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Assessment:
The searing reality of a young combat veteran who returns home is beautifully and bittersweetly brought to life in Owen's slim, potent tale of war and recovery. The author's first-person chronicle is written in lyrical, poetic language: paragraphs of dense prose capably reflecting the memories, horror, and emotional baggage the protagonist carries with him. Stunningly emotive, frequently puzzling (in terms of narrative voice), but consistently remarkable, passionate, strong, and significant.
Date Submitted: July 12, 2016
This outstanding novel is an examination of what defines us as people.
‘This is an ambitious and thoughtful book, valuable both for itself and its charitable links. It weaves stories of loss and war around a structure of T.S. Eliot’s the Waste Land and speaks for, as well as supports, some of those for whom speech is difficult yet necessary in the wake of past trauma.’
He writes with a knowledge of war and the military so vividly, at times the reader is right next to him, experiencing the same events. And he writes with a quiet beauty that is often simply stunning.
And yet East of Coker is ultimately hopeful, that lives can be renewed. One can’t pick up from where one left, but one can start a new life, a different life. The old veteran eventually sees that, as he reaches out to the lost love decades later.
East of Coker is an extraordinarily fine way of using the poetry of T.S. Eliot in a way that I believe Eliot meant it to be understood. It is a worthy fundraising project. And a very moving narrative.