Who Is Siegfried Sasson's Memoirs Of An Infantry Officer

Siegfried Sasson’s “Memoirs of an Infantry Officer,” is part of a trilogy that follows the main character, George Sherston, throughout his military career. Mainly based around World War I, this book kicks off in 1916 and paints a very vivid picture of what life was like during, and after Sherston’s time in the military. Although this story is very informative of the war, it was challenging to get a steady grasp of. Within the first few chapters, boredom took over and it did not get much better until about halfway through. Therefore someone who is not infatuated with WWI era will not enjoy it as much as a world war connoisseur would. Luckily, finishing up the book was satisfying as it came to be a very decent and pleasurable read towards the end. This book evidently left readers wanting more, which is why there is a third book in this war based series. Sasson did an excellent job of telling g a fictitious story that is relatable to real life situations. The main character of “Memoirs of an
Infantry Officer,” George Sherston, is comical, hasty but he possesses deep thoughts and opinions that add another dimension to the story. The compassion showed through his relationship with his assistant, Floor, fueled the excitement for their many adventures together throughout Army School and even discovering the German soldiers. The author, Siegfried Sasson, did a very efficient job of describing how the army school looked, sounded and even felt for George. His descriptive words paint vivid pictures of what the lifestyle was like. To George, it was relaxing, a place he could call home. His feelings were labeled through the phrase he often used, “Here, I get to call my soul my own.” His savageness and bluntness was shown off very well further towards the end of the story. Sasson did a fairly well job of forming a fully rounded character. As previously noted, this story is based in WWI era.
World War I or the First World War, lasted for four years. The war was fought between two groups, the Allies and the Central Powers. Beginning in Europe there were around 16 million casualties through these four year of war. Using trench warfare as a strategy, the soldiers would live on this trenches, waiting for the next battle or round of shooting from the opposing side on the other end of the field. The area between the trenches was known as “No Man’s land.” In “Memoirs of an Infantry Officer,” after Sherston was not permitted to fight, he traveled into No Man’s Land to collect the dead or wounded soldiers when the Germans resigned from firing. An admirable trait from Sassoon is that he included these details of the war perfectly, he used very good descriptive words to display what was going through George’s mind and what he was physically doing. By this far in the book the excitement of war had finally heated
up.