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The Narrow Road to the Deep North
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June Group Read (2016)- The Narrow Road to the Deep North
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Thanks. We have been discussing that book this month in another group here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group... so it will be interesting to compare reactions.
Read it back in 2014 when it won, along with the other 12 nominees. It placed 12th of those 13, in my humble opinion! :-( Just don't like relentlessly depressing scenes of carnage. Hope the rest of you enjoy it more than I did...
Doug wrote: "Read it back in 2014 when it won, along with the other 12 nominees. It placed 12th of those 13, in my humble opinion! :-( Just don't like relentlessly depressing scenes of carnage. Hope the rest of..."I read it back then as well. Can't say I was a massive fan although 4th from 6 on the shortlist that year for me (I didn't read the whole longlist) which is a bit better than 12th from 13.
In terms of what I thought worked well / didn't work so well - and perhaps questions others can consider as they read (spoiler free):
- does the visceral description of the prisoners' ordeal work for you or put you off the novel (it was strongest part of book for me, albeit Bridge on the Rover Kwai did the same thing many years earlier, but Doug found it too depressing)
- parts are told from the perspective of the Japanese guards - but are they real characters, treated sympathetically, or walking cliches from a 1970s childrens war comic? [The honorable exception is the more nuanced portrayal of the Korean guard]
- the main character - Dorrigo Evans - is very well rounded but are the other Aussie prisoners treated too sympathetically? Yes we see their human, fallible, prejudiced, selfish sides but even this a little too hedged with excuses (I would contrast with Imre Kertesz novels of concentration camp life where he sees nothing noble in suffering)
- what did the pre-camp love story add to the novel? [did nothing for me but Flanagan must have had a reason to include it]
- what is the purpose of the novel's climatic scene?
more on all of these in my review but that is definitely best read after reading the novel.
I will read other people's comments on here with great interest, but I am not going to read this book again: it is rather too harrowing for me to want to go back to it. I think I understand why it won, but like Doug, I placed it quite low on my ranking list that year. It will be interesting to see what you all make of it.
I will also participate by reading your comments, but I don't feel able to read this book again. While I understand we need to remember these horrible periods in history, the book was very difficult for me. That being said, it is well worth reading! The love story was beautiful and kept me reading through the more difficult sections. A very moving book. I look forward to all of your thoughts.
I will save my comments for the discussion next month
I was just talking to my grandmother about this book today in fact, since I saw it on her bookshelf. She doesn't know how it got there, someone must have forgotten it. The comments in this thread so far are pretty intriguing, I feel like this must be quite a hard and heavy read?
It's not a hard read at all in terms of the prose, but the subject matter is pretty grim by definition.
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For me there were places were it was tough, harrowing and uncompromising, but there was nothing gratuitous about that - don't let it put you off reading it. Yes, the horrific events on the Burma railway are central to the story, but there is much more to it than that.
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I trust your opinion, so I will certainly give the book another try.
What Paul and Hugh said - this is a heart wrenching book but it's readable.
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Are you planning on re-reading it?
Probably not, I've got an 85 strong TBR and I want to lessen it a little. If a booker winner that I haven't read gets picked then I'll definitely read it.
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This discussion has gone very quiet - is anybody reading the book?
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I read the book last year and I liked it. Well deserved winner in my humble opinion.
I also read the book last year and it was a worthy winner indeed. I still found it amazing that the author balanced such depths of horror with a love story -- conveyed character in such extreme conditions, and the complexity of human nature --- there appears to be black and white in the morality but as the book develops and certainly by its conclusion, there is not straight forward answers, no straight forward understanding of the complexity of human beings. My detailed memory of the book is blunted now , but I do remember how he manages, through the style of the prose , to be both blunt , graphic and yet convey the fragility of love. An amazing book.
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I too have been trying to get into this book and not having much success. It's summer, you know, and there are beaches and trails and tennis courts and in the evenings there are sidewalk cafes and laughter with friends and beers with lemon wedges and the stars, well, they are just so beautiful.
Indeed Tis true and let's live to enjoy them. The Burma Death Railway can surely wait :)
I understand that (though evidence of summer has been thin on the ground here in the UK this week), but it is disappointing that some of those who nominated/seconded this book don't seem to want to discuss it!
Hugh, I agree! It got the most votes but only people who didn't vote for it seem to be commenting here! I am on holiday in Scotland where, strangely for UK, the weather has been better than everywhere else and we have been enjoying the island beaches and wildlife. I was looking forward to reading other people's views even though I didn't vote for it and don't want to read it again.
It's not a book for the faint hearted but its not that often you get a book with so much meat on it! Maybe if we posed a question or two to get things moving.... e.g.... did your sympathies for particular characters alter at all during the course of the book? Were you surprised by this?
Discussion questions might be helpful, and I was also going to say that it is only the middle of the month, so people might still be in the middle of reading it. Not everyone reads the books in the first two days of the month.
Kay - I wondered if that might be the case. In previous months, there has been discussion while people were reading the books, but this month everyone might be waiting until they have finished.
Ooops, sorry. I was one of those who seconded the book. Honestly, I just started reading it about two days ago. It's quite a confusing book. I am going to wait until I finish it to post any more comment here.
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We can start with a few.. I like this one:
9. Does The Narrow Road to the Deep North ultimately answer the question “What is a hero?” Who in the novel can be defined as a hero and what are some of the heroic actions depicted in the book? Are some of the characters more naturally suited to be leaders or is the role of leader or hero one they assume only because it is demanded of them? What proof do we find of this throughout the novel?
and
12. Consider the many representations and definitions of love in the novel: love as duty, as romance, as magnetism, as friendship, as devotion, as annihilation, etc. Does one form of love seem to prevail over all of the others in the book? What can readers learn about love through their understanding of the characters’ varied experiences with love or its lack?
Very good questions. It is some time since I read the book, but I would give a qualified yes to the first one - the contrast between Dorrigo and his Japanese guards is very striking - Dorrigo's actions in the camp are heroic but he fails to act heroically in his normal life, and to some extent the opposite applies to the Japanese. So for Flanagan whether an individual is heroic or not is a matter of context, and to some extent it is a common sense position that even the greatest heroes do not behave heroically all of the time...
I thought the nuanced portrayal of Dorrigo - a hero in other's eyes but not his - was one of the book's strongest points. I loved the line, from his thoughts "virtue was vanity dressed up and waiting for applause."But then I struggled with the need for the scene that closes the novel, since that seem designed to prove Dorrigo was a hero after all.
Almost finished. As always, I'm trying to read all the books and playing a very bad game of catch up, I started this at the very end of June. Slow in parts, overall it's been an easy read, (writing style), but the content is hard going and although this is a work of fiction, the knowledge that it's based in truth makes it all the more difficult to read.
I read this book awhile back and thought it was excellent. Yes, there is a lot of torture in it but damn it, that stuff happened and we shouldn't close our eyes to that. It is what war brings with it. Dorrigo was heroic, even though he never saw his actions as heroic. And he really wasn't that bad when he returned to civilian life post war, even though he was certainly damaged by his POW experience.
We will be reading throughout the month of June, so feel free to comment as you read. As always, just be mindful of spoilers. Please share your current chapter so others know whether or not they have read that far before reading your comment.
Thanks! And happy Manbookering!