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Shelf LifeLooking at secular booksICE ROAD HALF OF A YELLOW SUN Two books about the destruction of hope; rather a grim choice for grey January, perhaps? I shall start with my commendation. Ice Road is a fat novel at 540 pages and, though broad in scale, it is in no way sluggish. I found it compelling reading, so much so that I had to hide it from myself to make sure that laundry didn’t come to a standstill! Starting in 1934, and ending in the siege of 1941-4, the story takes place in Leningrad and explores the rise of Stalin through the lives of a group of disparate comrades. There’s a cleaner, a near-feral orphan, a party bigwig, an American industrialist and more, whose lives are woven together in sometimes brief, sometimes significant events. Slovo has an amazing ability to make her characters completely credible and sympathetic, though not necessarily likeable. And she has chosen a period of great drama as the idealism of the early Soviet state is destroyed by the paranoia of Stalin. Slovo’s style in Ice Road is easy, with a real immediacy, such that the great suffering of Stalin’s purges and the desperation of the siege are searingly vivid. As her characters struggle through these events there is no simple romanticism; we see them grow smaller and harder, some being destroyed, others changed beyond recognition. In the midst of all this, love and loyalty between parent and child are presented as enduring and precious, the only reasons which cause blighted people to persevere. Nigerian Civil WarHalf of a Yellow Sun I bought with high expectations. A much lauded 2007 Orange Prize winner, it tells of the 1960s civil war in Nigeria, when Biafra declared its independence. I admit I knew nothing of this conflict before reading the book, and Adichie does an impressive job of telling the story of the badly-handled colonial handover and long-term resentments which erupted into massacre, then full-scale war and appalling famine. The details are particular to Nigeria, but hold echoes of many conflicts, from Rwanda to Bosnia. CautionI must add a caution. Though Adichie does write well, with an amazing sense of atmosphere, she has chosen to reveal her characters in large part through their sex lives. Of course this makes for some distressing reading, but also it is essentially shallow. So why have I mentioned the book? Perhaps because it shares much that is good with Ice Road, and both together are examples of historical fiction far removed from the petticoats and plots we often think of. As we think of the history of the church, we must also engage with the history of nations as it impacts the lives of everyday characters. Ice Road helped me to understand Russia as it is today, as well as the history of Leningrad/St. Petersburg. It helped me in my empathy for the Russian people, and I trust, will help me pray better for God’s Kingdom to come in that troubled land. Sarah Allen© Evangelicals Now - January 2008 |