To Serve Them All My Days

 Delderfield, R.F.. To Serve Them All My Days. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1972. Print

First Sentences:

The guard at Exeter warned him he would have to change at Dulverton to pick up the westbound train to Bamfylde Bridge Halt, the nearest railhead to the school, but did not add that the wait between trains was an hour.

It was one of those trivial circumstances that played a part in the healing process of the years ahead, for the interval on that deserted platform, set down in a rural wilderness, and buttressed by heavily timbered hills where spring lay in ambush, gave Powlett-Jones an opportunity to focus his thoughts in a way he had been unable to do for months, since the moment he had emerged from the dugout and paused, rubbing sleep from his eyes, to glance left and right down thee trench.

Description:

When I began The First Sentence Reader blog, one of my first choices of books to make sure that every one of my reader knew about was R.F. Delderfield's To Serve Them All My Days. Now, three years and over 300 book recommendations later, I am finally getting around to telling you about this wonderful novel.

This book has everything I want in a great read: strong, personable characters; interesting setting; compelling plot; and honest, straightforward writing. It tells the story of David Powlett-Jones, a shell-shocked survivor of the World War I trenches in France. There he was severely shaken by a mortar blast and forced to recover in a hospital for months. P-J, at the urging of his doctor, applies to the English boys school, Bamfylde, under the able leadership of the Rev. Algy Herris. With no experience teaching but finding the clear air and quiet were immediately clearing the fog and lingering fears in his brain, the young Powlett-Jones takes a history teaching position at Herris' school and the story begins.

Here you could almost reach out an touch the quiet. It was a living thing that seemed to catch its breath up there in the hanging woods and then, at a wordless command, slip down the long hillside and gust over the rails to lose itself in the wood opposite. Its touch was gentle and healing, passing over his scar tissue like the fingers of a woman.

The Bamfyld staff has been pulled together helter-skelter due to the enlistment of every other able man into the English war effort. Aged, old-school teachers are coaxed from retirement to work alongside war dodgers and those rejected for physical or mental shortcomings. The school is filled with privileged boys ready to challenge any new teacher, so P-J, a former miner's son, knows he has his work cut out for him.

But under the headmaster's loose but purposeful guidance, P-J begins to blossom into a solid, popular teacher. Nicknamed "Pow-Wow" by the boys for his tendency to talk things over in class and listen to the opinions of the boys, he becomes a rarity in the age of memorization and the punishment cane.

The school and boys begin to grow on P-J and slowly the horrifying sights and tragedies from the French trenches begin to fall from his consciousness. Love enters his life, as does tragedy. He shows quick-thinking in classrooms, faculty lounges, and several emergency situations involving life and death for several boys.

In all, To Serve Them All My Days gets my highest recommendation. Don't be put off that it is a fairly long book. It will bring you to a place that is welcoming, challenging, intelligent, cozy and loving. You won't want to leave that environment or its characters which you have grown to admire and love. Please read it soon.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

McCourt, Frank Teacher Man.   

Memoirs of Pulitzer Prize-winner McCourt recalls his three decades of teaching English in New York cities inner-city schools. As an Irish immigrant facing thousands of not-so-eager "students", he faces real world challenges each day, many of which he fails to overcome. But when he succeeds with telling them stories of his life in Ireland or sees the flicker of a student's respect, he is inspired to keep teaching. Extremely personable and well-written.

Dodgers

Beverly, Bill. Dodgers. New York: Crown. 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

The Boxes was all the boys knew; it was the only space.

In the street one car moved, between the whole vehicles and skeletal remains, creeping over paper and glass. 

The boys stood guard. They watched light fill between the black houses separated only barely, like a row of loose teeth.

Description:

Maybe not a book for everyone, Bill Beverly's debut novel Dodgers takes readers on a wild, potentially violent ride across country. But for those intrepid readers willing to take a bit of a chance, Dodgers  packs a wallop of a story. 

Fifteen-year-old East, a gang member from Los Angeles, works for his uncle Fin by standing guard over a neighborhood drug house to alert those inside when police are near. After the house is raided, East is given a new mission with three other gang members: to travel cross country and kill a potential witness who will soon testify against Fin. The kicker is that these would-be killers range in ages from 13 to 20. The youngest, Ty, is East's estranged, violent brother. 

The four set out to drive from LA to Wisconsin. Most boys have never been outside East LA much less the cold of the Midwest. Allowed to carry only false driver's licenses and cash for food and gas, the boys are to go straight to the destination without delay, pick up guns and directions, carry out the job, and return to LA.

But can they survive this journey with all the testosterone, jealousy, and violence simmering among them? When things begin to fall apart almost immediately, East must decide who can and cannot be trusted in their group to carry out the mission.

There are many unexpected twists and turns throughout the car trip and when they actually face their target, East is forced to make take actions that will preserve him without endangering Fin or the Los Angeles operations. But will those actions be accepted by his traveling partners and the people he encounters in the desolation of the rural small towns he encounters so far from Fin and the urban setting of LA?

I wanted to put this book down several times in the first chapters due to the language and potential for violence. But the writing was so gripping, the adventure so compelling, and the characters so challenging to me that I plunged on and boy, was I glad I stayed with it. The conflict between East and his brother, between East and his gang's mission, and the decisions he makes to shape his life are constantly surprising and challenging to readers as he faces this new world of cold and small towns.    

This is author Beverly's first book, so I am eager to see where he will take me next. Should be another exciting trip.

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Slouka, Mark. Brewster

A tremendously interesting coming-of-age story of four teenagers struggling to find answers to relationships and their own identities while attending high school. This is much better than I have described, superior to Catcher in the Rye for looking into the minds of young, interesting, challenged characters facing difficult life situations. (previously reviewed here)

The High Divide

Enger, Lin. The High Divide: A Novel. New York: Algonquin. 2014. Print.

First Sentences:

That summer was cool and windless, the clouds unrelenting, as if God had reached out his hand one day and nudge the sun from its rightful place.

Way out on the lip of the northern plains the small town lay hidden in fog, the few moving about at this hour ghostlike, not quite solid: the shopkeepers, the man driving his water-wagon, the dressmaker with her quick, smooth strides. In a clapboard house a stone's throw from the river, a lean, squared-shouldered man knelt before an old flattop trunk.

Description:

Picture yourself stretched out on the grass next to a stream in some friendly woods. Dappled sun, light breeze, the water gurgling. Complete relaxation.

Now imagine someone sitting nearby, out of sight, reading to you in a soft, soothing voice. Sometimes the words blend with the sounds of the river, gently washing over you in your relaxed state. Simple, quiet words with the strength to penetrate your dreams and create a world of images, people, and life.

Such was the effect on me of Lin Enger's new book The High Divide: A Novel. High Divide and the storytelling skills of Enger lulled me deep into its languid story of love, separation, guilt, forgiveness, and redemption. I was completely absorbed by the simple phrasings and clear pictures of life and hard landscape of the western prairie of Minnesota in the late 1800s. 

Ulysses Pope, a carpenter, husband, and father of two young boys, leaves his rustic Minnesota farm and family early one morning, leaving only a note that reads, "A chance for work, hard cash." Six weeks later after no further communication, his sons sneak away from their home to look for him, riding trains and venturing into cities far beyond their comprehension to guess at his trail, relying on the kindness of strangers but also facing the hostilities of others.

With all her three men gone Gretta, Ulysses' wife, decides to set out in a different direction to search for her sons and her husband. She worries that what she finds might answer questions about her quiet husband, his military life in the Civil War, and possibly a world involving another woman. But Gretta's money has run out and therefore must forge ahead to at least get Ulysses to settle their debts.

And who really is this Ulysses and what are his reasons to desert the family he loves without an explanation? As we walk with him and his dogged pursuit of his secret quest, we realize that he is a kind, strong man, but also one driven by inner demons kept from his family and beyond their power to overcome.

Each chapter follows one of these individuals on their travels as they slowly gain wisdom, strength, and experience that hopefully will lead them to their goal. The travelers encounter Civil War friends, Indians, a Smithsonian Museum curator, buffalo, and a mysterious woman who help or frustrate their quests.

The strong, quiet writing style in High Divide is suburb. Author Enger's words flow over you as if you are listening to a hidden voice gently relating an epic story of strong-willed people and the challenges they face. Enger's power of description brings each character and the old West vividly alive. Look at how he describes Ulysses' younger son;

[His son] still gave off that clean child-smell, like carrots pulled from the garden. 

Can the longing for a home, a family, and a place in life, be more clearly and strongly stated by Gretta as she considers her life?  

Home was something that should compass about you like the wind, Gretta thought -- you shouldn't have to think about it. And you certainly shouldn't have to build it out of nothing at all, with only love and your bare hands, the way she'd had to do.

So grab a comfy chair in front of the fire, sit under a tree, or loll in bed as Enger's words flow over you and incase you into the world of Ulysses and Gretta in the 1880s. A lovely, lovely experience.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Young, Carrie. Nothing to Do But Stay

Wonderful memoir about the people and life in the small farming community on the North Dakota plains. (previously reviewed here)

To Serve Them All My Days

Delderfield, R.F.. To Serve Them All My Days. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1972. Print

First Sentences:

The guard at Exeter warned him he would have to change at Dulverton to pick up the westbound train to Bamfylde Bridge Halt, the nearest railhead to the school, but did not add that the wait between trains was an hour..

It was one of those trivial circumstances that played a part in the healing process of the years ahead, for the interval on that deserted platform, set down in a rural wilderness, and buttresses by heavily timbered hills where spring lay in ambush, gave Powlett-Jones an opportunity to focus his thoughts in a way he had been unable to do for months, since the moment he had emerged from the dugout and paused, rubbing sleep from his eyes, to glance left and right down the trench.

Description:

When I started The First Sentence Reader blog, it was to share books I love that might not be familiar to other readers. One book in particular, R.F. Delderfield's  To Serve Them All My Days, was one that I most wanted resurrect and recommend to anyone seeking a great book full of strong characters, enveloping plot, and of course, wonderful writing.

In its first pages we are introduced to Second Lieutenant David Powlett-Jones, a shell-shocked World War I survivor looking to start his life over as a teacher in Bamfylde, a quiet boys school in England. He is taken under the wing by the personable headmaster, Algernon Herries. Under Algy's friendship and encouragement, Powlett-Jones begins to settle in to Bamfylde and push his memories of the trenches of World War I behind him.

Powlett-Jones has never taught school before, much less in a prestigious boarding school of young privileged men. This is the tale of a man growing and maturing just as his young students grow and mature. PJ is initially assigned to teach modern history to the Lower Fourth, the dreaded fifteen-year-olds who are old hands at the school, yet far enough away from graduation that they felt no pressure to apply themselves to work or discipline. 

PJ survives their attempts to test his authority and the boys gradually become engrossed in his stories about life in the military. He is willing to explain to them the realities of the world and motivations of countries that brought about the current War. This conflict is close to the hearts of the boys as it continues to take the lives of Bamfyld graduates they knew and whose deaths are noted in a weekly ceremony. 

The rest of the teaching staff are slow to warm to Powlett-Jones as they are so far removed from his real world of military experience, but at the same time are his superiors for their years of teaching. From Howarth, the "dry old stick" English professor, to Carter, the gung-ho patriot who feels himself a military expert after six months as a Territorial officer, they seem an odd lot to Powlett-Jones in his new environment.

The chapters unfold with new adventures to challenge and delight the residents of this school. Year after year we watch Powlett-Jones face situations concerning the young boys, staff, and himself with the calm logic and reasonableness that define his character of strength and goodness. There are some great characters in literature and David Powlett-Jones can hold his own with any of them.

It is this interaction, this self-growth, and this atmosphere of learning, both academic and personal, that makes To Serve Them All My Days the masterpiece of writing it is. Powlett-Jones and all the other residents of Bamfyld are such wonderful characters, so full of honor, spirit, and love that one cannot help but be thoroughly involved in their lives in this small school. 

It is a rather long novel (625 pages), so the opening sentences may not be the grabbers of other books reviewed here. But these sentences perfectly reflect the languid, detailed style of the author. And "rather long" is not such a bad description for a novel. In my opinion, a great "rather long" book is one that, when you finish reading it, you are hoping for even more chapters that will allow you to spend more time in this world and its inhabitants (e.g. Gone With the Wind, War and Peace, The Lord of the Rings, and A Life of Barbara Stanwyck). 

To Serve Them All My Days can take its rightful place in this illustrious group. And when you do reach its final pages, I guarantee you will regret the closing of the door to this world of Bamfyld and wish there were at least a few more chapters to prolong your time with Powlett-Jones and his charges. To Serve Them All My Days leaves you wanting more. Is there any better evaluation for a book?

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Codell, Esme. Educating Esme

Diary of a first year teacher's experiences in inner city school. Unusual in her unique, quirky, compassionate methods to reach the children and help them as students and people, the book details her exhaustive efforts to overcome forgotten children and an admiration that does not support her new techniques. (previously reviewed here)

Herriott, James. All Creatures Great and Small

Similar coming of professional age of a newly graduated veterinarian in the rural Yorkshire Dales, learning as he goes of the people, the animals, and the land. Wonderfully written with humor and great relationships between the author, his boss, and the local farmers.