AN ICE-CREAM WAR.

AN ICE-CREAM WAR by WILLIAM BOYD.

BACK COVER BLURB: On the Western Front millions are being slaughtered. But in East Africa a ridiculous and utterly ignored campaign is being waged - one that continues after the Armistice because no one bothers to tell the participants to stop.

As millions are swept up in the conflict, An Ice-Cream War contrasts the fortunes of those languishing at home with those fighting abroad, swept up in the passions of battlefield and bedchamber, while history makes up its mind whether events shall be played as tragedy or comedy.

FIRST SENTENCE {Part One: Before The War: Chapter One: 6 June 1914, Dar-es-Salaam, German East Africa}: 'What do you think would happen,' Colonel Theodore Roosevelt asked his son Kermit, 'if I shot an elephant in the balls?'

MEMORABLE MOMENT{55}: He stamped into the centre of the room flourishing a rolled up newspaper and hurled it into the fire. This gesture would have had more symbolic force if the fire had been lit. As it was it just rebounded from the fire back and struck the gaping Charles just below the knee.

SOURCE: A Readers Group read.

MY THOUGHTS: 'Contrasts the fortunes of those languishing at home with those fighting abroad'. Jumping around between 'home' (England) and 'abroad' (East Africa) often with large gaps between where we left off that aspect of the story to re-joining it I'm afraid for me the narrative just didn't flow well. 

Despite their obsession with genitals and frank sexual talk I much preferred the 'home' episodes spent with the Cobb family, brothers Felix and Gabriel, and their wonderfully dreadful father, Major Cobb (possibly the only redeeming thing about the novel), and can't help but wonder if the story would have benefited from sticking with one thread of the story or the other whether that be the 'home' or 'abroad' element.

'Funny' according to Harper's. Very much a personal matter, what one person finds humorous another person might not and OK whilst there were times when I recognised that certain events could be interpreted as being funny I personally felt the book woefully lacking in this respect. 

Perhaps worst of all though was ...

It was often difficult to pick out the actual plot from all the numerous background details and with such an abundance of viewpoints/various pyschologies the author frequently seemed to lose sight of his characters frequently glossing over 'important' events.

That though set in a war zone there often was no real sense of place, that this was not just any war zone but East Africa.

And that folks is why I didn't enjoy An Ice-Cream War.