The Marne

The book was first published in 19181. The main character of “The Marne” is a teenage American boy named Troy Belknap who is living in Paris. Too young to enlist for the First Battle of the Marne, he and his family return to America. However, four years later, when he is eighteen years old, he becomes a Red Cross ambulance driver and participates in the Second Battle of the Marne. The book takes the reader on a journey between Troy’s rose-colored, heroic ambitions, the grim realities of the war, and the often hollow and ugly attitudes of Americans at home.