SOLDIER FROM THE WAR RETURNING

Carrington presents a case-study of a young soldier, himself, on the Western front during the First War. It is a worm's eye view, although Carrington was a teen-age English officer. He triangulates his experience by comparing it with his duty as a staff officer during the Second War. The first draft of this book was published in 1929, but Carrington now feels that his Second War staff activities gives him a deeper perspective on his youth. Though he denies that he has attempted a ""history,"" he nonetheless gives a remarkably thorough sketch of the War's progress, high command decisions and the strategies of statesmen. Queerly, even to himself, he summarizes his two continuous years in France as ""the happiest of my life""--an emotion he attributes to the companionship of the trenches. Horror was daily fare but there was an honesty in disillusionment that was personally strengthening. His descriptions of the front are homely dissertations on the varieties of mud, the ""cushy"" trenches, the timeless passing of the seasons. He was, he says, usually ""disposed to stand off and look at myself from about forty feet away."" He was a good observer from any stance... The renewal of reading interest in this particular area may implement the readership for a minor memoir.