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Title: What's all the hype about?
Review: As a lover of historical fiction, particularly with a war-based background and with several "The greatest book I've ever read" and "Have re-read several times" comments from Amazon's learned reviewers, I couldn't wait to read this book. However, reviews are nothing but opinion and I ended up being disappointed........Why? Well, I guess I just found Faulk's writing to be quite labourious and his characters bland and uninspiring to me as the reader.The initial part set before the war was a bit cliched and predictable - "young handsome Englishman wins over repressed older French woman, but relationship is ultimately doomed" - very Mills and Boon type of stuff. Then we cut to the war with the mud and blood, senseless loss of lives, poor leadership, etc etc etc. Seen it all before I'm afraid - "tell me something new" I kept thinking as I ploughed on. The "contemporary" parts with the grand-daughter didn't really grab me either.All in all, an average read.
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