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bookgazing) wrote2009-04-21 02:38 pm
bookgazing) wrote2009-04-21 02:38 pm
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Nation - Terry Pratchett
Step back, I’m about to get evangelical here.
After finishing ‘Nation’ I felt like I should be waving it at everyone around me, while shouting ‘Why aren’t you reading? You’re missing it!!” Actually I felt like that all the way through the book, but shouting and waving would have stolen too much reading time. Good job I have a blog, specifically set up for shouting about books!
Mau is paddling back from The Boy’s Island to his home island, The Nation, when an enormous wave capsizes his canoe. He survives and floats back to The Nation, only to find that everyone on the island has been killed by the wave. At the same time an English girl called Ermin…Daphne finds her ship picked up by the wave and tossed on to the island. The crew is killed and Daphne finds herself stranded with only a foul mouthed parrot for company. When the two teenagers find each other they save each other from despair and death by beginning to build a new civilization, where they care for the strays that wash up on the island.
One of the things I love about Pratchett’s books is that his characters are individual creations, not manifestations of parts of his own personality. Both Mau and Daphne are channels that he expresses his ideas through but they each have their own personalities, which never feel as if they can be traced to the author’s voice or biography. Despite the humorous footnotes and the third person narrative Pratchett is probably one of the most absent authors I can think of, giving his characters space to be themselves. At no point did I think Mau or Daphne sounded like characters from his previous books, although sometimes they think about themes that have often been discussed in the Discworld books. Even death, an entity which Pratchett has made into a very solid celebrity in the Discworld books, has been entirely reincarnated in ‘Nation’ as the more ethereal Locaha.
Mau is the most revelatory character in this book. He gives a tangible form to the struggles that all boys face as they grow up. When he is hit by the wave he is in the process of completing the traditional journey that turns a boy’s soul into a man’s soul. His transformation into a man will only be officially completed by meeting his family on the beach and receiving his tribal tattoo. By passing the test of escaping from The Boy’s Island Mau moves from boyhood but with no one left to complete the rituals he is kept from manhood in his own mind and in the minds of people from other islands. His actions in burying his people, battling with pigs to feed a hungry child and restoring the island, shape him into a man in a much more meaningful way, but although the reader sees the change in Mau, he sometimes struggles to see what he has become. Mau’s journey from boy to man is a substantial examination of what really makes a man. Before reading ‘Nation’ I’d never given these ideas proper consideration but Mau’s pain at the bleak discovery he faces on reaching his island made me feel instantly connected to him and his journey.
Now for the bits that any Discworld fan will know to expect. Pratchett’s world building is once again superb. The island traditions are bought in simply, without heavy signaling that ‘LIFE IS DIFFERENT ON THIS ISLAND’. The history is well formed, the creation story is clear and the complex matter of multiple worlds and timelines is dealt with in a way which is easy to understand and promotes hope. ‘Nation’ is funny and contains an extremely odd animal, which I think of as the Pratchett trademark (in this case a swearing parrot who delights in hurting other birds). As in all his books there are lots of deep, important ideas contained in this book, like the problems of believing in gods and the troubles that accompany colonization. Pratchett puts the words of each side succinctly, so they can not be misunderstood or ignored. He also fills this book with light humour, brought about by the confusion of two cultures trying to communicate.
‘Nation’ is, in my opinion, one of the best books Terry Pratchett has ever written. If you want proof that I am the product of uber-exposure to Pratchett please ask to see ‘the shelf’.
Go see what GuysLitWire had to say about 'Nation' , or if you've reviewed it please leave a link in the comments.
Other Reviews
Nymeth
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
anothercookiecrumbles
After finishing ‘Nation’ I felt like I should be waving it at everyone around me, while shouting ‘Why aren’t you reading? You’re missing it!!” Actually I felt like that all the way through the book, but shouting and waving would have stolen too much reading time. Good job I have a blog, specifically set up for shouting about books!
Mau is paddling back from The Boy’s Island to his home island, The Nation, when an enormous wave capsizes his canoe. He survives and floats back to The Nation, only to find that everyone on the island has been killed by the wave. At the same time an English girl called Ermin…Daphne finds her ship picked up by the wave and tossed on to the island. The crew is killed and Daphne finds herself stranded with only a foul mouthed parrot for company. When the two teenagers find each other they save each other from despair and death by beginning to build a new civilization, where they care for the strays that wash up on the island.
One of the things I love about Pratchett’s books is that his characters are individual creations, not manifestations of parts of his own personality. Both Mau and Daphne are channels that he expresses his ideas through but they each have their own personalities, which never feel as if they can be traced to the author’s voice or biography. Despite the humorous footnotes and the third person narrative Pratchett is probably one of the most absent authors I can think of, giving his characters space to be themselves. At no point did I think Mau or Daphne sounded like characters from his previous books, although sometimes they think about themes that have often been discussed in the Discworld books. Even death, an entity which Pratchett has made into a very solid celebrity in the Discworld books, has been entirely reincarnated in ‘Nation’ as the more ethereal Locaha.
Mau is the most revelatory character in this book. He gives a tangible form to the struggles that all boys face as they grow up. When he is hit by the wave he is in the process of completing the traditional journey that turns a boy’s soul into a man’s soul. His transformation into a man will only be officially completed by meeting his family on the beach and receiving his tribal tattoo. By passing the test of escaping from The Boy’s Island Mau moves from boyhood but with no one left to complete the rituals he is kept from manhood in his own mind and in the minds of people from other islands. His actions in burying his people, battling with pigs to feed a hungry child and restoring the island, shape him into a man in a much more meaningful way, but although the reader sees the change in Mau, he sometimes struggles to see what he has become. Mau’s journey from boy to man is a substantial examination of what really makes a man. Before reading ‘Nation’ I’d never given these ideas proper consideration but Mau’s pain at the bleak discovery he faces on reaching his island made me feel instantly connected to him and his journey.
Now for the bits that any Discworld fan will know to expect. Pratchett’s world building is once again superb. The island traditions are bought in simply, without heavy signaling that ‘LIFE IS DIFFERENT ON THIS ISLAND’. The history is well formed, the creation story is clear and the complex matter of multiple worlds and timelines is dealt with in a way which is easy to understand and promotes hope. ‘Nation’ is funny and contains an extremely odd animal, which I think of as the Pratchett trademark (in this case a swearing parrot who delights in hurting other birds). As in all his books there are lots of deep, important ideas contained in this book, like the problems of believing in gods and the troubles that accompany colonization. Pratchett puts the words of each side succinctly, so they can not be misunderstood or ignored. He also fills this book with light humour, brought about by the confusion of two cultures trying to communicate.
‘Nation’ is, in my opinion, one of the best books Terry Pratchett has ever written. If you want proof that I am the product of uber-exposure to Pratchett please ask to see ‘the shelf’.
Go see what GuysLitWire had to say about 'Nation' , or if you've reviewed it please leave a link in the comments.
Other Reviews
Nymeth
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
anothercookiecrumbles