Blog written by Lee
A novel about love or a novel about war? Flanagan combines both themes into a compelling poetic work.
His characters, whether Australian or Japanese, men or women, all suffer from an self awareness of their own personal flaws.
Poetry helps some to cope with the trials they face, Dorrigo Evans remembers Tennyson and the Roman poets and Nakamura and Kota come face to face with the beauty of nature and their personal frailties in the haiku of Issa and Basho.
The title of the novel is taken from a book of haiku by Matsuo Basho a 17th century Japanese teacher and wandering poet.
Dorrigo’s love affair with Amy, the wife of his uncle, begins his journey into the war, his ‘narrow road’ takes him to the war in Cyprus and then to South East Asia where his platoon is surrendered to the Japanese in the fiasco that is the capture of British Singapore.
The novel follows the fortunes of Dorrigo and his men during the horrors of the building the Burma Railroad and the hell of the jungle POW camps.
Some die horrific deaths, others survive to return to alienated lives in Australia. None will ever be the same.
Flanagan’s writing is astonishing in it’s poetic beauty, whether he is describing a meeting in a book shop, a beach scene, the tropical rain in the Thai jungles, or the hell of an Australian bushfire. Each character’s story is given it’s full due and no story remains untold.
There is no great fanfare in the telling of each of the character’s stories and their conclusions can be unexpectedly shocking but always poignant.
Everyone in our group praised the novel and ratings ranged from an 8 to several giving a 10.
Our rating averaged 9.2 out of 10 and described as " compelling".
Our next book is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and will take place on Oct 9th Thursday at Melissa's.
This is a very well written novel which is totally absorbing. Through the use of a love story between Dorrigo and his aunt Amy, we are drawn into the life of the POWs during the building of the Siam/ Burma railway in the 2nd WW. The horrifying conditions, the cruelty which is completely mind boggling in its randomness and severity makes me shudder at the ugly side of human nature ( esp the live experiments on the American airforce POWs ! )
ReplyDeleteWhat a cruel twist that the most long drawn out and painful death of Darky Gardiner happens to be Dorrigo’s nephew unbeknownst to him.
I find the Japanese and Korean characters on the perpetrators’ side were also well developed. Nakamura and his after the war experience makes a riveting story as well.
The Railway Man is depicting the same period and experience but this novel is far more complex and well rounded.
Sharon