The Joyful One: Or The Triumph (Paperback) by R M O'Cinneide

9798397355032. New condition. Trade paperback. Language: English. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. "Radovan seats himself and leans against the cart's wheel, hoping the ass does not drag it off and rob him of the only thing he can lean on and therefore his only protection against further pain in his back, which for the moment, is more important than the cart and ass being his only way home."

So begins The Joyful One, as it follows this young man named Radovan, who is suddenly drafted to fight in a war for the vast empire in which he lives. Having known nothing other than his simple, solitary life as an overworked, illiterate farmer, his journey to the front briefly introduces him to the simplest of the world's pleasures - such as watching the sunset while aboard a train or hearing a story he has never had the chance to read - right before being sent to the trenches.

For the first time in his life, he is exposed to people he can call friends, to the excitement of life in the empire's capital, and to the possibility of finding another person who understands the life he has had to lead. Each passing day threatens not only these prospects; they also threaten to breed hatred in his soul for people he has never met or seen. In the haunting moments of quiet that come in the wake of gunfire, he is forced to contend with all the forces trying to change him into something else. And some nights when those moments come, he is terrified that while he can continue the fight on the field, he may lose the one inside himself.

The Joyful One is in the vein of tales such as All Quiet on the Western Front and revisits themes from The Iliad and The Odyssey while telling a tale of a boy's introduction to worlds he has never seen, and the task of preserving innocence while his surroundings do all they can to extinguish this quality. It is a tale of simultaneous despair and hope, told in a sparse yet evocative style and a tale of unfortunate realities that remain true about those who are forced by circumstance to take up arms to "defend" their country.