The Narrow Road to the Deep North (urspr publ 2014; utgåvan 2015)

This was a love story and a WWII story not very well combined. I listened to this as an audiobook and found it very disjointed. The first 4 hours was nothing more than a conversation between the main character, Dorrigo Evans, and his uncle's wife, with whom he was having an affair. The next 6 hours was the story of Dorrigo's platoon being captured by the Japanese and marched to Burma to begin building the railroad; somewhat better then first section. It focused mostly on how different soldiers responded to the deprivation of food and cruelty (very gory). The last section was told from the perspective of the Japanese captors, which I felt was already told in section 2; by then I did not care a whit about this story. I guess I was expecting more from a Man-Booker Prize winner. I almost quit 2-3 times, but forced myself to continue. I did skim the last third of the book. When I read the description of the book I thought it sounded like The Bridge Over the River Kwai, which was much better, IMHO. This was just too impressionistic for my tastes. (and too long!) 467 pages ( )

I don't think reading books that win the Man Booker Prize are for me. The language of this is flowery which doesn't usually bother me, but when paired with the plot of the story, the language seemed over the top and unnecessary. The characters are well developed with many chances for the reader to get to know their faults and understand why they do the things they do - however, this made every character difficult to like or root for. It helped me understand why events unfolded and why people made certain decisions, but when pairing all these aspects together, I just didn't care about any aspect of the book. ( )

WOW! This is some of the finest writing I've ever encountered.

This is the story of Australian POWs in Burma, centered around Dorrigo Evans. Just before being shipped out, Dr. Evans fell in love with Amy, a young woman married to his uncle. Through flashbacks, we see their early relationship, as well as that of Dr. Evans with his fiancée, Ella. We also get to know many of the POWs and the Japanese and Korean camp officers.

What makes this story extraordinary is the writing. As one prisoner is struggling to walk after an injury, I actually hoped he would die to end his suffering. The writing is so vivid that it made the scenes of torture hard to read, yet I couldn't stop. The descriptions of love, of Amy's mannerisms....just tugged me into the story. Several times, I went back and re-read certain scenes as new information was revealed.

I liked that we had the perspectives of the Japanese and Korean soldiers. I liked the strong sense among POWs that they had to survive collectively -- we and us being the operating principle. I liked the descriptions of how Dorrigo felt about Ella vs Amy vs other women -- with all the subtleties and nuances.

Read this! ( )

I was very disappointed with this book after so many glowing reviews. The initial section irritated me- it jumped about in time and I was often completely at sea; nor did I warm to the main character. I was close to giving up. The more conventional later sections were, in my view, more readable, despite some of the horrific events that occurred in the POW camp, but in no way worthy of a Booker Prize. And as the author wound up the stories of the main protagonists there were some sensationalist revelations that seemed to have been almost shoe-horned into the plot. ( )

How to find words dark enough to describe a book like this? Harrowing and blood-curdling feel like clichés. The Narrow Road to the Deep North is the tragic -- and new to me -- story of the soldiers who slaved in forced labor camps for the Japanese during World War II.

Much like their Jewish counterparts in Europe, these thousands of men, mostly Australian, were fed the absolute minimum, denied basic sanitation or medical care, and worked to death in the cholera-infested jungles of what would become Thailand. The stories of the beatings and vivisections are heartbreaking; this is not a book for the faint of heart.

But it is an honest and sobering exploration of war and what it does. Some of the characters whitewash their memories; for others, the war becomes the only memory. One of the Japanese officers turns his life around. Some are punished for war crimes, some escape. The world moves on.

“…the world organises its affairs so that civilisation every day commits crimes for which any individual would be imprisoned for life…You are never free of the world; to share life is to share guilt.”

www.methodtohermadness.com ( )