What’s that you say? Did I already read Flanders this year? Well, yes, you’re right, I did, but I also said that I would probably be revisiting it, and indeed I have, because it’s just that good. And, as I think I have said on numerous occasions at this point, I like to re-read books. I get more out of them every time, and I’d rather re-read a good book a dozen times than read 12 mediocre ones.
Looking at my review from earlier this year, I’m kind of surprised that I didn’t discuss the religious themes in the book. Our narrator is a Baptist, of sorts, but he strikes up a friendship with a Catholic priest and a Jewish captain, and there is definitely some serious religion in this book, as the characters struggle with life in the trenches and the pointlessness of war.
The magical realism and dream states in this book are also very intriguing. I like that Anthony told a very clear and very real story which had mystical elements, but managed to make them not feel hokey and weird. They felt appropriate and natural in the context of the story, and it was only when I stepped back that I realized how preposterous and strange they were. She manages to submerge the reader so completely in the world of the narrator that events which should strain the boundaries of the imagination feel perfectly reasonable.
I also note that I apparently didn’t feel the need to discuss the ethical imperatives in the book. The whole story revolves around doing what is right, even if that is not necessarily acceptable, and one of the characters even dies for it. The story raises some interesting ethical situations, from one character feeling ashamed for not stepping forward to stop an atrocity to another character taking the law into his own hands when he realizes that justice is not going to happen any other way.
World War One was a particularly nasty conflict, and some very good fiction came out of it. If you haven’t read any books set in this period, I would strongly recommend that you do so, because you might surprise yourself with what you get out of them.
Demographics:
Flanders, by Patricia Anthony. Published 1998, 354 pages. Fiction.
That’s one of the things I liked about this book, that you (or I) keep thinking about it and going back to see what it really said. Of course, I love magical realism and stories about world war one so this kind of has it all for me.