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Spirit House
Witty, wise, and deeply moving, this is a remarkable novel, a story of the fall of Singapore and life as a POW, and of a young boy making sense of his future while old men try to live with their past
David is 13 and confused. His mother has left with her lover and dumped David on his grandparents. David's grandfather, Jimmy, is 70. He spends his days at the social club grumbling with his three best friends, all of them Jewish-Australian survivors of the enforced labor camps of the WWII Thai-Burma Railroad. But behind their playful backbiting and irresistible wit, Jimmy and his friends are haunted by the ghosts of long-dead comrades, and the only person Jimmy can confide in is a 13-year-old from a different world.
David is 13 and confused. His mother has left with her lover and dumped David on his grandparents. David's grandfather, Jimmy, is 70. He spends his days at the social club grumbling with his three best friends, all of them Jewish-Australian survivors of the enforced labor camps of the WWII Thai-Burma Railroad. But behind their playful backbiting and irresistible wit, Jimmy and his friends are haunted by the ghosts of long-dead comrades, and the only person Jimmy can confide in is a 13-year-old from a different world.
361 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2011
9 people are currently reading
183 people want to read
About the author
Mark Dapin
21 books20 followersMark Dapin is the author of the novels King of the Cross and Spirit House. King of the Cross won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, and Spirit House was long listed for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year and the Royal Society for Literature's Ondaatje Prize.
His recent work of military history, The Nashos' War, has been widely acclaimed. He is a PhD candidate at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
His recent work of military history, The Nashos' War, has been widely acclaimed. He is a PhD candidate at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 19, 2016
`My husband is a returned serviceman... and sometimes he forgets he ever came back'
Set in Sydney, 1990, this is a wonderful mix of warmth, wit and compassion as 70-something Jimmy struggles to reconcile himself to his memories of being a Japanese prisoner of war working on the notorious Burma railway.
Stories of Pacific prisoners of war and the labour camps are not new to either fiction or non-fiction (Beneath Another Sun, The Widow and Her Hero, The Railway Man) but where this book excels is in tracing the enduring, immutable legacy it leaves on Jimmy's psyche. There are some almost unbearable moments such as when he turns on his 13 year old grandson, and the moving plight of his wife - but the pain of the book is leavened by the laugh-out-loud bantering of Jimmy and his cronies (`when I was very young I used to think the three were one person, Sollykatzanmyer'), whose back-biting and grumpiness hide an unspoken bond that comes from the unspeakable experiences they have shared.
This is a powerful read which is never maudlin or sentimental, and which has enough nerve to mingle the comic with the harrowing. Dapin has established himself as a novelist with heart, and a voice of his own.
Set in Sydney, 1990, this is a wonderful mix of warmth, wit and compassion as 70-something Jimmy struggles to reconcile himself to his memories of being a Japanese prisoner of war working on the notorious Burma railway.
Stories of Pacific prisoners of war and the labour camps are not new to either fiction or non-fiction (Beneath Another Sun, The Widow and Her Hero, The Railway Man) but where this book excels is in tracing the enduring, immutable legacy it leaves on Jimmy's psyche. There are some almost unbearable moments such as when he turns on his 13 year old grandson, and the moving plight of his wife - but the pain of the book is leavened by the laugh-out-loud bantering of Jimmy and his cronies (`when I was very young I used to think the three were one person, Sollykatzanmyer'), whose back-biting and grumpiness hide an unspoken bond that comes from the unspeakable experiences they have shared.
This is a powerful read which is never maudlin or sentimental, and which has enough nerve to mingle the comic with the harrowing. Dapin has established himself as a novelist with heart, and a voice of his own.
July 7, 2011
Spirit House is written in Mark Dapin's distinctive style, with humour, puns, and a certain larrikinism. But the characters, particularly the returned servicemen, including the boy's grandfather, Jimmy, are some of the best characters I've read. They are each finely drawn, complete characters, whose dialogue of put-downs and snappy one-liners belies their deep relationship with one another, earned in shared experiences. The boy's (David) coming of age in the company of these somewhat dirty old men is nuanced and sensitive, as is his grandfather's struggle with PTSD. A beautiful tale of family, friendship and personal growth, laced with the pain and sometimes shocking details of WWII (in SE Asia), Spirit House is set against the backdrop of suburban Sydney. Much more than a vehicle for Dapin's brilliant turn-of-phrase, the mix of history, family, and the depth of the characters is reminiscent of Tim Winton's Cloudstreet. It's a very moving book. I cried my eyes out near the end.
April 25, 2012
Some years ago I saw a mini-series on ABC TV which featured former Japanese POWs gathering for the annual RSL reunion on ANZAC Day. It showed – as only film can do so graphically - how an horrific past sometimes bleeds unbidden and uncontrollably into the present. Sensate memory, etched deeply into the brain by trauma or torture, can be triggered by simple everyday things. A scent, a sound, or an even a fleeting part of an image that was also present during the trauma can provoke bizarre and often distressing behaviour when that memory surfaces into everyday life far removed from the initial experience.
School teachers, of course, are not psychiatrists, but because I have worked with refugee children for most of my career, I took a course in how best to help victims of torture and trauma. One of the recommended strategies I have used the most is to gently encourage the student to make a narrative of the experience. It doesn’t work for everyone, and of course it’s no substitute for professional care with severely traumatised people, but sometimes, the process of telling the story somehow disempowers that unruly sensate memory and displaces it with narrative. Which, unlike sensate memory which simply floods into the present, can be controlled.
Mark Dapin has built an engrossing story around this strategy. Spirit House, longlisted for the 2012 Miles Franklin Award, tells the story of Jimmy Rubens, a former Japanese POW who in his old age is increasingly subject to episodes of very odd behaviour. A secular Jew and survivor of the horrors of the Thai-Burma railway, he is haunted by his experiences and the ghosts of his dead mates. His wife vacillates between fond tolerance and outraged exasperation until she cannot take his bizarre behaviour any longer, and seeks refuge with a friend. And this leaves Jimmy alone with only his thirteen-year-old grandson David for company.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/04/27/sp...
School teachers, of course, are not psychiatrists, but because I have worked with refugee children for most of my career, I took a course in how best to help victims of torture and trauma. One of the recommended strategies I have used the most is to gently encourage the student to make a narrative of the experience. It doesn’t work for everyone, and of course it’s no substitute for professional care with severely traumatised people, but sometimes, the process of telling the story somehow disempowers that unruly sensate memory and displaces it with narrative. Which, unlike sensate memory which simply floods into the present, can be controlled.
Mark Dapin has built an engrossing story around this strategy. Spirit House, longlisted for the 2012 Miles Franklin Award, tells the story of Jimmy Rubens, a former Japanese POW who in his old age is increasingly subject to episodes of very odd behaviour. A secular Jew and survivor of the horrors of the Thai-Burma railway, he is haunted by his experiences and the ghosts of his dead mates. His wife vacillates between fond tolerance and outraged exasperation until she cannot take his bizarre behaviour any longer, and seeks refuge with a friend. And this leaves Jimmy alone with only his thirteen-year-old grandson David for company.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/04/27/sp...
October 14, 2015
I had no previous expectations from this book. I decided to read it after a book company gave me the opportunity to review it having the chance to own it for free and before it was released. As the circumstances had been so exceptional and good, I thought the book was not going to be a big deal and I was going to be kind of “committed to say it was good as it had been free” (which I agreed with myself beforehand I was definitely not-going-to-do). I was expecting poor literature as some of the new titles that arrive at my local library, but how wrong I was.
Utterly beautiful, touching, funny with a precise dose of humor, harsh, and with the most endearing characters I have lately came across in literature, Spirit House narrates the measures that a retired Jewish serviceman takes in order to cope with the ghosts of lost beloved ones in the construction of the Burma Railway during World War II. All the previous, in company and understanding of his grandson, a thirteen year old boy that has grown in an environment that is too soft and too protective for his own good.
The book deals with the most horrifying things that human beings can experience in one of the harshest environments of them all: war. Mark Dapin manages to make readers get involved with every character, every story, and as readers, we suffer deep in our hearts every lost and every little victory (which does not happen during war). All the previous, by using as a master tool to David, Jimmy’s grandson, as the narrator of the story; which gives to the whole book a slight innocent but at the same time harsher perspective.
I was going to give it 4 out of 5 stars because it didn’t treat the topics that my favorite books have treated, nor reached the emotional peak that my favorite books have. Nevertheless, it was a book of such exceptional quality where every word, every idea, everything is though in such a perfectionist and precise manner that I simply had to do it. This book earned its 5 stars, simple as that. And to those who enjoy reading the topics that the book deals with, such as: loss, violence, abandonment, war, and love, I highly recommend it.
Utterly beautiful, touching, funny with a precise dose of humor, harsh, and with the most endearing characters I have lately came across in literature, Spirit House narrates the measures that a retired Jewish serviceman takes in order to cope with the ghosts of lost beloved ones in the construction of the Burma Railway during World War II. All the previous, in company and understanding of his grandson, a thirteen year old boy that has grown in an environment that is too soft and too protective for his own good.
The book deals with the most horrifying things that human beings can experience in one of the harshest environments of them all: war. Mark Dapin manages to make readers get involved with every character, every story, and as readers, we suffer deep in our hearts every lost and every little victory (which does not happen during war). All the previous, by using as a master tool to David, Jimmy’s grandson, as the narrator of the story; which gives to the whole book a slight innocent but at the same time harsher perspective.
I was going to give it 4 out of 5 stars because it didn’t treat the topics that my favorite books have treated, nor reached the emotional peak that my favorite books have. Nevertheless, it was a book of such exceptional quality where every word, every idea, everything is though in such a perfectionist and precise manner that I simply had to do it. This book earned its 5 stars, simple as that. And to those who enjoy reading the topics that the book deals with, such as: loss, violence, abandonment, war, and love, I highly recommend it.
July 2, 2012
It's kind of a three and a half for me. By the end of the book i really liked it, truth be told i even shed a tear. But it took me a while to get into the book. I am not sure why, because i loved the characters, loved the relationship between Jimmy and his grandson and the banter between Jimmy and and his old friends was brilliant. I guess it took me a while to find the rhythm of the book, which is probably my own fault more than the authors as i have been reading such fast paced books of late. So i have settled on four stars. Spirit House is a very moving story written from the heart.
April 28, 2012
By turns funny, languid & brutal, Dapin's second novel centers upon Jimmy, a WWII veteran recounting to his grandson his experience as a POW under the Japanese.
Dapin cleverly sidesteps any historical contrivances by viewing the often horrendous events through the eyes and voice of a near contemporary character. The novel's gears do grind a bit as it moves betweens periods & it would have benefited from a tighter edit but Dapin's writing is sharp & his characters vivid.
September 15, 2016
Please do read this powerful story. One of the books that made me cry. Articulates the inarticulate nature of blokes in Aus pretty well, even though the blokes therein are not inarticulate - but it's emotion I mean, of course.
In fact, I come back to this; even a year later, this book taps me on the shoulder from time to time. I just made a list of last year's favourite reads and I do believe this was number 1. It could be a tie but that makes no difference.
In fact, I come back to this; even a year later, this book taps me on the shoulder from time to time. I just made a list of last year's favourite reads and I do believe this was number 1. It could be a tie but that makes no difference.
October 23, 2013
Obviously well written and very descriptive regarding a returned war vet who has experienced the horrors of war and back in peacetime Australia is going/gone more than a little crazy. However I found it rather depressing and in fact gave up mid book.
April 14, 2013
In a different mood, I might have enjoyed this book more, but I found it quite repetitive.
October 23, 2013
I tried. I really tried, but the characters gave me nothing. Didn't like any of them and their manner with each other was painful.
November 20, 2021
An Australian classic that should be widely acclaimed.
I can't put it better than this review by Rob Minshull:
Jimmy is a Jewish war veteran and survivor of Changi and the notorious Thai-Burma railway. Haunted by the horrors of the past and the ghosts of his long-dead comrades, he gradually tells his tale to David, his teenage grandson. David teases the story out of his foul-mouthed grandfather, knowing that 'he wouldn't be able to survive what Jimmy had gone through and didn't think he want to.' The burden of being the witness to his grandfather's story is both liberating and overwhelming; the past is what makes our present and it isn't always very pretty.
Along his road of purgatory on the way to revelation, Jimmy is accompanied by Sollykatzanmyer, three friends whose names are joined as one by David. Together, Solomon, Katz and Myer argue, bicker and after repressing their past for so long, eventually relive the nightmares of the war. Beautifully constructed banter flows back and forth as they curse in Yiddish and seek solace in years of enmity, friendship and familiarity. They also get drunk and then "their speech would droop and their eyes would slur, and the last word they said wouldn't always be connected with the one before."
In the bar at the Bondi RSL, over dinners in a Thai restaurant where they chat up the waitress and suffer her disdain, and in-between the cut and thrust of arguments with Jimmy the Head, the Maori bouncer, the sheer horror of Jimmy's experience is slowly and painstakingly revealed. The brutality of the Korean guards, the sad, terrible deaths of so many and the memories of those who were lost; men like Bathurst Billy, Diamond Tom and none more so than a giant of a man - in every sense of the word - who went by the name of Townsville Jack, a man who "lived his life like every one of his words was his last."
Then there the women: Jimmy's wife who has to put up with his drunkenness and screams in the night; and Mei-Li, Jimmy's first love and Chinese resistance fighter who stayed behind in Singapore to fight the Japanese.
For Jimmy, who "couldn't make sense of what happened, couldn't learn the lesson, couldn't force it to be worth something", it is time to lay the ghosts to rest. For that to happen, his story has to be told. That such barbarity can have occurred and so many men could have suffered as they did are the reason books like this are written. Buy, beg, borrow or steal this novel. You won't regret it.
SPIRIT HOUSE by Mark Dapin
Published in Australia by Pan Macmillan
Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader
I can't put it better than this review by Rob Minshull:
Jimmy is a Jewish war veteran and survivor of Changi and the notorious Thai-Burma railway. Haunted by the horrors of the past and the ghosts of his long-dead comrades, he gradually tells his tale to David, his teenage grandson. David teases the story out of his foul-mouthed grandfather, knowing that 'he wouldn't be able to survive what Jimmy had gone through and didn't think he want to.' The burden of being the witness to his grandfather's story is both liberating and overwhelming; the past is what makes our present and it isn't always very pretty.
Along his road of purgatory on the way to revelation, Jimmy is accompanied by Sollykatzanmyer, three friends whose names are joined as one by David. Together, Solomon, Katz and Myer argue, bicker and after repressing their past for so long, eventually relive the nightmares of the war. Beautifully constructed banter flows back and forth as they curse in Yiddish and seek solace in years of enmity, friendship and familiarity. They also get drunk and then "their speech would droop and their eyes would slur, and the last word they said wouldn't always be connected with the one before."
In the bar at the Bondi RSL, over dinners in a Thai restaurant where they chat up the waitress and suffer her disdain, and in-between the cut and thrust of arguments with Jimmy the Head, the Maori bouncer, the sheer horror of Jimmy's experience is slowly and painstakingly revealed. The brutality of the Korean guards, the sad, terrible deaths of so many and the memories of those who were lost; men like Bathurst Billy, Diamond Tom and none more so than a giant of a man - in every sense of the word - who went by the name of Townsville Jack, a man who "lived his life like every one of his words was his last."
Then there the women: Jimmy's wife who has to put up with his drunkenness and screams in the night; and Mei-Li, Jimmy's first love and Chinese resistance fighter who stayed behind in Singapore to fight the Japanese.
For Jimmy, who "couldn't make sense of what happened, couldn't learn the lesson, couldn't force it to be worth something", it is time to lay the ghosts to rest. For that to happen, his story has to be told. That such barbarity can have occurred and so many men could have suffered as they did are the reason books like this are written. Buy, beg, borrow or steal this novel. You won't regret it.
SPIRIT HOUSE by Mark Dapin
Published in Australia by Pan Macmillan
Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2016
A very impressive and highly intelligent look at the prisoner of war in WW2 under Japanese rule. It looks back at it from "life after" and captures the breadth of the effects of post-traumatic stress. Fiction, yes. But it is an area in which I have read relatively widely, and Dapin gives it a keen authenticity. It gives insight into the worst and best of humanity - short of the incarnate One. There is much pain and little resolution. We should not look to humanity for that!
April 30, 2013
While beautifully written and an inherently interesting, moving subject, I think that Spirit House could have been organized more effectively. First, David is supposedly the main character of the novel, but we don't get to spend much time with him. Instead, we have a brief page or two that sums up his thoughts about his current situation of living at his grandparents' home while his parents are figuring themselves off, and then we're back to Jimmy's story about the war. So, don't let the summary confuse you. Despite the fact that David is the "main character" and that this novel is supposed to be about his journey into adulthood, this is really a book about Jimmy.
Now, don't get me wrong, Jimmy's story is great. It's interesting, the dialogue is witty, and the characters are memorable. (The biggest strength of this book is characterization.) Spirit House gives a lot of food for thought. It's full of great ideas that we should think about and discuss. However, the format just didn't cut it for me. I think Jimmy should have been the main character. David's story doesn't add much of interest and not a lot of time is even spent on him. Jimmy, on the other hand, spends most of the novel narrating his story about being a POW in Singapore.
I also prefer novels to be more exposition than dialogue, and that just wasn't the case in this story. It may seem like a small detail, but format is everything to me. Scripts and comics are made for dialogue-heavy storytelling, not novels.
Despite that, the characters are excellent; getting to read about them and learn about them was a pleasure. I especially enjoyed reading about Townsville Jack; he is by far my favorite character of this novel. The story itself is interesting, though it's hard not to get frustrated about the format through which it's introduced. Overall, I think those who simply like a good story will enjoy this novel. For those who are like me and get caught up in format and writing style, you may have some problems with keeping yourself in the story.
*Thank you to The Book Depository for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.*
Now, don't get me wrong, Jimmy's story is great. It's interesting, the dialogue is witty, and the characters are memorable. (The biggest strength of this book is characterization.) Spirit House gives a lot of food for thought. It's full of great ideas that we should think about and discuss. However, the format just didn't cut it for me. I think Jimmy should have been the main character. David's story doesn't add much of interest and not a lot of time is even spent on him. Jimmy, on the other hand, spends most of the novel narrating his story about being a POW in Singapore.
I also prefer novels to be more exposition than dialogue, and that just wasn't the case in this story. It may seem like a small detail, but format is everything to me. Scripts and comics are made for dialogue-heavy storytelling, not novels.
Despite that, the characters are excellent; getting to read about them and learn about them was a pleasure. I especially enjoyed reading about Townsville Jack; he is by far my favorite character of this novel. The story itself is interesting, though it's hard not to get frustrated about the format through which it's introduced. Overall, I think those who simply like a good story will enjoy this novel. For those who are like me and get caught up in format and writing style, you may have some problems with keeping yourself in the story.
*Thank you to The Book Depository for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.*
April 21, 2013
I just finished Spirit House by Mark Dapin today and I must say it's one of those books that make you want to stop writing altogether. The reason being it's so well-written that, as a fellow author, it's easy to lose your motivation. You think, how will I ever be able to write something that good?
The Spirit House is much about the relationship between an old man and his grandson. The man, Jimmy, was a prisoner of war and a Digger on the Thai-Burma railway during the second world war and suffers greatly from the horrors of his past. He wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, being right in the middle of the memories that haunt him and the only way to alleviate this pain is to tell the story to his grandson, David.
David is really excited by the stories at first, but the more gory and brutal they get, the less he wants to hear about them. You could say he's fascinated, but at the same time slightly sick to hear what he's grandfather had to experience.
The Spirit House is a deeply moving book. Dapin's excellent use of the English language really paints a vivid picture of how it was to be involved in the war, not only as a POW but in general. The book is full of humor, especially in the dialogue of Jimmy and his old Digger friends, Solomon, Katz, and Myer who meet up to talk about the past from time to time, something which usually involves pretty harsh but mainly very funny conversations.
Dapin draws up great characters and he tells the story much like had been there himself. It obviously helps that Dapin is the editor of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing, but still you can't be nothing but impressed by the amount detail and emotion with which he tells the story. To be able to capture such a tale is no small feat, but Dapin does it brilliantly and he has crafted a novel that is equally distressing and tragic as it is funny and clever.
Read my full review
The Spirit House is much about the relationship between an old man and his grandson. The man, Jimmy, was a prisoner of war and a Digger on the Thai-Burma railway during the second world war and suffers greatly from the horrors of his past. He wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, being right in the middle of the memories that haunt him and the only way to alleviate this pain is to tell the story to his grandson, David.
David is really excited by the stories at first, but the more gory and brutal they get, the less he wants to hear about them. You could say he's fascinated, but at the same time slightly sick to hear what he's grandfather had to experience.
The Spirit House is a deeply moving book. Dapin's excellent use of the English language really paints a vivid picture of how it was to be involved in the war, not only as a POW but in general. The book is full of humor, especially in the dialogue of Jimmy and his old Digger friends, Solomon, Katz, and Myer who meet up to talk about the past from time to time, something which usually involves pretty harsh but mainly very funny conversations.
Dapin draws up great characters and he tells the story much like had been there himself. It obviously helps that Dapin is the editor of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing, but still you can't be nothing but impressed by the amount detail and emotion with which he tells the story. To be able to capture such a tale is no small feat, but Dapin does it brilliantly and he has crafted a novel that is equally distressing and tragic as it is funny and clever.
Read my full review
September 20, 2012
Jimmy Rubens was a prisoner on the Thai Burmese railway. He returned a damaged man, plagued by memories of lost mates. He drinks to keep the ghosts away, and is supported by three other Jewish ex-servicemen. To help him cope with his memories, he decides to make a Thai inspired spirit house for the souls of his dead mates. He also reminisces with his 13 year old grandson, David, telling him of his years as a prisoner.
Despite the horrors of the war, this novel is very funny, based as it is upon a rich heritage of Jewish humour. Dapin has a great ear for the Australian vernacular and vividly brings the characters of Jimmy and his friends and mates to life. One quibble - the passages of dialogue between Jimmy and David, where Jimmy revisits his war years are a bit contrived, though they do make for fascinating reading.
A wonderfully evocative story of the futility of war, the pain of growing up, and the resilience of the Australian soldier.
Despite the horrors of the war, this novel is very funny, based as it is upon a rich heritage of Jewish humour. Dapin has a great ear for the Australian vernacular and vividly brings the characters of Jimmy and his friends and mates to life. One quibble - the passages of dialogue between Jimmy and David, where Jimmy revisits his war years are a bit contrived, though they do make for fascinating reading.
A wonderfully evocative story of the futility of war, the pain of growing up, and the resilience of the Australian soldier.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 3, 2016
It helps me to review this book by comparing it with Richard Flanaghan's Booker Prize winning The Narrow Road to the Deep North (The Other Book) that was written about Australian POWs under the Japanese. Spirit House did not have the same impact with me partly because there was no one memorable strong central character as in the other book.
The characters were well drawn and I was interested in the section of Australian life, Jews in Sydney, that I was not familiar with. How they dealt with surviving the war and its horrors by their self deprecating sense of humour and their everyday routines contrasts markedly with the other book with its central stoic character.
I found the whole idea of the spirit house as a way of keeping the ghosts away fascinating and this gave this book a lift above the usual war story. I recommend this book.
The characters were well drawn and I was interested in the section of Australian life, Jews in Sydney, that I was not familiar with. How they dealt with surviving the war and its horrors by their self deprecating sense of humour and their everyday routines contrasts markedly with the other book with its central stoic character.
I found the whole idea of the spirit house as a way of keeping the ghosts away fascinating and this gave this book a lift above the usual war story. I recommend this book.
February 27, 2014
Four and a half stars, we really need to be able to give half stars. It took me a little while to warm to the characters, to David's gruff Grandad and his rude friends, always down at the pub, but I slowly became very attached to them. This story is important, a personal history of Changi, the Thai Burma railway and the lasting impact of war. Tears were shed for these fictional characters and the people who really lived through the atrocities.
With so many larrikins, the horror was balanced with humour and it was a funny and very touching read.
With so many larrikins, the horror was balanced with humour and it was a funny and very touching read.
May 30, 2013
I always buy a Mark Dapin for him indoors when we go on our hols but I know full well I will read it after he's finished. I didn't buy this book for a history lesson so I couldn't care less if facts were correct.
Probably not the most sensitive book ever written from a PC point of view but the humour is superb, the observations sharp and it was actually emotionally stirring.
Top read.
Probably not the most sensitive book ever written from a PC point of view but the humour is superb, the observations sharp and it was actually emotionally stirring.
Top read.
July 7, 2014
This had potential. But awful. I couldn't get past 50 pages. First 50 pages is a lot of filler. Just slow. Yukking it up with his mates down the club. Yes, we get it. They are a bunch of 'characters'. We get it. And then later you are going to show us what happened to them in the war. I just didn't care to find out.
July 21, 2013
Don't know how a book about the horrors of Changi and the Burma Railway could make me laugh out loud (a lot!) but Mark Dapin has written a terrific book. He has a great ear for the vernacular and both the horror and the humour of the story sound utterly authentic.
July 19, 2015
I ended up enjoying this book a lot more than I thought I would. The ending makes the whole story in my opinion but I did also enjoy the stories from POW camps as its part of WW2 history you rarely learn about.
Want to read
April 26, 2012* recommended to me by my friend Kathryn
April 27, 2012
Just happened to start reading just before Anzac Day - very timely. .......he can't be with us today, because age didn't weary him.
July 31, 2012
Best!
February 21, 2014
Well written, funny, insightful and moving - well worth reading
July 20, 2014
I struggled with this at the start, but once I got to understand the characters, I was surprised to how good it was!
September 21, 2014
Very original - by turns humorous and sad, the subject of Jewish Australian POWs is told through flashbacks.
September 20, 2016
I loved this book. Built around an old man sharing the horrors of his time as POW on the Thai-Burma railway with his grandson it's also warm, cheeky and very funny.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews