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Random House
April 2005
224 pages
ISBN: 1400063701
Hardcover
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Historical
A brief, lyrical novel with a powerful emotional charge,
Rules for Old Men Waiting is about three wars of the twentieth century and an
ever-deepening
marriage. In a house on the Cape "older than the Republic,"
Robert
MacIver, a historian who long ago played rugby for Scotland,
creates a
list of rules by which to live out his last days. The most
important
rule, to "tell a story to its end," spurs the old Scot on to
invent a
strange and gripping tale of men in the trenches of the
First World
War.
Drawn from a depth of knowledge and
imagination, MacIver
conjures the implacable, clear-sighted artist Private
Callum; the
private's nemesis Sergeant Braddis, with his pincerlike nails;
Lieutenant Simon Dodds, who takes on Braddis; and Private
Charlie
Alston, who is ensnared in this story of inhumanity and
betrayal but
brings it to a close.
This invented tale of the Great War
prompts MacIver's own memories of his role in World War II
and of
Vietnam, where his son, David served. Both the stories and
the memories
alike are lit by the vivid presence of Margaret, his wife.
As Hearts and Minds
director Peter Davis writes, "Pouncey has wrought an almost
inconceivable amount of beauty from pain, loss, and war, and
I think he
has been able to do this because every page is imbued with
the love
story at the heart of his astonishing novel."
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