I yawned just after reading 2 pages of this book. Flanagan's prose was flat and it was obvious that he was trying too hard to impress readers with his vocabulary collection. Oh, this book also joined Murakami's latest book as Bad Sex in Fiction Award Nominee 2014. They are both equally bad in describing sex - they should be banned from writing any sex scenes! My heart ached because I thought that I had chosen a brilliant book. After all, it is the winner of The Man Booker Prize.
The only consolation that I have is that the horror war stories Flanagan exposed in details as he dedicated this book to his father (Prisoner 335) who survived the war. I am embarrassed that I was not aware about the Siam - Burma Death Railway built during the WWII. I cannot imagine the all the sufferings that the POWs had to go through. Hunger, cholera, dysentery, ulcers, vivisection... oh gosh, especially the vivisection. Who in the right mind could operate a vivisection?! I am truly disgusted that human beings can be so cruel to each other just because they want to uphold a certain belief.
War stories always make me ponder about life and humanity. I hate it when people are fighting, no matter how small the issue is. Can we all just share this world in peace?
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