JourneyOnline
One Day Hill Publishers
RRP $24.50 including postage
This is a moving account of how a young man grows up in rural Tasmania and copes with the terrors of a Japanese prisoner of war camp during World War Two.
Arch Flanagan has used simple words and subtle emotion to describe virtues of friendship, endurance and courage. His powers of expression are shared by his literary sons, Martin, a journalist, and Richard, a novelist.
Martin Flanagan is best known for his essays in "The Age" newspaper about the ethos of Australian football. He has edited his father’s wartime writings, and added some of his own observations about how the POW experience shaped other veterans such as Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop, Tom Uren and Ray Parkin.
"The Line" goes a long way to explaining how World War Two veterans have coped in the midst of postwar family life with memories of cruelty and the struggle to forgive. It also reveals the personalities who were brought together by forces beyond the comprehension of Australian communities shaped by economic depression and social isolation.
There are powerful episodes in this book about the brotherly devotion of those prisoners who were enslaved and sacrificed to build the Burma Railway.
"The Line" should be an essential part of the Australian school curriculum; and I am grateful to its authors and their relationship to one another.
Available online through One Day Hill Publishers (http://www.onedayhill.com.au) or at many libraries (call number: 940.547 FLA).
Reviewed by Mark Young
