Question 7 by Richard Flanagan

 

Richard Flanagan is one of my favorite authors and this latest novel is one I'll think about for a long time.  It is a mix of memoir, biography, historical novel and philosophy.  He covers topics such as the development of the atomic bomb and the men who conceived it, an affair between H.G. Wells and Rebecca West, Japanese labor camps during World War II and whitewater rafting.  

Flanagan's father was a laborer in a Japanese labor camp at the end of World War II, skeletal and sure he wouldn't survive another winter.  He was saved when Japan surrendered after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Flanagan ponders the ethics of the decision to drop the bomb and the fact that he would not exist were it not for those events.

I found the biography of H.G. Wells fascinating as I had not known he was such a ladies' man.  I knew of the affair with Rebecca West but didn't realize it was just one of many.  The ability of Wells to write about topics and inventions that were foretelling but later came to fruition is the reason so many science fiction and fantasy writers revere him.  One of my reading goals is to read West's masterpiece, Black Lamb and Gray Falcon.  

Finally, I read Flanagan's wonderful Death Of A River Guide but I hadn't realized that it was grounded in his own life.  He had a job as a whitewater rafting guide and on one trip his craft flipped and he was trapped in a small air bubble, his legs trapped in rocks for over an hour.  He discusses this event in great detail, telling of the man who saved his life at great cost but whom he lost touch with later.  

Richard Flanagan is an Australian author from Tasmania.  He is considered one of the best authors of our time and I read everything he writes.  This work won the Bailie Gillie Prize which is for nonfiction writing and was named a Top Ten Notable Book by the Washington Post.   I appreciated it not only for the things I discovered I hadn't known but for a more in-depth look into the life of an amazing author.  This book is recommended for nonfiction and literary fiction readers.