The Wall

Disappointed.. language is very slow

I heard reviewers on BBC R4's Front Row draw the comparison with Orwell and had that in mind when I began reading. It's not an ill-founded comparison, but The Wall is also something other than a contemporary homage to Nineteen Eighty-Four. It takes themes from our present-day reality and extrapolates some of the most alarming issues into a near-future blighted by climate change, migration crisis, xenophobia and total state control.With an impressively economic prose style, Lanchester succeeds in conjuring a powerful sense of place in the 10,000km concrete Wall itself and the sense of menace and desperation imputed in the unseen Others by the Wall's conscripted Defenders. I found both major and minor characters credible and the humour, comradeship, stress and fear of their experiences vividly drawn.Some reviewers here have lamented that the plot wasn't further developed, but for me John Lanchester has succeeded in leaving the narrative at just the right place, but then I'm not a fan of neatly pulled-together endings. I'd recommend trying to avoid a couple of reviews here that have spoilers. These are the reviews offering Mr Lanchester advice on how he might better have written his novel.

The premise is good but it felt like a book that the author got a bit stuck with. Firstly, while the author doesn't specify when the book is set, we can assume it's maybe twenty+ years in the future. However, there is no indication that anything in the physical environment is different other than some vague generalisations about bots and "communicators". Secondly, the pacing was off so that some bits dragged and others (particularly post pirate and pre- rig) were far too rushed, so that there was no build up of suspense. Finally, there were too many convenient plot devices such as the fortunate food supplies in the boats which make everything so much easier, and some rather inexplicable turning points such as the ease with which Kavanagh forgives the Captain for his betrayal. I feel this book should have been written as an epic, covering several years, and would have been better for it. It almost feels as though that might have been the author's original intent and then he got bored of it. As a reader, I felt as though it was a waste of a good idea.

I've liked an admired almost all of John Lanchester's works to date, fiction and non-fiction, so I jumped at this before reading any reviews. The central idea is appealing and intriguing, but, as it turns out, and as it seems to me, the central idea is just about all it has. If you're going to create a fictional world, it's vital that as storyteller you stay at least one step ahead of the questions the reader is going to be asking, and I'm afraid that J.L. doesn't do that. Maybe it was written in too much of a hurry, in too much excitement about that central idea. There's a lot of vividly imagined detail, memorable physical and emotional moments, but the worldview - and the storyline - were a bis disappointment for me.

The Wall is John Lanchester’s fifth novel, and I would happily place three of the previous ones ([The Debt to Pleasure], [Fragrant Harbour], and [Capital]), all of which are completely different in style and content to each other, within my personal top fifty books. Given that since I started formally listing the books I read I have now gone past 4,500, that is a significant endorsement. Oddly, however, I never managed to finish the other one, [Mr Phillips], although I know that many critics were praised it highly.)I was, therefore, eagerly awaiting John Lanchester’s latest novel, and made a point of stopping off at Daunt Books to buy it on the day of publication. Perhaps the weight of all that anticipation boosted my expectations a little too high. The Wall is certainly well written, and features strong, plausible characters and a convincing plot. Something, however, seemed to be missing, and despite having looked forward to reading it, I completely failed to develop any genuine enthusiasm for it.Lanchester’s literary flexibility is considerable, and with this book he broaches the dystopian novel. The Wall is set in a near, but unspecified, post-Brexit future in which accelerated global warming has caused significant rises in the world’s oceans. This has, in turn, led to a realignment of international relations, with huge swathes of the world now uninhabitable. Britain has closed in on itself, almost literally, and the whole outline of its shore is now protected by a substantial wall.The Wall is permanently patrolled, to prevent both illegal immigration or piratical raids by ‘The Others’, the displaced people fleeing economic or climatic turmoil elsewhere. All British citizens have to complete a spell of national service during which most of them spend two years serving as guards on the wall. The novel follows Kavanagh, who is just commencing his term on the wall.Through Kavanagh’s experiences, we quickly learn that life on the wall is utterly miserable. The work is tedious, and repetitive, and the guards are permanently cold. Indeed, for someone who is normally such a stylish writer, Lanchester labours the tedium too heavily, to the extent that reading the book I felt I knew much of the tedium that Kavanagh was experiencing. It seemed to me as if, having expended so much mental energy to create a convincing setting (and it is convincing), Lanchester nothing left in the tank from which to render an engaging plot or characters. Somehow this novel never managed to get out of its lower gears, and failed to repay the reader’s mental investment.

This is one of those books that are so absorbing that you realise all other tasks are going to have to be set aside until your get to the end of it. I could not put this book down and was totally engrossed in the story of a dystopian world where there appeared to have been some sort of global environmental disaster which left the few habitable areas available being resolutely guarded to prevent invasion by a population stranded and abandoned to a life on the oceans. In the British Isles, this has been achieved by the construction of a concrete wall around the length of the coast which is guarded by Defenders who are conscripted to carry out a two year tour of duty. The novel deals with once such Defender called Kavanagh and chronicles the monotony of his first day through to his ultimate encounter with the "Others" - the would be immigrants. = A large part of the reason why this book is so successful is that the prose is lean and there is a lack of detail which makes the premise difficult to challenge. I think the banality of Kavanagh's life and the mundane nature of much of what he witnesses makes this novel seem hugely credible. Comparisons have justly been made with Orwell's "1984" but I also felt that there were just as many parallels with Eric Maria Remarque's "All quiet on the Western Front." The accounts of life on various stretches of the wall remained the most compelling element of the story and the landscape described is redolent of many of the concrete structures hastily assembled in the advent of World War Two. If you like, this is version of the British Isles which is totally alien with it's absence of beaches but also familiar in many other respects. Ultimately, Kavanagh's circumstances start to change and the politics the concern the governance of the country see his fortunes fluctuate as his dreams are undermined by an unlikely source. Some of the reviews have suggested that the book is ultimately let down by it's ending but I felt that the circumstances were such that the conclusion was the only satisfying ending that would have maintained the credibility. I held my attention through to the last page.It waits to be seen whether this book has the longevity of Orwell's "1984" which has the benefit of being able to be considered through the lens of whatever generation is reading it. If you like, it contains universal truths which will always be relevant. "The Wall" is very much a topical piece of writing and certainly "on message" for our times. As long as we fail to address the effects of climate change, I think John Lanchester's book will remain relevant. I thoroughly recommend this book.