The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford is a stunning book.  It packs a wallop, deserves a drum roll, warrants applause and praise and most definitely, re-reading. The Good Soldier is a great book.

The core story is one of deceit and betrayal hidden underneath vestiges of good behavior and model manners. But unlike Molly Keane’s Good Behavior, this story is a tragedy, a grim moral tale that “society can only exist if the normal, the virtuous, and the slightly deceitful  flourish, and if the passionate, the headstrong, and the too-truthful are condemned to suicide and madness.”   But for a long time, we have no idea who the truthful ones are, and who are the deceitful ones, because every character has something to hide and something to desire. That insight is one of Madox Ford’s genius strokes: we all have something we want and something we want hidden, and who of us are truthful enough to get what we want openly, who of us are strong enough to play fairly and squarely  — with the possibility of losing — to get what we want?

The story is masterfully told by Madox Ford through his narrator, Dowell.  Dowell is both observer and participant.  As narrator, he changes his assessments and his judgments of the people involved as time passes and events occur. He is always truthful but not always reliable and never constant until his final judgment, which is vicious and powerful.  This final judgment is on himself as well as on the others, and is sadly permanent: no more events can occur to save him, or anyone of the others.  In the end, no one has gotten what they wanted, and no hope exists that they ever will.

The story begins as a “sad story” of two couples who meet at a spa for those weak of heart: we are led to believe the sadness is in the death of parts of each couple, and although we are right, we have no idea how horribly right we are.  The true story unfolds, bit by bit, hint by hint, detail by detail, and no one and nothing is as first appearances had promised.  Ford Madox Ford is sly and subtle as he builds the story, as the deceits grow, the tensions escalate, and fate beckons its bony and horrible finger.  But no matter how grim the book’s conclusion, don’t t let that put you off from reading it: the writing is beautiful, with provoking insights, marvelous plot, and compelling characters.