Members were in turn totally engrossed, mildly irritated and appalled by Richard Flanagan's 2014 Man Booker Prize winning novel. Some of us were overwhelmed by the descriptions of the horrors of life as a Prisoner of War of the Japanese on the Burma Railway. Others were fascinated by the medical history and details of operations under the most appalling conditions using make-do equipment and magical thinking.
We were intrigued by the odd, flawed character of Dorrigo who didn't want to be a leader - or married, or a father - but who rose to the occasion, and who his men, and ultimately his family, adored. Some of us felt the character was based on Colonel "Weary" Dunlop's renowned leadership as a prisoner of the Japanese, although we did not want to suggest that Dorrigo's personal life was anything but fictional.
We were not convinced by the narrative of Dorrigo's relationship with Amy (his aunt), nor of his chance meeting with her again after the war on Sydney Harbour Bridge. We were not entranced by either fire episode (although they might work well in a Hollywood film), nor sure about what the author was trying to say about marriage and family life - in particular about what he wanted to say about women (or men) who remain in their marriages despite being aware of their partners' infidelities.
Several of us thought the book went on for too long and felt the author did not know when to stop. The assistance of a good editor might have helped. We were bemused by the insertion of war episodes out of chronological order towards the end of the book - but felt that perhaps this was a play at originality for the Man Booker judges! But we wanted to believe the war sections were true history with their descriptions of the humour, camaraderie, and forbearance of the Australian POWs under such heartbreaking circumstances. It was also good to see an indigenous soldier take a role in the narrative, and to experience the realities of the war and its depressing aftermath through the eyes of the Japanese and Korean characters.
The touches of black humour (the role of a duck egg shell and the Korean's last thoughts: "where's my 50 yen?") may have helped members get through some of the more gruellingly graphic sections. Some members confessed to skipping pages when things got too rough.
The question of what makes a good person given the sum of the whole of their lives is posed enigmatically with the reader left to make up their own mind.
Who is Richard Flanagan?
Richard Flanagan is an award-winning Australian novelist born in Tasmania in 1961. To date, he has written seven works of fiction but is also renowned for his non-fiction, which covers environmental issues, the arts and politics. He has also written and directed feature films including The Sound of One Hand Clapping, based on his second novel.
Richard is descended from Irish convicts transported from Ireland during the Great Famine. His father was a survivor of the Burma Railway. After initially leaving school at 16, he eventually became a Rhodes Scholar, taking the degree of Masters of Letters in History.
He began writing non-fiction before his first novel, Death of a River Guide, was published in 1994. His 2007 essay on logging company, Gunns, in The Monthly inspired a successful campaign to stop the building of Gunns' $2 billion Bell Bay Pulp Mill. The essay won Flanagan the 2008 John Curtin Prize for Journalism.
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