A fresh look at the fog of war — and love
War is John Boyne’s topic; his best-known novel is the concentration camp soul-crusher The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. In his latest, The Absolutist, the action all stems from one Tristan Sadler’s time in the horror show that was the trenches of World War I. The war shapes the next decades of Tristan’s life, as he is drawn into the influence of fellow soldier – and occasional lover – Will Bancroft.
The Absolutist has both grand themes and a sweeping scale. Boyne does not shy away from either talking about the death of a generation or to question of what those deaths accomplished, but his focus on Will and Tristan allows him to examine morality in multiple layers. Will, for one, is more concerned with being discovered as a homosexual than being shot by his own side for cowardice. In fact, Will is the titular absolutist whose strong moral compass guides him 180 degrees from the relativism that is necessary in war, while Tristan is willing to kill in wartime for the greater good.
Years after the end of the War to End All Wars, Tristan is unable to shake Will’s absolutism. Narrated in the voice of a British everyman by Michael Maloney, he cannot partake of the glorious histories others recount. This truth-to-power attitude can occasionally seem like browbeating, with Tristan’s pronouncements veering into “War (What Is It Good For?)” territory. When asked about his thoughts on the Great War, Tristan can’t help but respond, “I didn’t think it was all that great. In fact, if memory serves, it was bloody awful.” But who cares if Tristan’s views are sometimes inartfully stated? The message comes through loud and clear.
In some ways, <The Absolutist> is a pastiche of all the great war and post-war novels of the last 150 years, with prominent doses of War and Peace and Atonement, but this tale of two soldiers brings a fresh look at the fog of war – and love.