In Parenthesis (New York Review Books)

David Jones served in the ranks of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and survived two years service on the Western Front. These experiences form the inspiration for his magnum opus. Written for those men with whom he served, Jones's poem follows a section of Fusiliers in their first six months in the line, culminating in the 38th Welsh Division's attack at Mametz Wood in the second week of the Somme Offensive. Jones imbues his poetry with his literary and cultural influences - invoking the Welsh bards Aneirin and Taliesin, and the tales of Arthur and of Roland, and the long forgotten memories of the Roman legions. This, some have said, tends to make light of the events portrayed, glorifying war, but not so, for Jones isn't in the business of belittling the struggle and death of these men, rather as he says at the beginning he is remembering what he saw and felt. Jones is very much harkening back to an older bardic tradition, manifested in particular by his careful emulation of older poetic traditions, namely that of medieval Wales and France. Though grounded in the cold hard reality of the Western Front, Jones words speak of an older more ancient time; his Fusiliers are no mere victims of a foolish general's blunder - there isn't much of the "lions led by donkeys" myth perpetuated here - but soldiers forced into the heat of battle, who seek to hug the earth but arise to commit themselves to an attack nonetheless. Quite powerful. If a layman seeks an inkling of understanding of the trenches then this is most certainly the work for it. This is not a memoir, but a lyrical masterpiece of verse and prose, too often overlooked. This is the English language molded and manipulated to charm the senses so as to instill a small appreciation of the reality. It is a song of warriors, composed by one who survived.

Fantastic, poetic treatment of the life of an infantryman in the the trenches during WWI. Pages upon pages of byzantine allusions to the mythology and literature of ancient Britain will probably have interest only for dedicated scholars. For the rest of us, it’s pretty much a waste of time. Still, when it sticks to day-to-day experiences, it’s truly magnificent. Of particular note: the prose poem devoted to the ‘going over the top. I have never read a more visceral and realistic portrayal of an experience that is so horrific as to be wholly untranslatable. I guess that’s what poetry is for. Highly recommended.

While there is a lot to recommend here, it's a tough read.Jones appeals to me because I'm a big fan of Dos Passos, Shakespeare and WWI slang. His poetry reminds me a lot of Dos Passos' Camera Eye, technique, a sort of everyman's stream of consciousness. He drops in lots of brief snips from Shakespeare, especially Henry V, which I found personally gratifying. And of course, there's loads of slang. That's all very appealing.But, there are many, many references to Welsh history and mythology, about which I know very, very little.For me, it overloaded the text, and I found myself buried in the notes. And I should point out that Jones recommends following the notes as you read.It's a text that tugs me in two very different directions.

More than with money, more than by media, the 20th century was a century of mass warfare.David Jone's subtle epic enters the heart of that.It is beautiful ,strange and everlastingly terrifying.

An amazing World War I epic poem I had never known about despite years off studying poetry. Dense, complex, highly literary, but also pungently evocative, intimate, and sensual portrayal of war in the trenches, and the people who lived and died there.

One of the best First War memoirs told in a completely original way. If T.S. Elliot thought he was a genius, who am I to disagree...

World War I poet David Jones, a magnificent artist and writer, tells of his experience at Somme in this long poem. Jones is Welsh, a fusilier, and now a more or less forgotten poet. I recommend his work.

As good as Homer and Virgil. A must read for anyone who:..appreciates finely crafted literature...has experienced wartime as a soldier (and their family)...uses philosophy as an expression of the human condition.

Absolutely wonderful book. It is such a shame that this classic and moving tale of life and death in the trenches of world war one is not better known today. As T.S. Eliot said, it is a "work of genius."

A perfect book

Very much liked the book!

Beautifully written, but impenetrable, like a wander round an abstract art gallery dedicated to mud and nastiness. I think that without some knowledge of the war, a reader would be lost. It would be very hard to get a clear idea of place, individual struggle, or wider action and impossible to understand why things are happening. The crafting of something artistically fascinating out of the horrors of that conflict has always seemed to me like choosing a paragraph from a coroner's report as a calligraphic study. It's demonstrative and possibly therapeutic for the artist, but there's no insight into why people accepted the war in the way they did. No questioning of why it appears to be thought of like an evil game of rugby that all young men expected they would have to play at some time, but one where every touch of the ball might end with a horrible death. The bravery can be saluted, but the ever-present mythologies of war are hard to accept and the poetry doesn't make it any better. It's art that shapes memories and tries to make sense of them, but it's not art that goes beyond the individual to the huge questions of morality and madness that still plague us, more than a century on.

The book arrived early, well packed and in excellent condition. I found out about the book by accident and was assured it was the English equivalent of the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is wonderfully written and gives a long hard look at being a World War I solider and it was not a pleasant life. Hopefully, no more young men - from any country - will ever have to live in the same circumstances for the same reason.