Sunday, November 6, 2011

A.L. Kennedy: Day


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.

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