Everyone Brave is Forgiven

Everyone Brave is Forgiven is a novel written as another wonderful character study by Chris Cleave. In his previous book, Little Bee, the reader was taken into the world of the poverty of Nigeria and the upscale life in London, England.  It is about the relationship between Little Bee, an illegal Nigerian refugee and a London widow.  You are captured by their lives and Cleave can make you see the story from each person's perspective at the same time.

Cleave has accomplished this task again in Everyone Brave is Forgiven.  Once again taking the Second World War and placing the reader directly in the line of attack, he skillfully describes the war for both a soldier at the front and those left in London during the Blitz.  He puts the reader inside the minds and thoughts of the characters as they live through a day fighting the enemy and those trying to live their normal lives through the attacks.  Cleave so wonderfully captures the feelings of each character, Tom who has stayed behind while his best friend, Alistair enlists.  Mary, who feels guilty about her position of wealth and wants to escape her life as a gentry and help the war effort.  Her friend Hilda who is looking to marry a man in uniform.  Their lives all intersect as the fighting in both London and on the island of Malta intensifies.

This is of course a novel based on fact and true events that happened during World War II.  It is also a story of romance and coping with the feelings war brings out between people and its affect on their relationships.  As these characters are struggling with the war and their place in society, they are trying to maintain friendships and create love affairs.  The war seems so unfair that it is interfering in their lives.  What is love each of them wonders, how do you know when it is real?  At one point when Alistair returns from a leave where he has met Mary and Hilda he is not sure.  He has strong feelings for Mary but Hilda was his date and he is not sure if he should pursue her.  "He would reply to Hilda's letter, and he supposed it would be the start of things between them.  Perhaps this was what love was like after all - not the lurch of going over a humpback bridge, and not the incandescence of fireworks, just the quiet understanding that one should take a kind hand when it was offered, before all light was gone from the sky."  Such a beautiful sentiment about love before finding the one true real love of your life, when you do have fireworks and passion.

But this book is also about learning that real love is not about uniforms and glory but about real caring, even in the face of ugliness and injury.  It is about caring about others without prejudice and hate.  Mary fights for the underdog, and rejects the life of privilege she was born into.  She feels everyone is equal and should be treated fairly even during war time.

Cleave has again given us a story of the human dilemma.  The difference between classes in England and the idea that underneath we are all human beings that should be treated equally.   We follow our five main characters as they each experience the war.  We are given the view of the war and what it is like to live during this time by seeing the war from each of these characters viewpoint.  Two young women, who live a wealthy society life, little affected by the war around them, but they choose to get involved and experience the war close up.  Two young men, one of whom enlists and sees the war first hand fighting in France and the island of Malta.  His friend who stays behind and how he feels not being in uniform and on the front lines of war.   Lastly, a young boy of color whose life experience is extremely different than the adults he comes in contact with.  We see life and war from the child's perspective.