The Missing of the Somme
Want to write a book about the Great War? First, read Ernest Hemingway鈥檚 "A Farewell to Arms." Then, check out Paul Fussell鈥檚 "The Great War and Modern Memory." Next, consult Erich Remarque鈥檚 "All Quiet on the Western Front" and, while you鈥檙e at it, put the 1930 film version 鈥� an Oscar-winning masterpiece 鈥� in your Netflix queue. Then, ask yourself: Do I really want to write a book about the Great War?
鈥淲ar may be horrible, but that should not distract us from the acknowledging what a horrible clich茅 this has become,鈥� Geoff Dyer writes in The Missing of the Somme, a minor meditation on World War I that never manages to be as major as the works on whose shoulders it stands. 鈥淭he phrase 鈥榟orror of war鈥� has become so automatic a conjunction that it conveys none of the horror it is meant to express.鈥�
Dyer鈥檚 put himself in quite a bind. Almost a century after the assassination of an Austrian archduke by a Serbian nationalist sparked an interminable conflict that killed millions, "The Missing of the Somme" tries to say something new about the Great War while acknowledging that there may be nothing new to say. Halfheartedly trying to dodge this paralyzing paradox, Dyer offers a miniature family history 鈥� his grandfather served as a driver at the Somme, the 1916 battle in Northern France often called the bloodiest in human history 鈥� that segues awkwardly into a drunken tour of WWI memorials. In the end, the author forsakes memoir, travelogue, and art history to settle on a less promising method: critical theory.
鈥淭he young men queuing up to enlist in 1914 have the look of ghosts,鈥� Dyer writes. 鈥淭hey are queuing up to be slaughtered: they are already dead鈥�. [T]he Great War urges us to write the opposite of history: the story of effects generating their cause.鈥�
One must ask: Is this bunk? If not, what does it mean? While cranky academics are too quick to dismiss experimental, edgy critical theorists like Jean Baudrillard 鈥� whose 1991 essay 鈥淭he Gulf War Did Not Take Place鈥� playfully dissects how Westerners think about wars they watch on television 鈥� you don鈥檛 have to be reactionary to call Dyer鈥檚 postmodern bluff. For a book that tries to add value to libraries filled with worthy writing about World War I, "The Missing of the Somme"鈥檚 diaphanous swipes at lyricism seem immaterial. Even worse, Dyer admits as much.
鈥淢y own reading of general histories of the war is characterized by a headlong impatience,鈥� he writes. 鈥淭here are parts of these histories I try hard to concentrate on but whose details I can never absorb: the network of treaties, the flurry of telegrams and diplomatic maneuvers that lead up to the actual outbreak of war. Consequently everything between the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the lamps going out over Europe is a blur.鈥�
A 鈥渂lur鈥� can be a great subject for a book. Disaster need not strike when an author cops to an incomplete understanding of his or her subject. Norman Mailer didn鈥檛 really get Gary Gilmore, but "The Executioner鈥檚 Song" helped define new journalism. Denis Johnson鈥檚 "Tree of Smoke" ably conveys the madness of the Vietnam War by presenting it as impenetrable, pointless, inexplicable madness. Heck, even the movie "Adaptation" was about writer鈥檚 block. Perhaps part of Dyer鈥檚 problem is that "The Missing of the Somme" is almost two decades old 鈥� this Vintage edition is the first stateside publication of a book that appeared in the UK in 1994. As the author might put it, readers are queuing up to read a book that is already dead.
Still, Dyer should do better. His acclaimed "But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz" (1991) and his "Yoga for People Who Can鈥檛 Be Bothered to Do It" (2003) were the happy result of this Britisher sticking his nose where it didn鈥檛 necessarily belong. But here the author proves unable or unwilling to master the Great War鈥檚 unfamiliar no-man鈥檚 land. Navel-gazing and occasionally incomprehensible, "The Missing of the Somme" disappears down a rabbit hole.
鈥淎t this moment I am the only person on earth experiencing these sensations, in this place,鈥� Dyer writes of a trip to the memorial that gives "The Missing of the Somme" its name. 鈥淎t the same time, overwhelming and compounding this feeling, is the certainty that my presence here changes nothing; everything would be exactly the same without me.鈥�
Is there a better epitaph for bad writing?
Justin Moyer is a Monitor contributor.
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