Freewheeling Andy
9th January 2008, 22:56
This 600 page monster, set in the period from about 1940 until the fall of Singapore, is a fantastic, fantastic novel. The book starts calmly, with families working out how to proceed in their little domestic problems whilst running a major rubber company exporting to Britain.
Slowly, as the war progresses around them, and circumstances change, you begin to see the slow breakdown of society, you see the intransigent failings of the later phases of the British empire. All the misplaced arrogance, the confidence that it will last for ever, the subtle racism, it's here.
It's hard to do justice to the plot - in many ways you could see it as similar to the first part of War and Peace, you keep being introduced to new characters, there are real and fictional ones, there are love stories and bit part characters, there's the progress of the war. There's a character, Matthew, a heir to part of the company that's the start of this, who could easily be a British ringer for Pierre in Tolstoy's book.
Yet it doesn't suffer from the flabbinness or quite the confusing excess of characters that War and Peace does, and therefore is a much easier, less daunting read.
As the book continues, amongst the bombing, and with the Japanese getting closer and closer to Singapore, it's fascinating to follow the characters, see them try and focus their lives, see them try and carry on as normal in the chaos, often competely unwilling to accept what is happening.
A hugely entertaining and informing novel, this.
Slowly, as the war progresses around them, and circumstances change, you begin to see the slow breakdown of society, you see the intransigent failings of the later phases of the British empire. All the misplaced arrogance, the confidence that it will last for ever, the subtle racism, it's here.
It's hard to do justice to the plot - in many ways you could see it as similar to the first part of War and Peace, you keep being introduced to new characters, there are real and fictional ones, there are love stories and bit part characters, there's the progress of the war. There's a character, Matthew, a heir to part of the company that's the start of this, who could easily be a British ringer for Pierre in Tolstoy's book.
Yet it doesn't suffer from the flabbinness or quite the confusing excess of characters that War and Peace does, and therefore is a much easier, less daunting read.
As the book continues, amongst the bombing, and with the Japanese getting closer and closer to Singapore, it's fascinating to follow the characters, see them try and focus their lives, see them try and carry on as normal in the chaos, often competely unwilling to accept what is happening.
A hugely entertaining and informing novel, this.