The Remembered Soldier
Amnesia and the complications of rebuilding a marriage inspire Anjet Daanje’s pensive historical novel The Remembered Soldier, in which a Belgian veteran of the Great War grapples with fragile versions of the truth.
After years inside an asylum due to shell shock, Noon is claimed by Julienne, who is certain he is her photographer husband, Amand. Relieved if overwhelmed to be given back an identity, Noon joins her and her children at home. He fears disappointing others by no longer fulfilling the ideas they held of Amand, and he can’t help feeling like an interloper. The couple’s gradual adaptation to each other begins to splinter when Julienne’s portrayal of their past causes Noon doubt.
Noon’s apprehensive disorientation is echoed in the novel’s extended, multipart sentences, which stack clauses with tidal urgency. From the seclusion of the asylum to Noon’s reintroduction to impoverished Flanders, war-infused nightmares and internal collisions between what he is told and what he judges for himself provoke insightful questions about trust. All the while, Noon’s yearning for peace mingles with slow-burning suspense about the state of his mind—and the sorrow that comes when people feel a need to atone for, and even rewrite, events so that they can be borne.
The novel’s interior focus magnifies fleeting compassion, disillusionment, a fresh honeymoon stage, and the tense exchanges that compose a marriage. Indeed, while others believe that the couple should feel lucky to have reunited, the reality is unsettling. And through everyday proximity, Noon confronts the return of certain explosive secrets. How Julienne and Noon mold their circumstances into merciful love for each other is a moving testament to self-sacrifice.
The Remembered Soldier, a luminous historical novel, mines the seams between a veteran’s traumas and restored hope.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
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