‘Most of it comes about just like that.’ Hilliard snapped his fingers. He thought of the deaths and injuries he had seen, not in battle but caused by the single, random bullet, by a careless accident, by sheer bad luck. One shell coming out of nowhere, through the blue sky of a May morning, singing down into a corner of a trench where Higgins was frying bacon and talking to a couple of men from Glazier’s platoon. All killed. Then nothing more that day, only the warm sunshine and the ordinary jobs. Sergeant Carson had had his arms blown off demonstrating a new type of hand grenade at the Training Camp. So many pointless, messy, inglorious deaths, ‘just like that.’ He resented them more than anything.
(from Strange Meeting, page 71 in the hardcover version, for which I could not find a cover image)
Strange Meeting is a novel set during World War I that was originally published in 1971, and if it hadn’t been for the Literature and War Readalong hosted by Beauty is a Sleeping Cat, I would have missed out on a fantastic war novel. Susan Hill’s writing is beautiful, with undertones of darkness and despair that push the horrors and the senselessness of war to the forefront.
Hill tells the story of John Hilliard, a British lieutenant, who readers first meet as he prepares to go back to the front after being wounded. He spends some time in England with his family, but after all he has seen, he is plagued by nightmares, cannot stand to be at home, and feels a need to go back to the war. Upon his return to France, he learns that many of his friends and fellow soldiers have been lost on the battlefield, and he meets a junior officer, David Barton, who has yet to see any action. Barton’s optimism and happiness seem out of place in the midst of war, but his presence at the rest camp, his charm, his incessant chat about his family, and his practice of writing and sharing long letters to and from his family lift the men’s spirits.
Hilliard and Barton strike up a close friendship, with Barton becoming the listening ear Hilliard so desperately needs. Hilliard’s family is cold and distant, but Barton’s is warm and loving and accepts Hilliard without having met him, reaching out to him through letters. Barton’s influence on Hilliard is striking, and Hilliard’s feelings for Barton are so strong that he wants so very much to protect Barton from the death and destruction he will experience first-hand in the trenches.
The swiftness and strength of their friendship is understandable given the pressures of the war and the close quarters of the trenches, and because they are polar opposites, it is easy to see how they are good for each other. Hill writes with a fondness and tenderness for these characters, and her portrayal of two men who love one another (not romantically…at least I didn’t take it that way) feels authentic under the circumstances. She shows men who are both brave and scared and who turn to one another so that they do not feel alone in such a dark moment in their lives.
While much of the story centers on Hilliard’s and Barton’s friendship, it is a war story, and in the build up to a major battle, the men have some deep discussions about war, death, guilt, and all that goes along with seeing countless men fall to an unseen enemy. One of the most interesting passages comes from a letter written by Barton to his family about the impact of war on the environment.
It is so easy to destroy landscape, it takes a couple of days of really bad fighting and strafing, plus this rain, to turn what was beautiful (in spite of the war and everything littered about) into the most frightful scarred waste. I feel we shall have this on our consciences every bit as much as the deaths of men. What right have we to do such damage to the earth? After all, you may say that man can do what he likes with himself but he should not involve the innocent natural world. John disagrees, he says that a tree grows again and grass covers the craters in no time, but a man is dead, is dead, is dead. (page 184)
Strange Meeting is a slow-moving but beautifully written novel that takes readers into the trenches, lets them feel the tension and the damp and the intense noise of shells and guns. Hill shows both the beauty of war in Barton’s romanticizing of battle and the reality of the killing with Hilliard’s voice of experience. While much of the story is told from Hilliard’s point of view, Hill merges the viewpoints of both men seamlessly — the two opposites coming together in friendship, touching their lives in ways that could never be forgotten. Although somewhat predictable, Strange Meeting is a moving story about youth and experience, despair and hope, and friendship and love.
Disclosure: I borrowed Strange Meeting from my local library. I am an Amazon associate.
© 2011 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.
Anna, I really enjoyed your review … well done! This story sounds like one I’d enjoy a great deal. I’ve added this book to my list. Thanks!
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Thanks, Beth!
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I’ve read this one! It’s one of my favorite war novels (not that I’ve read many, but still)
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It’s made my list of war novels I’d recommend…and it’s the only WWI novel I have read so far (at least that I can remember).
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This is a new Hill for me. Thanks for this review.
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My pleasure! I hadn’t heard of this author until I read this book for the read-a-long.
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[…] Anna (Diary of an Eccentric) […]
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Excellent review and great choice of quotes. It is predictable, you are right, but I think this ads to the intensity. It’s sad to know one of them will die, and this knowledge makes it all the more fragile. The second quote you post is particularly powerful. As you may have seen someone on my post commented on this aspect of WWI. We are both French and this ripping open of French soil is something that we see and feel to this day in our country. I have read a fe excellent novels on WWI but none that captured this so well. And the suffering of the animals.
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Thanks for hosting the read-a-long. I am already learning so much. I can imagine that a war would take a toll on the landscape, but it’s not something I see on a daily basis or had even thought about until reading that passage. This book certainly made for an interesting discussion.
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Loved the quotes you chose. This book sounds compelling; it’s the first I’ve heard of it so thank you.
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You’re welcome! I hope you get a chance to read it.
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I think this one could be for me. The WWI novels just holds something special, they are fascinating and horrible
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I remember you saying you’re drawn to WWI novels, so I thought of you when I was writing my review. I’d love to read your thoughts on this book.
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Interesting novel. Haven’t read much war novels.
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Well, if you decide to try one, you should put this book toward the top of your list! But I guess it really depends on what war you want to read about. Sometimes I think I’ve read too many war novels, but for some reason I find them fascinating.
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I really like the sound of how this friendship grows and carries these men through one of the worst wars.
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This really is a beautiful story about friendship. I hope you give this book a try at some point.
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I wonder what the best, can’t-miss-it, World War I novel is? I didn’t much care for All Quiet on the Western Front, and I can’t remember what other WWI novels I’ve read.
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I don’t remember reading All Quiet on the Western Front, so I can’t comment on that book. And I can’t remember reading any other WWI novels. All I know is that I’m glad I didn’t miss this book!
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Great review. I have added this to my TBR list because I enjoyed I’m the King of the Castle by Susan Hill last year and have been on the lookout for other books by this author.
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Thanks! I haven’t read anything else by Hill, but I definitely will consider reading one of her other books.
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I might try this one.
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Great! Let me know if you do; I’d love to read your thoughts.
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Wonderful review, Anna.:)
I will add Strange Meeting to my TBR list, although it may be quite a while until I get to it.
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Thanks, Suko! I know how it is…so much to read, so little time!
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There really aren’t a lot of books that encompass WWI. This one sounds interesting…I might have to pick it up one day.
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Since reading The War to End All Wars last year for a background of WWI and then Strange Meeting, I really want to read more about WWI. We’ll have to cover it in a War Through the Generations challenge soon!
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I’d never heard of this one. I have really enjoyed some of Hill’s books but this sounds quite different from her others. I’ll have to look into this one!
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I guess I must’ve been living under a rock, as I hadn’t heard of this author until the read-a-long!
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This is one of the other American wars that I haven’t read much about, sounds like this is a wonderful novel to start with though. I’m definitely adding it to my wish list.
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I’m glad I started with The War to End All Wars (middle-grade, coffee-table non-fiction book about the war) to give me a background. That really helped a lot reading Strange Meeting because I knew virtually nothing about WWI until recently. I hope you give this one a try.
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[…] quote in her review reminded me that a big part of the book is dedicated to the devastation of the earth, the […]
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I think we get so wrapped up in the latest books as book bloggers that we forget that there are a ton of great books that are older that we have yet to discover. Thanks for bringing this one to my attention.
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My pleasure! I love uncovering old treasures!
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[…] Book Blog (The Siege)35. Lucybird’s Book Blog (first chapter of When God was a Rabbit)36. Diary of an Eccentric (Strange Meeting)37. Diary of an Eccentric (Slappy New Year!)38. Diary of an Eccentric (Small Wars)39. Hope(Hitler by […]
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[…] 3. The Report by Jessica Francis Kane (WWII) 4. Small Wars by Sadie Jones (1956 war in Cyprus) 5. Strange Meeting by Susan Hill (WWI) 6. The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah (WWII) 7. How Many Miles to Babylon? by […]
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