Excellent Writing With No Discernible Purpose
My review of “Prophet Song” by Paul Lynch
The 2023 Booker Prize winner is a novel about a mother’s determination to protect her children. Eilish has four. Three with ages ranging from 12 to 16 and a late addition who, at the start of the book, is under one year old. She also has a father suffering from the early stages of dementia.
What is she protecting them from? Well, there is a government that has introduced emergency measures that mean anyone can be arrested and interred indefinitely without recourse to the law for nothing more serious than organising a teachers’ strike. As the book progresses conditions under this regime become progressively worse. Dissenters can be summarily dismissed from government jobs.
A rebel group gains in popularity and stages protests which become increasingly violent. The country descends into civil war. Eilish’s home district comes under attack, first from government forces whose shells destroy homes nearby. Then the rebels take over the district and it is necessary to negotiate road blocks and check points in order to gain access to the few shops and businesses still operating.
What we have is a graphic account of what it must be like to live in such conditions and to be driven to relying on relatives from overseas to organise a…