The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard
Flanagan won the Booker prize for 2014, an award that was probably deserved.
Much has been made of the author’s a relationship with his father, who was a
prisoner of war in southeast Asia when the Japanese were building their
railroad to the north using forced labor. Approaching the book as a tale of
this war time experience would be a mistake, however. The personal experience
of the 1940s is most certainly there, but it is by no means the totality of the
book.
On the contrary, The Narrow Road to the Deep
North presents several lives in all their contemporary complexity. The style is
varied, sometimes disturbingly disconnected.
Often there are short sentences delivered like punches, and then long
passages that seem to meditate around the perimeters of their interest, perhaps
without seeming to engage in content. But don't take any of this as criticism
(except, of course, in the literary sense): it's merely an attempt at observation
and description. When a reader approaches a book, it's often useful to know
what not to expect.
A character who remain central to the novel is
an individual called Dorrigo Evans. We follow his life, his loves and, to some
extent, his profession. Married to Ella, he loves Amy. And, for Dorrigo Evans,
it seems that however fleeting the thought, however inconsequential the
encounter, it is destined to be remembered, to be recorded and then recalled
when least considered, if, and only if, Dorrigo Evans chooses to do so. Thus,
life seems to aggregate around these characters to create a shell of allusion,
association and chance, mixed with a fixer of self.
The wartime experiences are indeed central,
however. They are not a blow-by-blow account of conflict, nor of the
confinement which ensues after capture. There is something of the day-to-day
suffering via forced labor and deprivation that these men suffered, some in the
extreme, but more important is the continual challenge of survival, the daily
challenge of reaching tomorrow. How these men cope with their privatization is
central to Richard Flanagan's approach. And by the end of their captivity,
everyone involved remains forever changed, forever scarred by the experience.
Except for the legion who died, of course, for perhaps they were by then beyond
suffering.
It's not a one-sided account, by the way.
Richard Flanagan attempts to enter the minds of the captors, the Japanese
soldiers who are responsible for creating the conditions that impose suffering
on the captives. The attempt is not totally convincing, but the story of the
Korean guard, conscripted to do Japan's dirty work, with the same level of
choice as the captives he helps to torture and who is eventually tried for war
crimes, is one of the most successful, powerful and memorable aspects of her
book. And then there is the amputation episode… Realism rears its features
here, and they are vivid.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North is not a novel
that can be reviewed easily. It is complex, involved, subtle and involving.
These are characters – particularly Dorrigo Evans – who seem utterly credible.
We are interested in their lives, because they make mistakes, imagine
themselves in the wrong while doing something right. This makes them as
vulnerable as the real people they never quite become. But they get do on with
it. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan is a beautiful book.
No comments:
Post a Comment