The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje [7/10]

At 700 pages, The Remembered Soldier, by Dutch novelist Anjet Daanje, is an amazing feat of writing, essentially one long piece of sustained third-person-focused, paragraph-by-paragraph momentum (with most paragraphs commencing “and…” intended to propel). It is the tale of an amnesiac soldier after the horrors of World War I. Claimed from an asylum by a Flemish woman (with two children) as her eight-years-lost husband, the unknown soldier gradually gropes his way, amidst nightmare terrors and only the slightest of memories, toward some kind of light, but what kind? Is his wife his wife? Who is he? In describing the book as I read it, I am emphasizing its virtuoso strengths and for some readers, I am sure The Remembered Soldier (ably translated by David McKay) will offer a huge emotional payout, but I regret to say my reading experience felt like over-heavy bludgeoning. A worthwhile reading experience, certainly, but often unenjoyable, overlong, and tedious…