The Narrow Road to the Deep North: A novel by Richard
Flanagan is far from easy to read.
Primarily about POWs in a Japanese camp building the Burma Railroad and starving to death, in a wider sense it follows the life of a
Tasmanian doctor, his loves, losses, gains and failures. The novel has a uniquely Australian, and what
I suppose a Tasmanian voice, which gives it a firm sense of people and
place.
Flanagan does juggle many characters, stretching the
narrative a bit thin. The romance at the
center of the novel is gripping at times, but perhaps veers toward hackneyed expressions and sentiments.
But The Narrow Road rises above these faults. This is a novel that has narrative strength and
drive.
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