Previous Installments:
Book Review: The Great Promise by Frederick G. & Frederick L. Coxen
Author Interview Part 1: Rick Coxen
This is the third week I've featured author
Rick Coxen and his book, The Great Promise, the soon-to-be-released memoir of his grandfather's experience in the First World War. The book is poignant, action-packed, and disturbing in some places, but I find it an important contribution to anyone's library who understands that if we do not know our history, we are condemned to repeat it.
Author Interview, Part 2: Getting to Know Your Grandfather
Penny: Let's start with the lighter side of your grandfather's journals. I adore his flare for classic British understatement. I can just hear his accent in my head saying, "we had a rather rough time of it" as he and his mates scuttled through heavy fire and mortars to repair telephone lines, or "it's a bit hot" with shells bursting over his head as fast as machine-gun fire and missiles big enough to make 25-foot deep craters blowing up all around him.
The next salvo sent a good-sized piece that grazed my cheek, ultimately burying itself about 2 inches into the ground at my feet. After scratching it out of the ground, I thought to myself that if I had been a couple of inches closer it would not doubt have given me a nasty knock.
Then there's the detached unflappability: the gunners taking bets about whether or not the German shells will take down a specific structure and what not. Or this:
While waiting for George and Collins to return, I was entertained by the combination of bursting shells, artillery fire, and rockets being launched from both our and the Germans' trenches. They lit up the heavens like a gigantic fireworks display, similar to the ones I watched as a child.
Then there's his very British obsession with tea that got him and his mates in more than one scrape. I always suspected the stereotype a gross caricature, but apparently not. He also doesn't think much of the French (classic British). Do you have a favorite passage of wit or humor that stands out especially?
