I finished Richard Flanagan’s new novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North some hours ago today, and I am still overwhelmed by it.
The novel is the story of a man tested to the limits as a POW on the Burma railway, and although I have read The War Diaries of Weary Dunlop and A Doctor’s War by Rowley Richards, nothing could have prepared me for the visceral experience of some of the scenes in Flanagan’s novel. There were times when I just had to put it down and read a bit of dear old Balzac or some children’s novels for school until I could face continuing.
Thoughtful haiku* interspersed throughout the book seems incongruous until it becomes apparent that the poetry represents the duality of the Japanese tormentors. It’s almost as if the author could not bring himself to show these characters as capable of human goodness in any other way. (Flanagan’s own father was a Japanese POW, the book’s dedication names him as POW no 335). Just as the central character Dorrigo and his men on The Line represent human frailty as well as heroism and selflessness, the Japanese characters are also depicted as complex beings; their brutal behaviour is shown to be the product of Japanese military training (which is consistent which what I’ve read in Tears in the Darkness by Michael Norman and Elizabeth M Norman). The narrative shifts in time, place and perspective to show that these characters are not sadists in the sense of taking pleasure in inflicting pain; they are more hidebound by their beliefs about obedience to a chain of command that leads to the god-like Emperor. Like Dorringo they yearn for an innocent past that is gone forever, and like him they never adjust to everyday life afterwards. But Flanagan does not shrink from depicting their post-war refusal to accept responsibility for their war crimes and there are a couple of post-war scenes that depict violence that had nothing to do with Imperial demands.
Dorrigo is a magnificent character. In civilian life before and after the war, and during the pivotal years of his life on The Line, he is torn between desire and duty. His passion for Amy vies with his duty to Ella; he struggles to reconcile his role in meeting the demands of the Japanese for slave labour with his role as a doctor in the men’s survival. Post-war he becomes the public face of the atrocity and its aftermath yet paradoxically he yearns for relief from the boredom of his dull marriage and everyday life. Through him we learn the fate of some of the survivors, and we see examples of seemingly inexplicable behaviour from men who were told to go home and forget about it. This is a meticulously crafted book, as you can see from the Sensational Snippet that I posted last week.
There will be an avalanche of books about war this year, the anniversary of the start of ‘The War to End all Wars’ in 1914. But by tracing the POW experience from different angles The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Thomas Keneally’s Shame and the Captives contribute to a richer understanding of defeat. The Japanese treated their POWS as slave labour to build a symbol but their captives were ennobled by it; the Australians at Cowra treated their Japanese POWS well, and their captives felt shamed by it.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North has been reviewed widely: See Romy Ash at The Guardian; Susan Lever at The Sydney Review and Michael Richardson at the Newtown Review.
Update: John Boland’s review at Musings of a Literary Dilettante is superb. Check out Tony’s too, at Tony’s Book World and Sue’s at Whispering Gums where she notes the generosity of this book.
*BTW a reviewer at the Japan Times quibbles about the translations of some of these haiku.
Author: Richard Flanagan
Title: The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Publisher: Knopf, (Penguin-Random House), 2013
ISBN: 9780857981486
Source: Personal library, purchased from Benn’s Books Bentleigh
Availability
Stock seems to be scarce at Booko but but you can pre-order the reprint.
Fishpond: The Narrow Road to the Deep North (where they do have stocks of the audiobook The Narrow Road To The Deep North, 4 left on the day I looked)
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
It sounds brilliant, Lisa. I plan to buy it at the Perth festival and attend the session he’s doing on it.
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By: amandacurtin on January 21, 2014
at 3:15 am
Oooh, Amanda, I am so envious. Flanagan is such a brilliant author, just being in the same room with him is a privilege!
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By: Lisa Hill on January 22, 2014
at 10:15 am
I’m very much looking forward to reading this one. I listened to a radio interview with him and found it very moving: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/10/24/3876175.htm
Have you read David Malouf’s Great War? I still remember POW scenes from that novel as if I read it yesterday and it must be 20 years ago when I read it.
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By: kimbofo on January 22, 2014
at 9:40 am
Goodness, Kim, I was overwhelmed when I read the book and now I am overwhelmed by listening to the podcast. That moment, where Flanagan explains about ‘The Lizard’ and the interviewer is so taken aback, is profound.
Ah yes, I have read The Great War, but I think that Ransom is closer in spirit to this novel by Flanagan. Maybe as Flanagan says, an author needs time to live a life and discover more about humanity before being able to write profound novels like these ones. By coincidence Sue at Whispering Gums has just written a post about forgiveness, and it’s one to mull over.
I am mindful of an old man I know who was a Japanese POW. In his 90s now, he is wracked by guilt because he feels he ought to forgive, and he can’t. The tragedy is that on top of everything else, he is burdened by the expectations of others that now that he’s coming to the end of his life, he should be able to do it, as if we, who’ve never had whatever his experiences were, have some kind of moral authority to expect it. But who can know? Will he feel better if he can forgive, or will be wracked by guilt about betraying memory? I like the way Flanagan talked about memory and forgetting and how his father in the end was able to forget. He didn’t say this, but it was as if his son’s actions offered a kind of redemption that he could live with.
Apropos our thoughts elsewhere about The Luminaries, It’s this kind of soul-searching that I cherish about great novels.
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By: Lisa Hill on January 22, 2014
at 11:25 am
[…] back of this award-winning novel, says that it deserves a place alongside Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Mark Dapin’s Spirit House – and I think he’s right. After Darkness is […]
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By: After Darkness, by Christine Piper (2014 Vogel winner) | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on June 18, 2014
at 12:53 am
This book is due to be published in the UK very shortly, and I’ve noticed quite quite a buzz about it on twitter. Great review, Lisa – it sounds amazing.
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By: jacquiwine on June 27, 2014
at 7:01 pm
That’s great news, Jacqui:)
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By: Lisa Hill on June 27, 2014
at 7:11 pm
‘quite a buzz about it’, even…not sure where that extra ‘quite’ appeared from! Sounds as if this book was unlucky to miss out on the Miles Franklin.
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By: jacquiwine on June 27, 2014
at 7:21 pm
Hmm, yes, I was torn between this one and Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book to win it. Both of them are books that will last long past my lifetime.
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By: Lisa Hill on June 27, 2014
at 7:28 pm
Lisa, you’ll no doubt be pleased to know that this book has made the Booker long-list. Perhaps it will have a little better luck there than it did with the Miles Franklin.
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By: mantalini on July 24, 2014
at 1:07 am
I’m *very* pleased to hear it!
I like what The Observer had to say: “a classic in the making”.
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By: Lisa Hill on July 24, 2014
at 8:06 pm
I’m returning to Australia for the first time in ten years this August, so I’ll be taking a copy back to Barcelona with me.
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By: mantalini on July 25, 2014
at 2:20 am
Fantastic!
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By: Lisa Hill on July 25, 2014
at 10:07 am
[…] its messiness, its lack of answers, but it sure made it hard to write about. Fortunately, Lisa at ANZLitLovers and John at Musings of a Literary Dilettante have also given it a […]
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By: Richard Flanagan: The narrow road to the deep north (Review) | Whispering Gums on October 5, 2014
at 10:00 pm
[…] My review and a Sensational Snippet […]
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By: Richard Flanagan wins the Booker Prize 2014! | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on October 15, 2014
at 6:51 pm
I missed your review the first time round because I hadn’t even heard of the book yet – started hearing about it this summer I think. Then a group chose it and I read it – against my better judgement. – Ha! So much for my “better judgment.” Just because the blurbs say “war” and “love” does not mean I’m going to dislike it. If that many folks say it’s terrific it might be wise to withhold judgement.
Then after I finished I was going to go back and check reviews but I missed yours for some reason. Now, thanks to Sue reminding me, I’ve got it! Thank you! Yes, the inclusion of the Japanese point of view was very different and riveting – original – beautifully done. This book is very ambitious but it works.
Anyway, congratulations to Aussie-land on the Booker win. Much deserved. Thanks for the review. :-)
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By: beckylindroos on October 18, 2014
at 2:04 am
Thanks, Becky:)
LOL it’s disconcerting when we find that ‘our better judgement’ lets us down. I tend to think that I’m pretty good at choosing books I’ll like and rejecting the dross, but every now and again a book confounds me. I reckon this one would have confounded many because as you say, ‘war and love’ tends to set my antennae twitching too.
But in my case, and *broad smile* for many others from now onwards, the name Flanagan overcomes any doubts. The blurb could say the book was about toddler taming and I would read it anyway!!
May I make a suggestion? If you haven’t read it yet, try another of my favourites, Death of a River Guide. That should have won a Booker too:)
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By: Lisa Hill on October 18, 2014
at 8:14 am
Death of a River Guide is now on my wish list. :-)
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By: beckylindroos on October 18, 2014
at 9:39 am
[…] evocation of this same situation in his Booker-prize winning The Narrow Road to the Deep North (see my review and a Sensational Snippet) but I suspect that will be true for most writers who tackle the […]
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By: The Return, by Silvia Kwon | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on April 5, 2015
at 11:04 am
[…] Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (Random House Australia) (See my review and a Sensational […]
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By: 2015 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prizes shortlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on September 15, 2015
at 11:56 am
[…] The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, see my review […]
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By: 2017 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prize longlists | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on August 14, 2017
at 3:42 pm
[…] Book of Fish (2001); The Unknown Terrorist (2006); the exquisite Wanting (2008); his masterpiece The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2013) and First Person […]
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By: Authors from Tasmania (Australian Authors #2) | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on December 6, 2017
at 10:22 pm
[…] he had to write’ for his father, a survivor of the infamous Burma Railway built by POWs. In my review I alluded to how reading about the brutality experienced there was overwhelming at times—I cannot […]
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By: Six Degrees of Separation: From Deadly D and Justice Jones, to … | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on August 3, 2019
at 11:23 am
Just finished yesterday. This is so good that I was flawed by its depth of story telling and the writing, the writing!
Many passages I read and had to take stock of the emotions I felt, such was the power. One example was such a simple thing, the daughter sold the bugle in a garage sale. I gasped at the significance of such a gesture of closure to a past she neither knew nor maybe understood. But so many more as well.
I started a week prior on a 7-hour flight to Singapore with my wife. When we landed, I was about halfway through. Each morning I would wake up a bit earlier than the better half and read till she stirred. When we got back to our hotel, I had a read. I finished it halfway through the flight home, and it took all my energy not to start again. I will leave that for another time. This is my 4th by Richard, and he has yet to disappoint me in any way. What a writer.
We had 8 nights there and a great time by the way.
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By: fourtriplezed on April 14, 2023
at 3:36 pm
Well, firstly, welcome home and I’m glad you had a good time. (I love Singapore!)
And yes, the writing. For me, it is that scene in the mud of the railway that still resonates. I really did have to put the book down and go into the garden and hear the children playing next door and then do something else before I could go on.
There is a new book due out this year #TapsFootImpatiently and I can’t wait!
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By: Lisa Hill on April 14, 2023
at 5:28 pm