Books: “Requiem for a Wren” by Nevil Shute

Another brilliant story by Nevil Shute (see also: “A Town Like Alice”, “On the Beach.”), on the silent truth of war, what it means to those involved at the height of their youth. Despite its heart-wrenching outcomes, the surviving characters look upon war as their glorious past – their love, their achievements, are born from its chaos and they struggle to move beyond, grasping at fragments of history and memory to retain its embers.

This particular novel, however, as the title suggests, is a tribute to the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS). It was my first encounter of such women who served in the war, and it’s a humbling experience to think their tireless efforts are now overlooked and forgotten.

One of the many reasons I admire Shute is his generous love of women; yet he does not write about physical beauty or romantic notions of femininity. Those who are his heroine are courageous within the bounds of practicality (ie: they are not vainglorious). It is precisely this “un-sexy” character that should be esteemed universally, especially by women themselves.

“You don’t realize that in time you’ll get accustomed to the disability, that in years to come you may have just as much enjoyment out of life as you had before, though in a different way.”

“I had travelled the world and I had come to realise, in faint surprise, that I had seen no countryside that could compare in pastoral beauty with that of my own home.”

“Like some infernal monster, still venomous in death, a war can go on killing people for a long time after it’s all over.”

“That ghosts have power nobody can deny…”