He tells her he is now in a quiet sector of the front, though the weather is now icy. Willie, still working in the support trenches, writes a long letter to Gretta. They make their way back to their billet through the city night. As they leave Willie notices a rash on the thigh of the woman O’Hara has slept with. He falls asleep and, when he awakens with a headache, O’Hara tells him it is time to go. Willie gives himself to the woman with wonder and lust, and thus loses his virginity. He is at first abashed by the woman’s approach: O’Hara, less naïve than his friend, quickly begins to have sex with the woman he entered with. Willie, extremely drunk, finds that he is being propositioned by a prostitute. He and O’Hara dance with two women who lead them both down into a basement. Willie’s head spins as he drinks away memories of Captain Pasley and Gretta. Willie and Pete O’Hara decide to hit the town and are guided to a well-liked estaminet for private soldiers. Willie’s battalion is on rotation from the front and, billeted in the French city of Amiens, he is finally given a few days of free time behind the lines. Onwards we must go, however, if we’re to get this book completed by exam-time. Historical context, too, which still I’m somewhat shaky on, as the previous post admitted, and am currently trying to rectify by reading Diarmaid Ferriter’s fascinating history, ‘A Nation, and Not a Rabble’. Certainly I’d like to write something about Barry’s narration: its use of dialect, its lyricism, and thinking more broadly about omniscient and free indirect narration. I’m hoping to take a breather soon enough so that we can reflect on some aspects of the novel.
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