The long shadows of war

Press, 7 December 1985, Page 20

The long shadows of war

Anno Domini. By George Stein. and Faber, 1985. 205 pp. $ll-25 (paperback).

The sombre and forbidding cover of this slim paperback accurately indicates the contents, which comprises three dark and comfortless long short stories, or novellas. The three are entirely separate and distinct yet they are strongly linked by a common theme — the effect that war continues to have, long afterwards, on the minds and characters of those who have been involved and have survived.

The protagonists in these stories have survived physically (though not entirely unscathed), but mentally and spiritually all three are irremediably maimed. The horrors, the betrayals, and the forced intimacies of wartime linger in their minds and influence their actions for years afterwards. Captain Falk in “Return No More” ventures back to the French farmhouse where he had ordered the hanging of the eldest son; the narrator in “Cake” visits the hospital where he sat silent as the Jewish girl he loved was taken away; and Gerald in “Sweet Mars” tries in vain to recapture the one relationship which had made the war bearable to him.

The stories are all powerful and haunting. George Stein writes in a

poetical but restrained style with telling use of small detail to heighten the horror, and with devasting insight into the self-deception men hide behind. The stories were first published in 1964. Although they 1 deal with the aftermath of the Second World War they have universal relevance. “Anno Domini” is not an easy book to read, but it is impressive both for the skill with which it is written and for the compassionate revelation of the psychological damage war inflicts. — Margaret Quigley.