No Man’s Land by Simon Tolkien
Fiction
Published: October 17/17
Knopf Publishing
After his mother is killed in a worker’s strike, young Adam Raine is a boy from London who moves North to the coal mining district in Scarsdale with his father. No matter how hard they try things seem hopeless until Adam is given the opportunity for a better life with an education. This is when things truly look as if they’re going to change for him – he shows to be an excellent student, and even makes friend like Miriam, along with enemies who continue to hassle Adam because he wants to “step above his station.”
Just as love and this Oxford education make Adam believe he will be okay in the end, the world in plunged into World War I. Like all eager to serve their country, Adam enlists and is sent to the front where he will never be the same person as he once was.
There are excellent descriptions of the Edwardian society along with the class struggle and divide all the while reading about the hardships of working men trying to improve their lives. Tolkien writes with grace as he takes his readers from London all the way into trench warfare during the Battle of the Somme.
He shows no hesitation in bringing forth the horrendous conditions, the loss of life, and the everlasting bonds these men formed with each other. The fear that these soldiers lived with day-to-day on the Western front is dominant, but through Tolkien’s book we see courage and bravery shine through these men.
Tolkien even goes as far as to show the struggle these survivors had coming home and adjusting back to ‘normal life,’ something that I believe is and was always overlooked by civilians. The cast of interesting characters along their own personal struggles adds to this grand tale. Yes, there are many books with the same content about the brutalities of poverty and war, but Tolkien’s ability to portray such a story cannot be brushed aside. Anyway, what else can we expect from JRR Tolkien’s (The Lord of the Ring’s & The Hobbit) grandson?
Kirsten Lowe studies at Athabasca University.