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The Student News Website of Susquehannock High School,   Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.

SHS Courier

The Student News Website of Susquehannock High School,   Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.

SHS Courier

‘A Soldier’ of a great novel

By –Rixxardo (talk) 10:43, 3 December 2012 (UTC) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

   A Soldier of the Great War is a novel of many genres by Mark Helprin, author of other stories such as Refiner’s Fire and Winter’s Tale.

  The story follows the life of an old and refined man, Alessandro Giuliani, in Rome. It begins with him traveling to a station to ride a streetcar down to Monte Prato to see his family. While aboard the streetcar, he sees a young man chasing after it, flailing his arms and shouting for it to wait. Alessandro tells the driver to stop for the young man and to let him on. However, the driver refuses and an argument breaks out, resulting in Alessandro getting kicked off and left on the road with the man who had been chasing it.

  The young man introduces himself as Nicolo, and he had been chasing the streetcar so that he could go to Sant’ Angelo to visit his sister, a nun. The two talk for a moment before deciding to go the rest of the way on foot, which is roughly seventy miles. Alessandro leads, cane in hand, as they begin their journey. Nicolo first sees Alessandro as a crazed old man, but as he begins speaking wisdom and walking at a pace that even the young man cannot match, he realizes there’s more to Alessandro than he thought.

 The story is a mixture of the present and past, jumping between Alessandro and Nicolo, and Alessandro’s youth, which is filled with romance and war. There is comedy and tragedy, wisdom and normalcy.

  The writing style is exceptional; it is a combination of beautiful details and insightful dialogue that, even if one isn’t a fan of the plot, one can still enjoy the wisdom it shares and the world that it shows.

  A Soldier of the Great War is a fantastic novel showing the trials of youth and the lessons to be learned from them, it deserves a spot on any bookshelf.

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‘A Soldier’ of a great novel