Nation
by Terry Pratchett
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Book Summary Information
Author: Terry PratchettEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2008-10-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: HarperCollins
Book Reviews of Nation
Book Review: Beautiful in so many interesting ways.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not particularly into stories about colonialism or imperialism. Far, far too frequently one gets exactly the same stories, but the cast of characters is from some new locale more exotic than what came before. Usually there's a native population and some invaders from somewhere else with a huge feeling of entitlement attached to them with a choice of the following: the One Good Invader who helps the natives (or goes native) and sometimes succeeds at it (also called the white messiah depending on outcome); the Nasty Embodiment of Imperialism, which should be self explanatory; the Imperial Moderate, who wants to get business done in the most profitable way possible and isn't always a villain; the Plucky Native who functions as instructor for the One Good Invader and the Imperial Moderate and may or may not also serve as a romantic interest. I'm pretty sure one can watch any movie concerning imperialism or colonialism and find all these tropes.
That being said, Nation by Terry Pratchett managed to not use any of them. Indeed, as soon as I thought I was starting to see one of the archetypes come up, something would happen to turn it into something else much more fascinating.
Rather than starting with an island with natives on it, the main story starts with a tsunami wiping out most of the island's population, except for Mau. A great deal of detail ensues about his mourning for his people and being adrift in a place both familiar and strange to him (and to us, since it is a alternate universe story). He finds the sailing ship Sweet Judy and the only survivor of the wreck, Daphne (or Ermintrude), a white girl (or "trouserman" to use the book's terminology). More survivors follow, Mau becomes the de facto chief and a very existentially conflicted one at that. Daphne learns all the practical things that a woman of the Nation should know but a "lady" shouldn't.
The first part of the book is a really awesome look at Mau's grief and as more people arrive on the island, he moves past it more and more. Daphne's comes in little flashbacks set between busy spells, things that occurred long ago for her, but she never had the opportunity to move past them. Many of the side characters also illustrate other aspects of mourning.
It's a very interesting balance between relatively light prose and very serious material. This narrative style continues throughout the book and it lent reality and credence to the scenes focusing more on the metaphysical and the spiritual. The pacing of it flowed in little side eddies and currents, but always returned to the main flow of the story and added more to it.
Before you begin "So how is this different from the gobbledegook you were ranting about earlier? *harrumph*" Well, Daphne might have some of the aspects of the One Good Invader... but Mau has some of the same traits himself (such as hearing the voices of the ancestors). None of the characters are clearly cut as any of the stereotypes I mentioned. All of them second guess themselves and/or change their minds on more than one occasion. It results in a story about people more than ideology.
The story has a framing device that most of the royal family of England has been wiped out due to a virulent disease and they have to go find the next surviving fifth cousin twice removed (or something like that) and periodically it pops up to remind you that it's there. Such sidetracks were mercifully short and quite frequently funny in some fashion. Although it does come around to get the reader's attention at the end of the tale (which one would expect to go stereotypical). Yet the story flirts with the concept of colonialism instead... right before giving the tired overbearing cliche a wedgie. It was completely unexpected but happily so. I had a good laugh and a great swath of satisfaction upon finding it.
I'm actually rather embarrassed at how long Nation sat on my bookshelf without me picking it up. It was wonderful, sad, mystical and great. I keep thinking of more little details that I loved, like the mythology of the narrative and the wonderful attention to the characters' insecurities. I will simply say that I loved it.'
Summary of Nation
The sea has taken everything.
Mau is the only one left after a giant wave sweeps his island village away. But when much is taken, something is returned, and somewhere in the jungle Daphne?a girl from the other side of the globe?is the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the same wave.
Together the two confront the aftermath of catastrophe. Drawn by the smoke of Mau and Daphne's sheltering fire, other refugees slowly arrive: children without parents, mothers without babies, husbands without wives?all of them hungry and all of them frightened. As Mau and Daphne struggle to keep the small band safe and fed, they defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that literally turns the world upside down. . . .
Internationally revered storyteller Terry Pratchett presents a breathtaking adventure of survival and discovery, and of the courage required to forge new beliefs.
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