Set during World War I, ‘My Dear, I Wanted To Tell You has garnered the typical comparisons to the likes of ‘Birdsong’ and the ‘Regeneration’ trilogy, and honestly, while I was looking forward to reading it, I very much doubted the likelihood of it matching up to those esteemed novels. To some extent, I was correct; this novel was not quite at their level. However, it got much closer than I ever imagined it would, and turned out to be the best novel I’ve read in quite some time.
I’m no stranger to wartime fiction, but I actually found it to be a surprisingly fresh take on the genre. While the violence and horrors of the battlefield are certainly not shied away from, it’s the human element of the War which Young is most interested in. Class, the role of women, art, and love are all explored through five main characters, and it is Young’s brilliant understanding of relationships and human suffering against societal expectations which make this such a remarkable read. While I’m a sucker for a good wartime romance (and the love story between Riley and Nadine is certainly very strong), it was actually the gender element which particularly drew me into the story. Julia, for example, has been bred for marriage, but finds when her husband goes off to war that she is suddenly stuck without a role to play; conversely, Rose, a woman who was resigned to being a spinster, and ignored within society, finds herself as a nurse with a massively important job to do. clichéd characterisations they perhaps may be, but the impact of the war on these previously stable lives, and how each of the women deal with their new roles, is played out slowly and subtly, and it’s a tribute to Young that these characters aren’t lost behind the more emotionally charged love story.
What drives My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You is ultimately the impact of World War I on human nature, and the society in which such violence was permitted. How can anyone live through such horrors and still hold an appreciation for beauty and love? How can a life of normality be resumed? What is normality, for that matter, when bodies, minds and the very earth itself have been torn apart? These are big themes, and Young has proven herself to be a writer worthy of tackling them.
5/5
