No Graves As Yet
One of the reviews on the back cover stated that No Graves As Yet is “a page-turner”. I disagree. I thought the story flowed as slow as molasses. But I still found the charm in this telling (the first in author’s series of Novels of World War I) thanks be to Perry’s writing. The story was somewhat suspenseful at points, but mostly a terrible bore. I didn’t form any attachments to any of the settings or characters and was somewhat disengaged, really; some characters required a bit of bitch slapping to go along with their butter and scones. Never mind the fact I’ve talking in British accent of late as a result (to the annoyance of many, Oi’m sure), but Perry’s is one to explore further.
Favorite quotations from the novel:
“It was infinitely just - the punishments for sin were not visited from outside, decided by a higher power, but were the sins themselves, perpetuated eternally, stripped of the masks that had made them seductive once. Those who had given in to the selfish storms of passion, regardless of the cost to others, were now battered and driven by unceasing gales, forced to rise before them without rest. And so it was, down through the successive circles, the sins of indulgence, that injured self, the sins of anger that injured others, to the betrayal and corruption of the mind which damaged all mankind.”
Page 127
“[...] the bent-limbed trees crowding along the mountain ridge, bearing the burden of the sky upon their backs.”
Page 210