'Ravaged by the Change, an island nation in a time very like our own has built the Wall―an enormous concrete barrier around its entire coastline. Joseph Kavanagh, a new Defender, has one task: to protect his section of the Wall from the Others, the desperate souls who are trapped amid the rising seas outside and are a constant threat. Failure will result in death or a fate perhaps worse: being put to sea and made an Other himself. Beset by cold, loneliness, and fear, Kavanagh tries to fulfil his duties to his demanding Captain and Sergeant, even as he grows closer to his fellow Defenders. A dark part of him wonders whether it would be interesting if something did happen, if they came, if he had to fight for his life.'
I'd seen some mixed reviews for The Wall before I started reading it, with some people saying that they found it to be dull because nothing much happened for large portions of the book. Once I really got into the story, I kind of had to agree, not a whole lot happened for a long while. But rather than this being boring John Lanchester managed to give these sections of the book a strange sort of beauty and quality to these large sections of nothing that I couldn't help but be drawn into the world he was creating.
The long sections where Kavanagh spends weeks on the wall, staring out at a vast expanse of sea, waiting for the Others to do something, are dull. It's a character sitting on a bench for hours at a time watching the sea. When he's not doing this he's either sleeping, training, or going back home for short breaks where he does nothing. It shouldn't be exciting. It shouldn't be hugely entertaining. But like Kavanagh staring out at the vast waters, after a while you begin to enjoy the routine. You start to see the small beauty in things because you've got no choice but to find them just to have something to do.
These quieter moments of the book should be some of the worst in the book, especially compared to later parts of the story where big events happen, but they might be some of the moments that I enjoyed the most. The story has to fill these quiet times with something, so instead of story it's character that takes centre stage here.
We get to know Kavanagh through his boredom, through the strange poems he makes to describe the vast nothingness of his daily routine. We get to see how his mind works, and what makes him tick. We get to see him develop these friendships with his fellow Defenders, discovering more and more about them in those brief moments of downtime.
I came to know these characters so much better than I would have if there was a frenetic story going on that by the time something does happen to drive the narrative forward I was fully invested in them. I cared if they got hurt, I wanted them to succeed. John Lanchester spent so long building these characters, slowly adding more and more to them during these long moments of nothing that I didn't even realise how much I cared about them until some of them began to leave the story.
The second half of the book shifts things, however, and begins to explore the wider world of The Wall, and puts the characters in moments of danger and peril. It takes on a more action oriented approach, and begins to feel a little more like the dystopia survival you'd expect from the premise; and this makes the book even better.
These sections were hugely entertaining, and I think a lot of people would really enjoy them, but am worried that some might not make it to this point, having given up during the 'boring' sections of the book. If that's you, I think you've done both yourself and the author a disservice. These long sections of nothing at the beginning of the book make the more frenetic parts in the second half mean so much more. You've come to care for the characters, and you kind of feel like you've earned the excitement you get given.
I don't think The Wall is for everyone, and from some of the divisive reviews I've seen that's pretty evident. But, if you're willing to hold on a little bit, to sit through things you think you might not be enjoying you'll soon find that actually, these parts of the book are good, that they have a purpose.
The Wall is a very different kind of dystopia novel. It's a very personal story. It's not about the world the story is set in. It's not about the events that led to this awful new world. And it's not about someone rising up to challenge society and make it a better place. It's a story about a regular person, someone who's just trying to survive in the harsh reality. We all like to think we'd be the hero in a story, that we'd be the one rising up against the awful regime and fighting for change, but the odds are we'd probably just be a regular person, trying to just get through life, and this is who Kavanagh is. Despite how dramatic some of the moments in the story are its a human story, about a regular person just trying to live. And that makes it so much more real and meaningful than another story about a revolutionary hero.
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