William Golding
1954
Around 185 pages
This is another one that is often on school's reading list, although at least this novel features children, so its placement is more understandable than say, making us reading Antigone. And who doesn't enjoy a good survival story?
During a wartime evacuation, a plane crashes on a remote island in the Pacific, with the only survivors being young boys. Ralph is elected leader, and the boys use the glasses of an overweight boy called, sigh, Piggy to start a fire. In Flaubert's Parrot, Julian Barnes points out that Piggy's glasses wouldn't actually start a fire, because he was nearsighted, so the light would be diverged, not focused to a point. Everybody's a critic, I guess. Anyway, the boys come to be convinced that there is a beast on the island, and one of the boys, Jack, gains popularity by declaring his intention to kill it. Fortunately, Golding is better at wrapping up his story than the writers of Lost.
This novel always gave me Animal Farm vibes. Both authors are proving that no matter what the external circumstances are, human beings will always behave in a certain way that will end in their own destruction. Although I guess Golding was proven wrong when a group of boys did get marooned on an island in 1965 and were all rescued in good health.
An allegory for fear mongering and dictatorship is never irrelevant, but it hits different in the aftermath of World War II. Very impressive, considering this is his debut novel.
RATING: *****
Interesting Facts:
Interesting Facts:
"Lord of the Flies" is a direct translation of Beelzebub, one of the seven princes of Hell.
Initially had a cool reception, until E.M. Forster chose it as one of his novels of the year.
UP NEXT: Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan
1 comment:
I'm flicking through the blog for the first time in quite a while, picking out the books I've read and leaving comments on some. It seems that most of them that I read you're describing as being from the "school reading list". I wonder what this says about me?
Loved this, thought I understood it. Although the bit about the head on the stick being the actual LotF was apparently key to the whole thing, which I didn't quite get. So maybe I didn't understand as much as I thought I did?
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