On Graves

Graves wrote about the horror and humor in war with such precision it is easy to see his influence in novels like "Catch-22," "Mash" and "Slaughterhouse-Five." I feel like he must have laid the groundwork for similar books with his unflinching recounting of the madness surrounding him. In fact, his style of coming at these horrors obliquely makes them resonate with the reader all the more. At times I found myself wondering exactly how scandalous this book must have been received in England with descriptions of people being clearly recognizable even when not necessarily naming them. To so fundamentally challenge the various systems of his country had to have forced his retirement from a whole social and physical world, the "England" that he grew up in. He goes after the education system, the military, the class system and the political system with such fervor, I can't imagine what it must have been like for him. For me, this deliberate alienation has been the central consuming take-home from this work. It was fascinating to watch this transpire.