Rating: 5/5
Review:
The best so far
This is the third volume of The Bandy Papers. I have enjoyed
all of them and I think this is the best so far.
It's Me Again opens with Major Bandy being sent to take
command of a dispirited squadron in France.
It is remarkably well organised, in that even the coal is whitewashed, for
example, but is achieving very little with extremely high casualty rates.
Bandy manages to turn this model of efficiency into "the most disreputable
bunch of bandits" with one of the highest success rates and the tale of
how he does it is, as always, amusing and very exciting and with Jack's typical
excoriation of incompetent and uncaring administrators and commanders.
There follows a brief interlude of social farce in Canada,
and then Bandy is sent off to Russia
to intervene in the civil war there. Again, Donald Jack manages to
produce a superb mixture of knockabout humour and genuine excitement in a tale
which is also plainly well researched. This section reminded me a little
of Hornblower, as Bandy's unorthodoxy and resourcefulness produce unexpected
results.
This is a great read. It is full of excitement,
genuine humour and one episode of real, heart-piercing poignancy, showing what
a fine writer Jack was. He has really hit his stride in It's Me Again;
the two preceding books are excellent in parts but to me rather patchy, while
this is consistently very good. I would suggest reading the first two
books before this one, but it's not essential. Whether you do or
not, this is a fine book and warmly recommended.
(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)
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