Review of “Of All Faiths & None” by Andrew Tweeddale

Score: 93+/100 (9.3+ out of 10)

Of All Faiths & None draws a very flattering comparison to War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy, for better or for worse. This book has very similar themes about human beings living in a time of war—a time in which those who take up arms are considered both heroes and cannon fodder while those who avoid war are considered cowards. World War I takes the place of the Napoleonic Wars (in War & Peace) for the sake of this comparison. Tolstoy's work is an all-time classic and one of the greatest novels ever written by one of the greatest novelists who ever lived, so those are humongous footprints for author Andrew Tweeddale, who makes an ambitious and valiant effort, to follow.

The thing you really need to consider is that War & Peace was written at a very different time, a time before the Internet, smartphones, and even radio. Think about that for a second: Tolstoy's work preceded radio. People literally had far less to entertain themselves with in the late 1800s, so books like Tolstoy's were a godsend, even when such books—great and widely acclaimed as they were—were often incredibly convoluted, incredibly complex, and incredibly long. The concept of a novel has evolved a lot since then, for better or for worse. You don't get Moby Dicks or David Copperfields anymore, great books, but ones in which you very slowly, very gradually get to know a group of characters over the course of 15+ hours or 20+ hours of reading.

So what does that have to do with Of All Faiths & None, well, it's beautifully written, it's well formatted, but it's just too much sometimes. There are over a dozen major characters you're supposed to know and care about through the course of the novel. This includes, in no particular order, Basil, Rose, Kit, Adrian, Celia, Elizabeth, Robert, Krishnamurti, Christian, Sir Julius Drew, Emily, Peter, and Poley. You're constantly introduced to more and more characters, and it just seems like a bunch of them start to blur together until they almost become the same person. Maybe that's to the author's credit. Perhaps these people are all foils of one another, intended for the sake of comparison and contrast. There is some degree of brilliance to that. You see a bit of of Christian and Peter in Adrian, who we chose as our favorite protagonist. You see a bit of Rose in Emily.

The first 150-250 pages of this novel may not be the most exciting introduction to an ultimately exciting novel, in fact we kinda wanted to give up half way through. We aren't allowed to, but we felt like it. The reason is that so many different characters were doing so many different things, many of which didn't seem all that meaningful or connected. Apparently, this book took 18+ years to finish, and it really shows. You really get the feeling that many different sections of this book were written at very different times in the author's life. There are times when the plot seems to be spinning its wheels and dragging such as when the Lutyens do... well, almost anything they do for the first half of the book.

The first half of the book feels like some Pride & Prejudice stuff. It feels like a bunch of bored European people doing bored European people things (like riding horses) while trying to hook up with each other and debate about their philosophical and religious ideas. However, there are also times when the writing and the action are downright epic and beautiful such as some of the descriptions of major battles near the end of the book.

Many of the major battles of World War I have a place in here including the battle of the Somme and Passchendaele.

The descriptions of war are truly visceral and tragic. You really feel the effects of war when the war finally stops being a thing out there somewhere to having a direct influence on the characters' live. These effects are best exemplified by the struggles and fates of Christian, Rose, and Adrian, but all the characters feel the global conflict in one way or another. This book is a reminder that it isn't only the soldiers in the military who suffer, it's the civilian population as well. Everyone experiences the conflict even though they all experience it differently.

One of our favorite parts of the book and one of the most interesting parts involves the handing out of white feathers, the mark of a coward. The good looking women in society are assigned the responsibility of handing out these white feathers to males who aren't actively participating in the war effort, but this takes a rather interesting turn for a few of the characters when this turns personal.

One thing we briefly wanted to talk about is the topic of religion in this book. It's obviously supposed to be a major focus of the book, as you can tell from the title and the frequent religious discussions that are had, but it really falls flat and seems really unnecessary. Be honest with yourself and ask: Does the presence of Krishnamurti actually make this book better? All he really serves to do is show how easily swayed some of the characters (like Emily) are to new ideas—esoteric ideas and ideologies. You get this same thought from discussions of Christianity and a cautionary story about corn gods who demand animal and eventual human sacrifices.

Now, we think we get what the author was going for. Religion and ideologies like Fascism and Nationalism—which would bring the world into an even bloodier conflict later in the 20th century—are comparable in that both groups of thought can have a hypnotic and controlling influence on a population. We get it. The problem is that this isn't a book about World War II, it's a book about World War I, a war fought due to political alliances between nations, not their ideologies. So, at the very most, this theme can be seen as some kind of foreshadowing that never seems to come to fruition in the confines of the novel itself.

Another thing we have to be honest about is how we felt about the characters. It was somewhat interesting to see how Basil became almost unrecognizable by the end of the war, though we can't remember much else interesting about him. Christian's fate is terrible, but it didn't hit as hard as it should have because Christian was lost in a shuffle of over a dozen to two-dozen characters the author was trying to show us and develop. Peter was introduced to us as a very major character, one of the first major characters we meet, but he flops as a compelling protagonist and gets completely overshadowed by a character we'll get to soon.

This is really the Adrian and Rose show, whether the author intended it to be that way or not. Adrian IS the main protagonist of the novel. He is the one directly involved in the conflict who has a deep longing to see his home and loved ones again. His story really clicked with us on an emotional level. Christian on the other hand, while having a similar arc, was quickly sidelined and relegated to side-character status by the middle of this book. What we can say is that this book, particularly in its portrayal of Adrian, made us more appreciative.

Imagine being stuck in a rat-infested trench, unable to even stand up or sit up straight without fear of having your head blown off. Imagine having to be ready to dawn your mask when the mustard gas comes. Imagine not being able to use the restroom or sleep comfortably or being able to see or hold your loved ones. It's a really sobering thought!

There are also some beautiful quotes, some involving the nature of life and death. Perhaps the best quote from this book is:

“When someone is killed I think that the world becomes a little dimmer, as if a tiny light has been extinguished. Just a tiny light in a hundred million lights and most people won’t notice it. It’s not as if they have died of old age when that light has naturally faded away. It’s when someone is cut down before their time, before God’s chosen time, the world then gets a little dimmer. You read about people lying on the battlefield with expressions of contentment on their faces. I’ve never seen it. The only faces I’ve seen are those who are scared, or in pain or know the horror of it all. It’s the same when people deliberately sin.”

This ambitious novel that took 18+ years to write does a lot of things right. It is well-written, well-formatted, and well-researched. It also really shines at times.

Check it out on Amazon!