Generals Die In Bed

In the Annick Press 2007 edition of Generals Die in Bed, military historian Robert Nielson provides a brief overview of WWI and the reception of Harrison’s novel. Contrasting the myth of combat valor and heroism with the reality of war, Neilson notes that bravery was not worth much in the face of radically improved technology. Neilson also provides factual accounting: Some 10 million people died in the war between 1914 and 1919. He offers a critical overview, noting that initially, newspapers and literary reviews found Generals Die in Bed to be a riveting account of combat. However, as Neilson also notes, Harrison’s book horrified Canadian military and political leaders.

The novel opens in Montreal, narrated by an unnamed 18-year-old recruit. The newly enlisted soldiers have just been paid; it is now midnight and the soldiers have been enjoying the company of sex workers in Montreal’s red-light district. The narrator describes the bunkhouse and introduces Anderson, the oldest of the recruits, who reads his Bible. Anderson is a middle-aged, religious man from Ontario. The other men begin a conversation about the night’s escapades replete with drunken singing, obscenities, and laughter. One of the recruits, barely 17 years old, is so drunk he vomits into a wastebasket.