“…and in that one moment – war – war that Pierre dreaded, Boris accepted, and Daniel welcomed, would enter clad in steel, the great stand-up war, the white men’s crazy war.”
Bullet points between pages 50 - 110
* As Chamberlain waits to meet with Hitler the Czech government takes decisive action and mobilizes its forces against the threat of German aggression - a move that Hitler implies proves his point about the aggression towards the Sudetenland German community
* The characters in that country welcome the move but a similar attempt to mobilize reserves in France is greeted with a more mixed outcome with some of the characters feeling numb – Mathieu - and others are scared
* Mathieu is waiting for a visit from Gomez who has been serving with the army in Spain and receives a letter from Boris who is enjoying a holiday with Lola before he has to set off and report for duty
* Elsewhere men are getting ready to say farewell to loved ones and head off to report and Sartre manages to convey a mood of anticipation and fear from numerous characters all in a confusingly short space of time
* A nurse sits with an old first world war solider who has died before discovering his efforts in 1914 to secure peace were to no avail, while others who experienced that conflict get ready for separation, mutilation and even death
More tomorrow…
