TESTAMENT OF YOUTH by Vera Brittain (non-fic)

Noting that a new film based on Vera Brittain's poignant and affecting memoir about the destruction of family life caused by World War I, I decided to reread her book.  I first read "Testament of Youth" shortly after the Vietnam War, and it seemed to resonate with meaning during that era.  The book and Brittain's message has lost none of its powerful significance during our own time of world turmoil.

Vera Brittain writes of the loss of innocence and the war's impact on her generation;she writes of the youth of that time being totally unprepared for the horror they would face and the effect the war had on those who were left behind to face the loss of loved ones and contemporaries.  Britain lost her fiance, Roland Leighton who was only 20 years old when he died, as well as her beloved brother, Edward, and two of her closest friends fighting in France.

Brittain was born into an ordinary conservative Derbyshire family, yet somehow developed into a brilliant individual who questioned the senselessness of sending millions of unprepared young men to their death.  She questioned the British education system which preached platitudes extolling the virtues of of patriotic duty and the noble cause.  Unlike the Bloomsburries who railed against the war, she, also a committed pacifist, volunteered to nurse the wounded in the wretched conditions of a field hospital in the front lines.

Brittain was determined to survive and write an account of the damage of the war and its toll on returning veterans and their families.  It took her 17 years to complete her memoir of friendship and loss.  When published, it became an instant success and was read all over the world. The sad fate of Roland, Edward, Victor and Geoffrey was immortalized, but so was Vera's political awakening and her questioning of correct feminine behavior.  It provided insight into the lost generation and the youth of the 1920s who were forced to face the darkness of reality.

This is indeed a sad book, but one that remains forever relevant as long as our young men and women continue to lose their lives fighting wars that are beyond our understanding and control.  I highly recommend this book to all thoughtful readers and those interested in World War I and its aftermath.  I hear the movie is excellent as well, though sure to be a sad one.