Homage to a Master Storyteller.

As troops assemble in the name of peace, a timely reminder of war's reality is offered to us by the Australian novelist, Tom Keneally. His portrait of the Great War as it affected those who fought and particularly those who nursed the wounded, is an unforgettable experience.
     Here is my review of 'The Daughters of Mars'.
    

Homage to a Master Storyteller., August 29, 2014 By Margaret Sutherland    This review is from: The Daughters Of Mars (Kindle Edition) There are already 226 reviews of this book so what makes me want to write another? It is rare to find a book I regard with wholehearted admiration. What did I admire? Everything. The scope of the story, the writing, the research, the compassion, the acceptance of life in all its conflict. This is just a big, marvellous novel. I feel I have lived through the First World War. I am a nurse, and I can imagine the challenge of going from a country hospital in Australia to work in the field of bloodshed, amputation and agony. Sometimes it seems kinder to let the injured die, except that nurses and doctors may not make such decisions. The Durance sisters have experienced one parallel before they go overseas. Their mother, dying of cancer, moves Sally Durance to consider euthanasia, using morphine. Her sister, Naomi, seems to pre-emp her sister, taking the burden of the decision on her shoulders. Working through a misunderstanding brings the sisters close, as does the near-drowning they share when their troop ship is torpedoed. Gas attacks, pneumonia, gangrene, blindness, shell shock, syphilis...it's not a pretty world, and the comforts are uncertain. Sally has 'a soul destined for belief' while Naomi is 'disappointed with the deity.' There are days of compensation; a day in Paris, viewing the Louvre and Notre Dame 'from whose tower she could see the hatted heads of men in the open-topped pissoirs, capable without embarrassment of lifting their hats to passing ladies.' There is room for brief romance and the hope of future marriage, but all emotions exist against a random backdrop. Nothing is secure and death can strike the most unlikely victims. Yet how much can people care about the fate of others? Life still goes on. Farmers and their wives plough and plant, indifferent to the nearby field of crosses. Time can be found for a Sunday game of cricket. Naomi, always philosophical, decides that 'life was so ridiculous...that it must be accepted and worshipped as it came.' Some reviews remark on the odd ending of the book. It is an odd ending. But by that stage I was totally in Tom Keneally's hands and willing to go wherever he led. The ending didn't matter. In life there is no ending, just beginnings and more beginnings.