War is one of those things that, unless you were a participant, you aren't really equipped to talk or think about except in the most abstract terms. Even our morality about war tends to be based on such abstractions. This means that for those who have never experienced war, the emotional realities of the subject remain as impossible to comprehend as what the experience of death must be like. And for those who were there, especially those on the front lines, trying to put into words what they encountered and what they felt is equally impossible. A seemingly unbridgeable chasm exists between these two worlds, it is no wonder that such a wealth of literature exists dealing with war as subject matter. War is ineffable, and isn't that what a good author does? Tackle the ineffable? Try to put into words that which words fail to adequately describe time and again?
Sajer's memoir of his experiences as a French-born German soldier on the Eastern Front is powerful. Not only because we are hearing from a man who was on the front lines of the most brutal war in the history of the world, or because we are exploring a perspective that history has sought to bury, but because Sajer offers himself up so fully, so nakedly, as he struggles to describe what cannot be described, and attempts to retain his humanity while being rolled over by a machine designed to destroy it. The Forgotten Soldier is a heartbreaking work, but it is also funny, and full of life, and utterly human in its approach. You may marvel at Sajer's stunning recall for tiny details or you might curse him for forgetting the big ones; regardless, you will be drawn in to this tale, which is told as masterfully as any work of literature before it.
Time and time again I was staggered by how naked and vulnerable Sajer allows himself to be, but even more I was amazed by how humble he is, and what a good job he does letting his own story take the back seat to the stories of others when necessary. Throughout The Forgotten Soldier, Sajer makes it clear that he believes his mission as a writer is not one that can be accomplished, but still he makes every effort. You can feel how much it hurts him to relive this time, but you also get the sense that not trying to explain it hurts him far more. I don't know that this particular anguish is unique to soldiers; I imagine that anyone who has dealt with traumatic events struggles with the same problem of needing to make others understand while feeling utterly incapable of doing so. But in the case of soldiers, there also exists a number of elaborately constructed fictions about who soldiers are and what heroism means; these fictions, which are ideological in nature, intensify the surviving soldier's anguish, because now, not only is he attempting to explain events and traumas so beyond the pale of everyday life, but he also must call into question all of our assumptions; he may even be faced with the task of calling into question our entire understanding of history. Sajer offers much insight into these questions, but it is clear that doing so brings him no comfort. Men like Guy Sajer wish that the fictions were true. They wish that it could be the way we thought it was. But they aren't, it can't be, and trying to hold in the truth isn't an option, because the truth will fester inside of you like a cancer. For Sajer, the need to explain and get it all out is compulsive.
Lucky for us, he's damn good at it. His prose is at times poetic and warm; at others, hard and cold, depending on what it needs to be. Sajer knows exactly which techniques to employ when, and--whether he realizes it or not--how to make us feel exactly as we need to feel. On this count, The Forgotten Soldier ranks not simply as a great memoir, or as a great war story, but as one of the great works of literature. Sajer's lone volume may not be as well known as some of the other works that make up the canon, but it is just as rich and masterfully constructed, and it saddens me that The Forgotten Soldier is not more well known than it is. There may be no other book that better captures the psychology of the soldier at war, with such raw emotionality and in such vivid prose. The only other author I can think of that is on the same level is Tim O'Brien, particularly his ground-breaking short story collection The Things They Carried, which takes a metafictional approach to the war story, driving home the point that capital-T Truth and straight, unadorned fact are not always one in the same, a lesson that Sajer's most vocal critics would do well to learn.
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How it was for the other side.
This is a profound book, one badly needed in a world that has as a hobby pillorying Germany over the war for the last 75 years. This is what it was like for a young Euro who by accident of birth lived in a place where he was just as likely to end up in the French Army as the German. It shows how we all are prisoners of our time and place and cannot be truly judged by those who come after us. He happened to be born in a country that had never known democracy and was being persecuted by the country's that had won a war but continued to mistreat these broken people and keep them humiliated and unstable after peace had been declared. The result of the behavior of France and England created a result that would cost all of Europe dearly. This is a heartbreaking account of what happened and what it did to millions of innocents in uniform and out.
Top reviews from other countries
Gerardo Bañuelos
Pésimas condiciones
Reviewed in Mexico on October 7, 2023
Gerardo Bañuelos
Reviewed in Mexico on October 7, 2023
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Amazon Customer
Howsome! Very intense and interesting testimony!
Reviewed in Canada on September 23, 2021
