The Absolutist
John Boyne
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Buy *The Absolutist* by John Boyne online

The Absolutist
John Boyne
Other Press
Paperback
320 pages
July 2012
rated 5 of 5 possible stars

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This dazzling display of literary genius seriously touched me in ways I never thought a book or any story could. Potent, persuasive and hypnotic, from the very first pages, Boyne’s novel of thwarted love set against the Great War had me at its mercy. A disturbing, haunting and lyrical reading experience, never before has a story detailed with so much vigor the blood, violence, lice, rats and liquid mud that soaked the trenches of the Western Front.

What starts out as a tale of two sensitive and naive young men sequestered at Aldershot for the summer to train as soldiers rapidly evolves into a narrative of shame and guilt that traces a silent romantic duo whose passions are withheld, affections concealed, and romance denied. Tristan Sadler and Will Bancroft are just two boys among a group of “loud-mouthed, vulgar and untidy brothers" who stink of sweat and bogus heroism.

In this world of solidarity on the training ground and bravery on the battlefield, Tristan and Will immediately hit it off, but Will’s easy, smiling friendship only adds to Tristan’s yearnings as “Will’s entire spirit seems about to press down on him.” It only takes one night to ignite Tristan’s deep passion, one that he knows he must keep hidden from the world. In a milieu of blood and sacrifice where love is considered “a fool's game,” Tristan is still filled with these conflicting emotions when he arrives on Norwich in September 1919 to give a set of bound-together letters to Marion, Will’s older sister.

Sitting in a café reading a copy of Jack London’s White Fang, Tristan only wants to be left alone with his thoughts, but the unfamiliar surroundings produce a familiar anguish that is embodied in the red, livid scars that stand across Tristan's legs; the strained Marion, who makes him even more unsettled as she nervously shifts from topic to topic, acknowledging that her brother had become “so disillusioned with things"; Tristan’s recollections of that dreadful afternoon when his father beat him to within an inch of his life; and his horrible clamminess at finally seeing Will's father, the Reverend Bancroft, his appearance inexplicable against the placid backdrop of Norwich Cathedral.

Unfolding his novel in Tristan’s first-person voice, Boyne describes the inner torments of Tristan, Will and Marion. The dialogue articulates their deepest emotions, which makes the events in the book seem almost hyper-real. The story is succinct and often subtle, a combination of a very simple point of view told from a complex place, combined with an enormous, life-altering event. Boyne is always poetic as he immerses us in Tristan’s experiences on the Western Front's field of battle: the noise of shelling and gunfire, the blood and sweat, the dark clouds of smoke.

Tristan fears that Will might denounce him as “a degenerate and a false friend" if he reaches out for him. Yet the pain and remorse over what happens to Will (and Tristan’s part in it) have such a profound effect on Tristan that he's never able to see past his betrayal. This point of view only heightens Boyne's "in the closet" theme, which in turn becomes a powerful metaphor for his hero's lifelong existential angst. Likewise, the themes of courage and bravery, and also Tristan's longing and Will's denial, reflect a silence over a relationship between two soldiers that must remain a secret.

One wonders at Tristan's lack of resistance in breaking free of his closeted bonds. Even in 1979, when we see his life come full circle, there's an emotional anguish as wide and sparse as the physical desolation he once endured. Will’s decision to become an “absolutist,” which sabotages Tristan’s unrequited yearning for him, saddens our hearts for both men, given the time and circumstances in which they lived.



Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Michael Leonard, 2012

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