better.

Mark T was irritated by the style – GCSE essay style, and reading about things he did not agree with, i.e. the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  He is only half way through, but encouraged at the meeting to complete the book and provide a score.

Richard felt the book was full of thoughts and feeling, but if there was a ghost writer why was it so bad?  He liked the autobiographical approach and was sorry it was not developed more fully.  He like less the details of each days skirmishes which were samey and in particular his self description as a buffoon and he was convinced this is not true and downplaying himself was grating.

Chris B agreed with the style issues, but thought there were exciting situations described and was impressed by their response to them.  It was easy to read in spite of the style.  It was a classic war book highlighting the chaos, luck/ill luck of war.  The human portrayal was real, but the whole situation was frustrating.

Mark Th thought the writing quality was never an issue - it was uniformly bad throughout.  However, the last 120 pages were compelling for revealing his honesty, frustration and the way he showed that even the most heroic fighters can be prone to self-doubt, guilt and fear. The caricature of the Afghans and in particular General Gulshan also struck a chord of credibility.  The first 2/3 of the book were not so good, partly because he sketched over his past life so superficially, and partly also because the memoir of a soldier who enlists to fight as a career as he did is less interesting for me than a story told by someone who never planned to fight, as was so often the case in the two world wars.  My biggest problem with the book was the sheer boredom of reading the early battle scenes.

Chris W: Although you can't enjoy a book about a war that is being fought as I write I found this months long titled book very gripping and "unputdownable". Beattie describes in clear unpretentious prose the details of the fighting going on apparently on our behalf in Afghanistan. Even he is surprised that he survives the amount of lead sent his way. This phone precludes further text but among the things I will remember are the close relationships that developed when fighting a common enemy not only with his afghan troops and squaddie mates but also the distrust between the army and police who are meant to be on the same side. It doesn't augur well for the future.

Rob: it failed on almost every front. Accepted that the quality of writing was poor from the outset. In particular, he seemed to have no concept of how to introduce people and situations in a way that gave context and 'colour'. Probably the worst example was when his wife suddenly appeared as a completely unexplained character - we were expected to be shocked by him writing how she was neglected (e.g. Him not being present at the birth - surprise, surprise), nearly vomited when reading "she was right, I did have a mistress, the army". Pathetic cliché. Learnt nothing about what is going on in Afghanistan from the book that I hadn't already got from the BBC and the Guardian. Had hoped for something new - but no. Carried on reading it to the end, because genuinely wanted to know what was happening to the author - but that was because he was a real, current day person put there by our Govt., and not because of either the writing style or the depth of content.

Fingersmith - Sarah Waters

Devonshire Arms, Sarah Waters seemed to get a thumbs from all, while falling short of rave reviews.  There was agreement for example that the first plot twist was both impressive and impossible to second guess.   

Mark Th felt it was a fine read, though not quite as good as Affinity.  Mark T found the plot really exciting and saw Fingersmith as a modern take on gothic authors like Wilkie Collins.  He found the love scenes convincingly erotic and also noted how well Waters had evoked the look and feel of London.  He had looked forward to each reading of the book.  Chris W enjoyed it too, but felt it was some 200 pages to long with too much in the Maud section that was repetition. His suspicion was that Waters wrote in the hope of having a film based on the novel.  He enjoyed the plot twists and the imagery of the flight from Briar and felt that there was real dramatic tension at times.  However, the ending was predictable and the plot at times unconvincing – would Sue really seem convincingly mad, he wondered?  This was echoed by Ras, who also felt that it was, on balance a good book.  For Ras the plot was unnecessarily convoluted – why not just pitch up at Briar with the letter and a good lawyer and get the loot?  He also enjoyed the imagery, atmosphere and the description.  He also questioned whether a nocturnal marriage ceremony was legal at his time.  

 Neil, having read all of SW’s oeuvre, had not re-read it for the meeting, but felt that it is a book that says long in the memory with its vivid description and imagery.  The period feel was a real strength of the book.  Steve had yet to complete, but was enjoying it thus far and contrasted it favourably with Alison Weir as a book written by a real author.  He was full of praise for the language and the rhythms of Water’s prose.  Chris B had also yet to complete, but had already noted that the surroundings and the description of familiar places in a very different time as an impressive feature. Richard had agreed with the view that character and plot were well handled (despite having gone over to the dark side of electronic readership).   

Rob had also liked the book, as well as raising questions about the male characters’ individual and collective weaknesses, and the critique of pornography possibly implied.  Here views were mixed, with some seeing Gentleman as a pivotal character in the book, some seeing the book as pointing up the dangers of pornography, while others saw it as a device that showed the upper middle classes, for all their piety, as no more moral than the residents of Lant Street.