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The Good Heart
The Good Heart is a story of faith-filled resiliance amid horrendous destruction and incalculable hardship as experienced by Canadian infantry in the First World War, and the reconstruction of humanity at its conclusion.
By the author of Starvation Cove.
$19.95
Description
The Good Heart is a story of faith-filled resiliance amid horrendous destruction and incalculable hardship as experienced by Canadian infantry in the First World War, and the reconstruction of humanity at its conclusion.
By the author of Starvation Cove.
2 reviews for The Good Heart
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Gregg Norman –
Ben Galeski’s second novel. “The Good Heart”, tells the story of young Joseph Benson who leaves his ranch home and family in Alberta to enlist with the Canadian Expeditionary Force to fight in World War I.
In the trenches in France, Joseph and his comrades are exposed to the horrors of one of the ugliest, most brutal wars ever fought. Through it all he has only his faith and his inner strength of character to sustain him.
Galeski’s prose style and command of language are both rock solid. He handles the often difficult device of flashback masterfully to segue back and forth between the joys of family life at home and the gruesome reality of life in the trenches, thus underlining the sea change that young recruits like Joseph went through. He pulls no punches in his descriptions of the dark side of war and a young soldier’s life in a foreign land far from home. The reader is settled in the time and place of WWI in France with the authority that comes of meticulous research.
Ben Galeski is a fine writer who has told a profoundly human story in “The Good Heart”. When I read his work I find myself constantly wishing for more.
Alice Matisz –
The Good Heart follows the life of a southern Albertan lad as he enters the First World War in September 1918, just two months before the war officially ended. At 19 years old, Joseph Benson is farm-hardened and feels ready to fight. What he faces proves to be more harrowing than he imagined. Not only is his physical resilience tested but his mental stability and morality also.
Author Ben Galeski presents a wealth of information about the war, not simply facts and figures but detailed descriptions of life in the trenches and terrifying forays beyond. Galeski handles the gore honestly but not gratuitously. Nevertheless, readers are quickly sucked into the horrifying quagmire along with Joe Benson. The young man’s Catholic faith is pivotal to the story because it informs his actions. Galeski shows both the comfort Joe gets from his beliefs and the strain of reconciling wartime behavior with his conscience. It’s a spiritual struggle as gripping as any of the skirmishes Joe faces. These episodes of intense drama are contrasted with memories of rural Alberta before the war, which provide a welcome diversion.
Galeski has created a memorable character in Joe Benson, a man who is strong but vulnerable, obedient but questioning, faith-filled but flawed. Ultimately, The Good Heart is an expose of the many ways in which war transfigures landscapes, both in nature and within the soul.
Alice Matisz SDG March 2024