‘In Memoriam’ by Alice Winn isn’t a particularly beautiful book. It’s gory at times. But it’s a fabulous one and completely on point.
Ellwood, Gaunt, and their friends are still in school, an elite school that prepares its students for great futures. The story begins in 1914 and World War I is destroying Europe. Ellwood can hardly wait to turn 19 and enlist. War is so heroic! When Gaunt, who is not as enthusiastic about the war as Ellwood, has no choice but to enlist by lying about his age, Ellwood soon follows.
And as it turns out, war isn’t as heroic as Ellwood imagined it would be. And Alice Winn does an impressive job of illustrating the horrors of war, as well as the little delights. It’s definitely not a book for you if you can’t stomach graphic descriptions of a war. But I hope you will. Everyone should read this excellent anti-war book. And, of course, it’s queer!
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