4 out of 4 stars
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In this nuanced and affecting literary historical fiction novel, And I Shall Be Healed by Julia Lee Dean, a British army chaplain, Leonard Ellis (Leo), dutifully serves on the Western Front during World War I: writing home to waiting families on behalf of incapacitated or deceased soldiers, presiding over soldiers’ burials, and even organizing concert parties for the respite of active troops during combat. For his own private reasons, however, Leo has a habit of declining to take the leave that’s due him so that he can visit his home in Sussex, but a letter with news of his mother’s worsening illness soon obliges Leo to make a trip home, even if the trip is, perhaps, a dreaded one....I understand it as a promise; a promise that this war will end and that somewhere in the world, in this pure moment before this strange, premature sunset, all is right with the world and all will be well.
The novel isn’t a war thriller riddled with staggering action, and indeed, despite the time and place, it’s not even principally about the war. Rather, this account is more about Leo’s internal landscape and personal experience; about his past familial tragedy and the frightening, inexplicable breakdown of an old friendship that haunts him; about the unanswered questions and self-doubt he battles with behind the letters written, the prayers offered, and the sacraments served, behind his sacred surplice, stole, and collar.
Yet, because the author, with her deft and contemplative style, isn’t forcing the war to be “thrilling,” the glimpses of its horrors through Leo’s eyes have that much more of an impact alongside his difficulties back at home. The reader can empathize with Leo’s reaction to the soldiers’ unsavory leisure activities among village residents, can hear the contempt in the voice of a hometown vicar as he addresses Leo again and again by name (“I want no sermons from you, Mr Ellis.” “Oh so you think this is funny do you, Mr Ellis?”), and when moments of genuine love and comradeship take their place in Leo’s world, the moments are unpretentious and therefore remarkable.
My minor qualms with the reading had nothing to do with the story itself. The writing contains many independent clauses separated with only commas when semicolons or periods would have made the sentences clearer. There are several places, particularly around the novel’s midpoint, where the paragraphs aren’t indented or they run into each other without line breaks. I wouldn’t know if the paragraph errors appear in all versions of the book or only in the digital format I read.
Also, though I’m not a reader who puts much stock in book blurbs, I’m aware that countless readers are, and I think this novel could benefit from a creative description that captures the spirit of the work, as the technical, one-sentence blurb that dryly states the book is a “first-person, fictional account” would not move me to pick up the book if, again, I was someone more concerned with blurbs and was searching online for my next read.
Overall, I give this multilayered, well thought-out, and beautifully woven tale a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. I’d recommend it to readers of literary fiction as well as historical fiction and war story enthusiasts who consider inward human journeys to be just as significant as outward ones.
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And I Shall Be Healed
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Even with its layers, though, And I Shall Be Healed is actually rather uncomplicated. Thanks for reading, ALynnPowers!
