Picture It!

A soldier's sketchbook : the illustrated First World War diary of R.H. Rabjohn by R.H. Rabjohn/John Wilson

Canada : Tundra Books, [2017]     

112 p. : ill. ; 22 x 24 cm.

I'm always interested in WWI, the war that turned the European violence inward instead of outward and ripped the façade off the elegant civilization of Europe at a cost of the deaths of millions of combatants and many civilians.

This WWI book is a special addition to the literature of that "Great War." It consists of the sketches from the war done by R.H. Rabjohn, a soldier from Canada, who saw combat from April 1917 until the end of the war on November 11, 1918. 

It was Rabjohn's official duties as a soldier-sketch artist that allowed him to carry a sketch book (something that was prohibited to other soldiers). He also kept a diary and the author, John Wilson, has done a fine job of organizing the sketches and diary entries into a logical and easy to follow whole.  Doing drafts and support work at the front meant that Rabjohn was frequently in great danger and witnessed first hand the horrors of trench warfare that marked WWI.  

Given its visual appeal, shortness, and direct narrative, this book would be a great way of introducing World War I to teens and hopefully would interest some in wanting to know more about this nation shattering event - the tragic consequences of which continue into the present.

 

     

Two Days by the Sea

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 

Boston : Mariner Books, [2005], c1955.

xii, 209 p. ; 21 cm.     

I decided to read To the Lighthouse during the stay at home time this spring since I haven't read Virginia Woolf in a long time and it seemed like a short read and a chance to catch up on a "classic." 

This is not a novel you read for the narrative.  Most of the book happens on two single days separated by an interval of ten years. Within those ten years Europe is ripped apart by WWI and one of the central characters of part one dies.  However the novel is more interested in the impressions of various characters and the complex inner life of the characters. Instead of narrative being the engine of the novel, the movement of the novel is driven by impressionist and poetic writing.

There is much to admire in Woolf's writing, but I have to say it took me longer to read than I expected.  It's a book one savors for its stylistic accomplishments.  I think reading it during the pandemic, made it harder to truly enjoy the rich artistry of the writing.  With all that said, it's not really a book I would recommend to a student, unless they are really interested in literature as an art form.  In that case, I would recommend it as a significant milestone in English fiction, one that charted new territory for the genre.

Harsh Light

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Naperville, Ill. : Sourcebooks, [2018]
xviii, 477 p. : ill. ; 214 cm.

This is a fantastic book that ties several important periods of US history together - WWI, The Roaring Twenties and The Great Depression.  It also has a local interest in that half the drama of the story is in Ottawa, IL about an hour and forty-five minute drive from here in Urbana.

But it's a tough book, too.  It's the story of literally murderous corporate exploitation and dishonesty that shortened the lives of hundreds of women who worked in the factories where the luminous (and dangerously radioactive) radium was painted on wartime instrument panels and on civilian-use watch dials.  The deaths of several of the women featured in the book are slow, agonizing, and terrible to read about.  What makes the book inspiring, though, is the courage, grit and determination of the victimized women as they take on the companies that used and abused them - and eventually win significant victories.

This book has a lot of heart. The author succeeds in putting the reader into the lives of the women who worked in the radium-dial industry - capturing the initial excitement of well-paid employment for young women of the twenties and the freedom it gave them, and humanizing the gruesome and tragic illnesses that stalked these young women several years after they started the work.

The book is a great lesson about the dangers of unregulated corporate behavior, the power of unified resistance, and the importance of family, friends, community and the media in taking on powerful foes. It's a long, but very worthy read for anyone interested in US history.