Book: The Wall, John Lanchester
Publication date: 2019
WCRG Meeting: 16 October 2019
Rating: 6.6
Thank you for a lively debate last week when we discussed John Lancaster's The Wall; described in one media review “as a taut dystopian novel that blends the most compelling issues of our time—rising waters, rising fear, rising political division—into a suspenseful story of love, trust, and survival”.
The emotional impact of patrolling the Wall, the boredom and the difference between two types of cold were well developed and described. The structure of the writing indicated this well with the sporadic use of poems about the cold/sky/sea throughout the novel.
Characters were developed in a patchy manner; Kavanagh, the storyteller’s dialogue was considered dull in parts, but his need to survive the tedium for the next two years, was reflected in this introspection. His relationship with his team started well when he was nicked named ‘Chewy’ by his teammates, after his experience of the snack bars. There was an easy rapport within this small team. The reading group felt it was a missed opportunity that the female interest, Hifa, was not given a fuller supporting role until the end of the book.
The Captain was considered by several of the group to be the best developed, with his back-story being drip-fed through the book until the betrayal (which I was not expecting)!
Events after this were felt to be a little unbelievable, however, the strangeness of their final destination of the oil rig for Kavanagh and Hifa was well written. His fear of heights was very believable and his need to overcome this to survive. Some of the group saw meeting the hermit and learning to share his resources as a convenience. There were flaws that the group struggled with, ‘who were the Others’, where had they come from, were there other walls restricting the flow of human movement?
Many felt it was a book for our times, relevant and in some respects plausible. The current world theme of walls, barriers, restrictions and controlled movements were also seen as themes in this book. The comparisons of our current generational gap of the young ‘blaming’ the older generations for the planet’s impeding demise was reflected in the novel, with the youngsters remote and blaming their elders for the catastrophic event known as the Change.
To quote one of the group: “ Lanchester’s Wall is whatever the reader wants it to be, without limitations as to allegory, analogy or other interpretation”.
The group’s final score was 6.6.
Thank you for a lively debate last week when we discussed John Lancaster's The Wall; described in one media review “as a taut dystopian novel that blends the most compelling issues of our time—rising waters, rising fear, rising political division—into a suspenseful story of love, trust, and survival”.
The emotional impact of patrolling the Wall, the boredom and the difference between two types of cold were well developed and described. The structure of the writing indicated this well with the sporadic use of poems about the cold/sky/sea throughout the novel.
Characters were developed in a patchy manner; Kavanagh, the storyteller’s dialogue was considered dull in parts, but his need to survive the tedium for the next two years, was reflected in this introspection. His relationship with his team started well when he was nicked named ‘Chewy’ by his teammates, after his experience of the snack bars. There was an easy rapport within this small team. The reading group felt it was a missed opportunity that the female interest, Hifa, was not given a fuller supporting role until the end of the book.
The Captain was considered by several of the group to be the best developed, with his back-story being drip-fed through the book until the betrayal (which I was not expecting)!
Events after this were felt to be a little unbelievable, however, the strangeness of their final destination of the oil rig for Kavanagh and Hifa was well written. His fear of heights was very believable and his need to overcome this to survive. Some of the group saw meeting the hermit and learning to share his resources as a convenience. There were flaws that the group struggled with, ‘who were the Others’, where had they come from, were there other walls restricting the flow of human movement?
Many felt it was a book for our times, relevant and in some respects plausible. The current world theme of walls, barriers, restrictions and controlled movements were also seen as themes in this book. The comparisons of our current generational gap of the young ‘blaming’ the older generations for the planet’s impeding demise was reflected in the novel, with the youngsters remote and blaming their elders for the catastrophic event known as the Change.
To quote one of the group: “ Lanchester’s Wall is whatever the reader wants it to be, without limitations as to allegory, analogy or other interpretation”.
The group’s final score was 6.6.
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