Not for the fainthearted, The Narrow Road to the Deep North tackles a subject I was yet to read about in fiction, and it's truly heartbreaking. Tasmanian born Richard Flanagan's father was a survivor of the Burma-Siam Railway, also known as the Death Railway, and despite being filed under fiction, most of the events are likely to be based on fact. The starvation, the struggle, the strain of the workload for the prisoners of war all come to life in this novel; despite it being hard to imagine and impossible to understand, Flanagan tries his hardest to make you, and it's easy to see why this book won the Man Booker Prize 2014.
The story mainly focuses on Dorrigo Evans, a surgeon who becomes a POW by the Japanese Imperial Army, forced to build the railway with hundreds of others under his command, just a small group compared to the 13,000 Australians who were captured and used for this purpose. He is struggling to cope with the growing number of deaths, and finding it ever harder to save those who have fallen sick from the horrendous conditions the prisoners are forced to work in. He knows he has to stay strong for his men to keep up morale, as well as to make up for the guilt that he feels for the affair he had with his uncle's wife, even as her face slowly fades from his memory.
The beginning is difficult at first, switching consistently from past to present day, as the memories of war stay with the Dorrigo Evans even after he is freed. Though this starts off as trying, it soon becomes second nature and reading it becomes effortless as the story begins to build. Flanagan writes viewpoints from other prisoners, as well as members of the Japanese Imperial Army who guarded those working on the line, providing perhaps a little insight into both sides of the story. The sympathy remains with the Australians but it's refreshing to attempt to understand what the Japanese were trying to do and why they felt that they had to do it.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North is at times a chilling novel, standing as a reminder of what war can cause humans to be capable of doing to each other. It is also, through the imagination of Flanagan as well as the construction of the prose, a reminder that war does not end when the countries are at peace; it lives in those who survive it. It is an incredibly powerful and emotional story, that would remain in my thoughts hours after I'd put it down, to the point that I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it with the same strength of anger and sadness inside me. Definitely a recommended read, though be prepared for its effect.
The beginning is difficult at first, switching consistently from past to present day, as the memories of war stay with the Dorrigo Evans even after he is freed. Though this starts off as trying, it soon becomes second nature and reading it becomes effortless as the story begins to build. Flanagan writes viewpoints from other prisoners, as well as members of the Japanese Imperial Army who guarded those working on the line, providing perhaps a little insight into both sides of the story. The sympathy remains with the Australians but it's refreshing to attempt to understand what the Japanese were trying to do and why they felt that they had to do it.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North is at times a chilling novel, standing as a reminder of what war can cause humans to be capable of doing to each other. It is also, through the imagination of Flanagan as well as the construction of the prose, a reminder that war does not end when the countries are at peace; it lives in those who survive it. It is an incredibly powerful and emotional story, that would remain in my thoughts hours after I'd put it down, to the point that I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it with the same strength of anger and sadness inside me. Definitely a recommended read, though be prepared for its effect.
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