In the past decade, war has again become an important part of the reality of American life. Despite its atrocities, many authors have used war as a useful tool to examine the beauties of humanity. Unfortunately, Max Evans’ new novel, War and Music: A Medley of Love, does not rank among the masterpieces that explore the intricacies of war.
The novel tells the story of Ty Hale, an army corporal from Lea County, N.M., who finds himself lost and stricken with temporary amnesia after a battle in Normandy during WWII. As he fights to remember how he became lost, he stumbles across a wealth estate that, though not untouched by the war, becomes a paradise island to him as he recuperates. On the estate, he meets Phillipe Gaston, a musical genius, his tutor Hans Heinike, and Phillipe’s daughter Renée. As Ty and Renée fall in love, Ty struggles to find a way to reconcile his desire to stay with his duty to the army.
The title, War and Music, is homage to Tolstoy, but Evans’ book won’t be remembered 150 years from now. Although Evans raised some great questions about the human condition, especially as it relates to war, he didn’t explore them as deeply as he needed to in order to make the novel a true classic.
And then there’s the second half of the title: A Medley of Love. The love story is uninteresting, and frankly, unearned. Ty and Renée are simply thrust together and seem to fall in love for no apparent reason but convenience to the plot.
Structurally speaking, the novel has its problems as well. Ty is supposed to have amnesia of the events that brought him to Chatêau Gaston, but since the narrator has portrayed them, it is easy for the reader to forget that Ty can’t remember what happened. The third-person limited narrative style that tightly follows Ty is generally good, but for inexplicable reasons, the narration drifts to third-person omniscient from time to time, especially toward the end of the book. This has a jarring effect on the book, making it feel like the ending was sloppily thrown together.
Unfortunately, for a novel that takes place during the largest war in human history, it contains little conflict. Ty is too perfect of a character to be believable. He is rarely conflicted, never unsure of himself and always does the right thing. Because of this, anytime Ty faces a challenge, the novel feels void of any sense of suspense.
Still, the novel is not ultimately void of any value.
Evans’ elegies of New Mexico’s beauty, from the plains to the mountain peaks, really capture the Land of Enchantment. Evans also does a fantastic job of capturing the horrors of war. The images that he evokes are horrifyingly gruesome and could compete with any of the best Hollywood-produced WWII films. Sadly, they are not good enough to raise the novel to the status of classic. War and Music: A Love Melody is simply too shallow and sloppy a book to be memorable.
