The narrow road to the deep north, by Richard Flanagan

You won’t be able to forget some of the images in this book…..  A thoughtful, and disturbing, story of one man, Dorrigo Evans, who is captured not only by the Japanese in World War II, but in many ways, his subsequent fame as a survivor of the building of the Thai-Burma Death Railway in 1943.  POWs were used as slaves to accomplish this almost impossible task in the jungles of what was then Siam.  Dorrrigo has risen from an impoverished background in the outback of Tasmania to become a surgeon.  In addition to trying to save the sick and injured in the POW camp with no medicine or equipment, he is tortured by the memory of his brief affair with Amy, the young wife of his much older uncle, just prior to his going off to war.  The Japanese commanders, who look down not only on the Australians under their control, but on the Koreans who serve with them, are a complex mix of loyalty to their Emperor, cruelty, and poetry.  The back of the neck, which I have read elsewhere has an erotic meaning in Japanese culture, is also where the sword lands.  Death comes in many ways, all of them unpleasant and graphically described.  After the war, Dorrigo returns to eventually marry Ella, the society woman he was more or less engaged to prior to meeting Amy.  He has learned from a rare letter he received from Ella in the camp that Amy has died in a gas explosion that killed his uncle and leveled the hotel he and Amy ran together and where Dorrigo and Amy had their trysts.  Life goes on.  Guilt and memories go on. Even worse, memories begin to fade and he can no longer remember the face of Darky Gardiner who died after a savage beating for an action he was innocent of.  A sketchbook Dorrigo salvaged after the artist, Rabbit Hendricks, died horribly of cholera, becomes a famous artifact from the war and Dorrigo finds himself a reluctant hero in demand for charity boards, speeches, and fundraisers.  He drinks, he womanizes.  Just as you think no more can happen, there are twists to the story that will surprise you.  I was strongly reminded of Dr. Zhivago (and, no, I haven’t read the book – just seen the movie).  334 pp.