The Wars
First edition
|
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| Author | Timothy Findley |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Clarke, Irwin |
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Publication date
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1977 |
| Pages | 226 |
| ISBN | (first edition) |
| OCLC | 3689735 |
| 813/.5/4 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.F494 War PR9199.3.F52 |
| Preceded by | The Butterfly Plague |
| Followed by | Famous Last Words |
The Wars is a 1977 novel by Timothy Findley that follows Robert Ross, a nineteen-year-old Canadian who enlists in World War I after the death of his beloved older sister in an attempt to escape both his grief and the social norms of oppressive Victorian society. Drawn into the madness of war, Ross commits "a last desperate act to declare his commitment to life in the midst of death." Years later, a historian tries to piece together how he came to commit this act, interviewing the various persons that Ross met along the way.
The novel was first published by Clarke Irwin. It won the Governor General's Award for fiction in 1977.
The Wars utilizes first-, second-, and third-person narrative, which is very rare in literature. The narrative moves between voices, each telling part of Robert's story.
The novel is also an example of historiographic metafiction.
A young man named Robert Ross is introduced as squatting in a tattered Canadian military uniform, with a pistol in hand. A nearby building is on fire, and a train is stopped. There is evidence of war, and Ross is shown to be in the company of a black horse and a dog. Robert, the horse, and the dog seem to have been together for a while, as they understand each other. He decides to free a herd of horses from the train, and the prologue ends with the horses, rider, and dog all running as a herd.
Robert Ross enlists in the army to escape the guilt he feels after the recent death of his sister, Rowena, who died from falling out of her wheelchair while playing with her beloved rabbits in the barn. Robert feels guilty because he was unable to save her since he was making love to his pillows in his bedroom when he should have been watching her. His mother orders Robert to kill the rabbits after Rowena's death; when he refuses, his father hires Teddy Budge to kill the rabbits. In an attempt to stop Teddy, Robert is beaten up. Later, while he soaks the resulting bruises in the bathtub, Robert's mother comes in to talk to him. Drunk and visibly upset, she says that she knows Robert wants to go to war, and she accepts that she cannot stop him.
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