I love Edith Wharton. There are not enough stars to reflect what a beautiful book this is. I wish I could have experienced the gift of being in a conversation with Edith Wharton. She is, in my view, right there with Dickens, Garcia Marquez, and, yes, Steinbeck. I love them all, and am so grateful they took the time to write. The world, certainly my life, is better place for their work.

Review to follow.

Audible.com 10 hours 55 min. Narrated by Richard Poe
I've read most of the reviews on Goodreads on A Son at the Front by Edith Wharton and some were less than positive. To me, this is the best of her five books I've read. Richard Poe was an excellent reader, and I really felt the conflicting emotions the father, John Campton, felt about his son George's experience as a soldier serving during WWl. So many of you as reviewers are very insightful, more eloquent and knowledgeable about analysing stories than I can ever hope to be. I don't even this as an anti-war book. I will remember it as a story about the personal cost of war to parents. I also understand the insecurities Campton felt about being less than a father because as a painter he had not been able to provide the financial support that Mr. Brant, George's step-father and a very successful banker gladly gave.

I've read numerous books about the World Wars fought in Europe, but none as poignant as A Son at the Front. How go parents deal with unrelenting stress of not knowing if a son away at war is living or dead? How do parents deal with the loss of a son upon whom they have pinned their hopes and dreams for good marriages, grandchildren, or the passing on of a business or farm? Can one parent love a child more than the other parent? How does an affluent, well-intentioned but awkward step-father deal with the jealous father of the only son for whom they both share abundant love? Can and do attitudes towards war change during the course of war? Should well-placed, infuential parents pull strings to keep a son away from serving on the front lines? Do sons owe parents the obligation of obedience in choosing where to serve? Why do young men in the prime of life rush headlong into military service without full comprehension of what their deaths will cause to parents and grandparents? Would George have lived out a normal life span in America had it not been for the unfortunate timing of his trip to Paris? Or would he have just died later serving as a U.S. soldier? How do we handle the grief of losing a child?

World War I caused the deaths of a whole generation of young men in Europe and the deaths so many Americans also. Edith Wharton saw first-hand as volunteer at the front the devestation that we as readers cannot begin to comprehend. As a writer Wharton tried in her own way to create a story that would open the possibility of more than one "right" answer to the above questions?

For those you who have already read this book, I suggest you listen to it as read by Richard Poe. I think this book would be great for opening any dialogue on war.

Kind of sort of maybe obsessed with how beautiful Wharton’s writing is