344. Her Privates We

Her Privates We
Frederic Manning
1930
Around 240 pages

And we are back to talking about how sucky the trenches were in World War I. I can't wait until we are talking about how sucky a different war is.

Bourne is a private in the Battle of Somme. He's pretty much a blank slate so he can stand in for the average soldier, which makes him super boring as a character. I did like that Manning began each chapter with a Shakespeare quote. It would have been so much fun to find the perfect line for each section (hey, you're a nerd too if you are reading this blog). 

He still managed to inject the novel with the usual dose of misogyny. I believe he writes something along the lines of "women have the intuition of an egg." Sort of a drive by. Anyway, an accurate portrayal of trench warfare, which I am starting to think, was sucky.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Title is from the following exchange in Hamlet:

"Guildenstern: On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.

Hamlet: Nor the soles of her shoe?

Rosencrantz: Neither, my lord.

Hamlet: Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours?

Guildenstern: Faith, her privates we.

Hamlet: In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she is a strumpet."

UP NEXT: The Apes of God by Wyndham Lewis. Why is the List so obsessed with this guy? My library claims he doesn't exist.