War

Much of War takes place during Ferdinand's convalescence. His wounds, especially the damage associated with his head and ear, leave him in continual pain and with persistent noise and vertigo.

At the hospital he befriends another wounded soldier known as Cascade. Cascade has deliberately injured himself to escape military service and survives partly through the earnings of his wife, Angèle, who works as a prostitute.

Ferdinand's parents visit and attempt to turn their injured son into a respectable patriotic hero. Ferdinand himself knows how arbitrary the distinction between heroism, cowardice and simple survival has become.

As he recovers, he becomes increasingly involved with Cascade and Angèle and begins moving from the institutional world of the military hospital toward the criminal and sexual underground that will eventually lead him to London.

The surviving manuscript begins abruptly because its opening pages are missing. Ferdinand regains consciousness after a battle and somehow reaches assistance despite serious wounds.

He is transferred to a hospital, where the narrative becomes an account of physical trauma as much as external events. The war remains permanently lodged in his senses through the noise in his damaged head.

At the hospital Ferdinand meets Cascade. Ferdinand's parents, desperate to transform their son's ordeal into a reassuring story of patriotism and advancement, become involved in social occasions celebrating his supposed heroism. Ferdinand receives a military decoration, but the honor has little relationship to what he actually experienced.

Cascade's situation is more dangerous. His wound was self-inflicted, and Angèle possesses evidence of what he did. Their relationship is built on exploitation and resentment. Angèle eventually denounces him.

Cascade is arrested and condemned for deliberately injuring himself to escape service.

Ferdinand then becomes increasingly involved with Angèle. She has connections to a wealthy British officer, Major Purcell, and London appears as a possible escape from France, the army and the life Ferdinand has known.