I read this book 30 years ago, I recalled loving it but remembered little else. I’m so pleased to have reread, the threads of connection between the characters, the Sensitivity of Digger and the strength yet conflict in Vic were so compelling.
It helped me connect a little with my father’s generation.

a must read book by a great, wonderful author, proper review follows

Wonderful!

David Malouf takes you on a journey, at a time I can remember clearly. His characters are sometimes likeable, sometimes not. I loved this book.

There is so much I liked about this book; sections I would have given a five star rating, but they were dragged down by many sections that I didn't feel contributed to the story at all, and other sections where I couldn't quite grasp what profundity Malouf was trying to get across (I find this a lot with Malouf's writing it seems). Digger is a great character, and sections with him were beautifully elegiac, from his childhood through Changi prison and Burma Railway, and to his life-in-recovery after the war. Vic's character, though endearing as a child, grows to become too unlikeable, and Digger and Vic's mate-ship evolves from shared suffering of POW experiences, to be an enduring obligation-bound relationship. Maybe this underlines a possible point to the novel: that though a friend is a mate, a mate-ship is not always a friendship.

This book shows how war affects different people and by goodness, this book affected me - I felt quite emotional towards the end. This book just makes me think, about war, about people who went to and are at war, about people who have loved ones who go to war, about those lives lost and those who survive - very thought-provoking.

This tale of hard lives shared and enduring male friendship over decades is lifted into extraordinary territory through the quality of Malouf’s prose and his choice of characters.
He writes lives of Japanese prisoners of war on the Burma Railway in ways I’ve never read before.
And it brings up again the thought that how does anybody who went through experiences like that, or through any of the great miseries of war, ever return to something like a normal life. Or what we privileged people in peaceful, prosperous countries can think of as normal life.

I love the way David Malouf writes. After reading his Remembering Babylon I would welcome a chance to read all his books. This one was perhaps a bit to ethereal for me but it was unforgettable and totally original. Set in Australia it concerns two men who form an unlikely bond during WWII when they were held for three years as Japanese prisoners of war. Starved and sick, they rely on each other to survive. After the war they return to their previous lives, meeting occasionally, and always feeling oddly alienated from each other yet intimately acquainted. Malouf is a master at capturing nuance and the private inner workings that makes each of us a solitary being in this world.

This book was so boring and confusing I gave up.

Boring.

The plot covers two generations of two men, Digger and Vic. Both come from working class stock but after Vic becomes orphaned he lives with a well-to-do family. In their late teens they enlist, go to Singapore and experience 3 1/2 years as POWs in Changi and the Thai-Burma railway.
Vic and Digger are of different temperaments but have a lifelong bond built open their POW experiences. Much of the book relates to the men's feelings and how they express it. Digger remains a battler but it well read and expresses himself through a few words and deeds. The few women in his life are drawn to his kindness and wisdom. Vic becomes a successful businessman, is estranged with his son and barely connects with his wife.
WWII explains why the men connected. But the book seemed to me to be more about men expressing (or not expressing) their emotions.

A brilliant novel by one of Australia's greatest authors

I have to be honest, I don't remember much about this book. It took me almost a month to read it, which is never a good sign. These are the notes I made at the time, in their entirety: Not much to say about this one. Interesting, kind of, and pretty well-written. Ultimately forgettable.

So forgettable that I've successfully forgotten it.

For what it's worth, I didn't think it was bad, and I think it's entirely possible that other readers would engage with it much more than I did; I just wasn't the right audience for this work.

I've written a little bit more about it on my blog, Around the World in 2000 Books.