So Much Life Left Over by Louis De Bernieres

Daniel was a legendary WWI Flying Ace, a survivor of the war now facing an immensity of endless days filled with trivialities. As a tea manufacturer in Ceylon, he has the company of Hugh who was also a pilot in the war, and a bright future in an exotic land. Daniel's wife Rosie is pregnant with their second child.

After the war, Daniel's brother Archie went to India, He is a risk taker and a drunk, in love with Rosie who married Daniel after her fiance died in the war. Rosie's sister Otillie in England is in love with Archie, but he distrusts anyone who could love him. He prefers his hopeless and unrequited love for Rosie. He writes to Otillie,"You could not have been my salvation, because no one ever will be. I am one of the damned..reconciled to my fate here in this most godforsaken and lunatic corner of the Empire."

Daniel and Archie also lost two brothers in South Africa.

'I used to have three brothers," he said fiercely, 'and now I only have one. Two brothers lost to the Empire. Both killed in South Africa. My father is dead. Archie is the only brother I have left.'

Rosie's sister Sophie married a clergyman who writes novels; they have been unable to have children. And then there is sister Christabel, a Bloomsbury Bohemian living with Gaskell, two women artists who long for a child. Gaskell tells Daniel, "We are looking for a new way to live...There must be a better way of doing things." They later involve Daniel in their 'new way.'

The war haunts Daniel and Rosie. For the moment they are living on the tea plantation like kings in paradise, expecting a second child. But happiness is elusive, and their marriage is imperiled by tragedy. Rosie retreats into religion leaving Daniel to find love elsewhere. Daniel dearly loves his children, especially his eldest, Esther. But as the marriage falls apart the children become pawns.

Their generation fought to save civilization. Louis De Bernieres writes that returning to civilian life, some men became drunks while others turned inward, some embraced the new world while others returned to their old life repressing the war into distant memory. Each character has been scared and altered by the war.

"Mr. Wragge was content in his modest paradise. After the death marches, and the months of tunneling in the mountains with a pick, this English garden was indeed a dream of Eden...Oily Wragge was determined to salvage his sanity out of the purgatorial experience of captivity."

So Much Life Left Over was a wonderful read, with gorgeous writing and interesting, conflicted characters. Daniel and Rosie and their families were wonderfully drawn. There are moments of humor and scenes of great sorrow. Even the minor characters, like Rosie's mother Mrs. McCosh and Oily Wragge are memorable.

Daniel and Mr. Wragge go to Germany to start a motorcycle business with former POWs Daniel had captured and befriended. Daniel witnesses firsthand the rising anti-Semitism that fuels the rise of Hitler. The dynamics are eerily familiar and disturbing. Nearly 100 years later, and we seem to be repeating history.

The novel continues the story in The Dust that Falls From Dreams, which I had not read and which one does not need to have read to enjoy this book. So Much Life Left Over has an open ending, with Daniel making a momentous decision. I felt I knew what he decides, but I am sure there is going to be another volume to continue his story. In the meantime, I do want to read more by de Bernieres, who also wrote Corelli's Violin.

Read an excerpt at
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/594960/so-much-life-left-over-by-louis-de-bernieres/9781524747886/

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

So Much Life Left Over
by Louis de Bernieres
Pantheon
Hardcover | $26.95
Publication date: Aug 07, 2018
ISBN 9781524747886