Welcome to Litsy!

This is an excellent short memoir by a Hungarian at the start of WWI; it was just published in 2014. News of the war declaration, the call-up of soldiers, training, and his experiences in battle come briefly & quickly. The largest part of the book is his recuperation from a head wound and his travels around Hungary, feeling alienated but also finding peace in art & nature. His naïveté about modern war & quick changes are compelling & unnerving.

4⭐️ Thank you NYRB for publishing this excellent WWI memoir. The author‘s grandson did an amazing translation and editing work that it‘s so easy to read despite the heavy topic.

Flight back to Singapore with this book. From WWII, I‘m moving back to WWI

I read this between Feb 1 & Apr 27, and I gave it 4 ⭐️on Good Reads. I read this slowly as I didn‘t want to race through this memoir of 1914 of the Eastern Front. My only complaint is that it‘s not so much a wartime memoir as it is a memoir of that year from the announcement of war to the author‘s journey to the front and then his return home due to injury.

Later on, it would become an everyday thing, as much a part of life as a greeting; then, even more so. Eventually, the greetings were dropped: the guns took their place. This was how the burning of the world announced itself.

Yes, I KNOW this book is about World War I, even though I have juxtaposed it with a scene from a movie about Nazis. Don't we all go crazy on New Year's Eve? #litsyatoz