Kennedy's 2007 novel "Day" is
a story about a young man playing war, after he survived the second
world war.
Despite the brutality and terror of
war, it gave Alfred Day a meaning of life for the first time. As a
soldier, he felt as a part of something. After a lonesome childhood
marked by a brutal father and loving but wek mother, he experienced
being a member of a crew that liked them and accepted him as the
person he was. During his service he was with the airforce and
participated in the bombing of national socialist Germany. One day
his aeroplane was shot down. As the only crew member to live he was
imprisoned by the Germans.
After war he tried to lead a normal
life and to forget the shadows of the past: the loss of his crew and
the loss of the love he found during war. Working in a London book
shop, he tried to shake off his past, but he couldn´t.
During his time in London he heard
about the project of making a motion picture on the second world war.
As a member of the film's cast he got back to Germany. He became an
extra, portraying a prisoner of war. Each day he staid longer in this
film camp, remembering more and more of his past, living through the
situation for a second time. This experience helped him to finally
move on with his life.
This book portrays a man that has to
expiernce war twice to cope with life.
