Fear: A Novel of World War I (New York Review Books Classics)
*Starred Review* Another gripping WWI novel? Written by a soldier-turned-author who fought in the trenches? How can this be, and why should readers care? Published in 1930, Fear was a sensation in France. The novel is told retrospectively through the voice of Dartemont, a cynical intellectual who enlists simply out of curiosity. From the shifting roles of grenadier, messenger, reconnoiterer, and hospital patient (the result of a light injury that brings him and readers barreling into the visceral horrors of war-torn soldiers), Chevallier’s protagonist is a lightly disguised version of the author himself, tracing his own experiences as a soldier. There is no real plot here. A chronological burst of battle stories and vindictive reflections on the paradox of war, Fear is structurally similar to Ernst Jünger’s Storm of Steel (1920), while readers of Céline (a contemporary of Chevallier’s) will catch whiffs of the sardonic misanthropy that runs through Journey to the End of the Night (1932). Dartemont deconstructs the notions of duty and heroism and draws their origins in fear and ignorance while letting us rifle through his blood-stained sketchbook with images from a war that grows ever more distant in our memories. --Tim McLaughlin