Lovely War

Hazel reads that the Fifth Army (James’s) has been decimated and disbanded. The German offensive was successful only in one stretch, and this group was soon surrounded. German soldiers are shocked to find the extravagant supplies left by retreating British soldiers (while they are close to starving), and they deduce that Germany is losing the war.

James struggles with confusing dreams and visions between his sedative injections, imagining Mason being killed again, or worrying that it is himself or Hazel being attacked with bombs, bullets, or flame throwers. The hospital is bombed, and he is moved in a truck.

Hazel’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Windicott, carefully and concernedly check the Weekly Casualty List in the newspaper, hoping not to see James’s name.

Aubrey writes again to Colette but does not hear back. He befriends his French trainer, Émile. Émile discovers Aubrey’s talent on the piano and takes him to taverns and bars to play for crowds. They arrive at the Champagne section of the trenches on April 13, 1918, but this stretch is fortunately quiet.

Suspicious employees, noting their lack of references, refuse Hazel’s and Colette’s applications until they finally manage to find work in a Red Cross kitchen preparing food for prisoners of war.

James wakes up in a pink hospital room, disoriented. A nurse tells him it is April 12 and that he is in London. He works out, from the nurse’s kindly manner and from the dull knife he is given with lunch, that he is in a mental health hospital.

Hazel and Colette dice hundreds of pounds of cabbage, potatoes, and onions daily to make soup for the German prisoners of war. Hazel notes that some of the Germans are rude or ignore her, but others are pleasant and kind. Her regular contact with these men prompts her to wonder why these young men, and British and French young men, have been killing each other for years.

Colette and Hazel still have not heard from James or Aubrey. Hazel urges Colette to remain hopeful.

A German man forces himself on Hazel, kissing her forcefully and grabbing at her. Two other German men intervene, pulling him off. Colette suggests that they should return to Paris; Hazel agrees. A letter arrives from Hazel’s mother, including a newspaper clipping.

James spends a few more weeks at Maudsley Hospital and then is discharged and returns home to Chelmsford with his parents. He is moved to tears seeing his two younger siblings, Maggie and Bob, again. He receives several letters from friends from the front and their families—including Chad Browning’s father. His hands shake as he reads Billy’s. He learns that he has received a Distinguished Service Medal for assisting Chad Browning.

James receives the letter from Mrs. Davies accusing Hazel of “immoral carryings-on with soldiers” (346). James doubts the truth of this, but concludes that in any case, he is now only a “shell of a boy […] utterly unfit to be what any girl might want” (346). Lastly, he opens an envelope containing the photo of him and Hazel in Paris. He stays in his room for the rest of the day and refuses to see his family.

Three American journalists arrive at the Champagne sector of the front on May 14, 1918. They are particularly interested in reporting on the Black regiment in action: Aubrey’s 369th division. Two members of this division, Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts, fight off 24 Germans, and this story is reported by all three journalists in vivid detail and becomes a national sensation. The praise is particularly significant for the Southern journalist Irvin Cobb, hailing from Kentucky, who is known for his racist representations of Black Americans.

Hazel, back in England, goes to Chelmsford to see James. She has not heard from him in months and doesn’t know whether he is dead or alive. She reaches the Alderidges’ home and is let in by Mrs. Alderidge. They have tea. Mrs. Alderidge is evasive about James’s condition. Hazel waits anxiously while Mrs. Alderidge explains that James is alive but “not yet quite himself” (354). Hazel asks if she can see James. Mrs. Aldridge goes upstairs; she returns and explains that James is not up to seeing company. Confused and devastated, Hazel leaves.

Unbeknownst to Hazel, James watches from his bedroom window as she leaves. He reflects that she looks “downcast and perfect” (355). Feeling that he will never again be the same man whom she loved, he decides that it’s best to let her go. He resists the temptation to follow her as she walks away from his home.

Aphrodite, unwilling to let James and Hazel’s relationship permanently end, causes a back spasm to affect Mrs. Puxley, wife of the vicar of Chelmsford, who is walking near Hazel. Hazel helps her to her home. Mrs. Puxley notices Hazel looking at the piano and asks her to play. Shocked by her talent, Mrs. Puxley asks if she will stay in town for a time and play for the Sunday school; they have a spare room, and Mrs. Puxley would love Hazel to use their piano. Hazel agrees.

James has an appointment with the military board of review in town. He dreads being sent back to the trenches, but he also dreads the humiliation of being found mentally unfit—this would be “yet another humiliating reminder of his shattered self” (362). He is found to be not yet ready to return to combat and is allocated light duties in town to help the war effort until he has recovered sufficiently to return to the front.

Hazel bumps into Maggie, James’s sister, while walking around Chelmsford. Maggie, correctly guessing that Hazel stayed in Chelmsford hoping to see James, offers to deliver a letter to James from Hazel. They discuss James’s condition.

James begins his light duties at the recruiting office, updating draftee files with details from casualty lists. It is heartbreaking work because he knows many of the casualties, given that the files are local to the area. He hears piano music while walking home and thinks of Hazel. James does not see Hazel when he attends church with his family as she is stationed in the children’s Sunday school.

James is feeling slightly better, eating dinner with his family and sometimes talking and smiling with them. While walking with his brother, Bobby, James imagines Bobby dead in a trench, burnt and blood-soaked. James hopes that he himself will be sent back to the trenches to die instead of the war continuing for long enough that Bobby must be involved.

Walking back home from his walk with Bobby, James runs into Hazel. He is shocked to see her. Hazel notes that he looks thin and that he twitches in fright at the sound of a distant car. They have a brief conversation; James is combative. James apologizes—Hazel is unsure what for—and he internally reflects that he is sorry for surviving.

Hazel decides to leave Chelmsford; at the train station she buys a London ticket. Suddenly, she sees James boarding a different train. She asks to change her ticket to James’s train. Hazel boards James’s train and sits in the seat facing his. He stares at her in shock and then laughs. Hazel insists that they must talk. James is going to Lowestoft, to see a woman, and invites Hazel to come along—recognizing that “it doesn’t appear that I have any choice in the matter” (374).

Hazel and James travel on the train, stopping to change trains once. Hazel tells James about Aubrey’s relationship with Colette and his mysterious disappearance. James asks whether Hazel’s friendship with Aubrey was the one that “got her in trouble” (376). Hazel is shocked to learn that Mrs. Davies wrote to him about it. Angrily, she asks whether that is why he stop writing, but he assures her that it wasn’t.

At Lowestoft, James finds the house he is looking for and knocks on the door. He and Hazel introduce themselves to Adelaide Mason, Frank Mason’s widow. Hazel, who hadn’t been told the specifics of where they were going, remembers James writing about Frank Mason and is shocked that he is dead. Adelaide makes tea for the group. Hazel entertains Adelaide’s son Frankie as James begins to tell Adelaide about the circumstances of her husband’s death in the trenches. He tells her of the German offensive and their efforts to kill approaching German stormtroopers and reclaim the front.

James continues to tell Adelaide (and Hazel, who sits nearby playing with little Frankie) about the circumstances of Frank Mason’s death. James tells about the German with the grenade launcher whom he shot. He describes seeing a German aiming his gun at Mason in the thick fog. James managed to shoot him, but the subsequent shock of the shell, fired from miles away, hit Mason in the chest, leaving virtually nothing of him. He gives Adelaide his Distinguished Service Medal and Mason’s prayer book, which Mason always kept on him, and which contained a photo of Adelaide and Frankie. Hazel notes that James looks more peaceful.