One of the things that interested me most in this memoir was the intricacy of Graves' relationships with his peers. I agree with Caitlin's comments about the matter-of-fact tone Graves used in describing the deaths he witnessed, though I also felt that when it came to his personal relationships and the deaths of those he was closer too, there was an emotional impact that, while not necessarily dwelt on by Graves himself, still hit the reader hard. His reaction to David Thomas' death, for example: "I felt David's death worse than any other death since I had been in France. It did not anger me as it did Siegfried …. It just made me feel empty and lost." (p. 240) As a soldier, Graves could harden himself to the atrocities of death all around him, but we aren't able to forget that nobody is immune or safe - Graves often introduces friends or peers in his battalion only to later mention that they were killed, reminding the reader again and again of the emotional losses suffered in war.
I was also very struck by the post-traumatic stress suffered by Graves in the war. While the idea of "shell-shock" is a well-documented facet of WWI, and in wars since, it was interesting to read a first-hand account of just how much Graves was affected and what it meant for his life both during and after the war. Graves' post-war sufferings of nerves, intolerance to loud noises, and being "haunted" by ghosts and the faces of soldiers killed in combat took its toll: "My disabilities were many. I could not use a telephone, I was sick every time I travelled in a train, and if I saw more than two new people in a single day it prevented me from sleeping. I was ashamed of myself as a drag on Nancy." (p. 342)
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