A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry

Hi everyone. Hope you're all still enjoying my blog. I am still trawling through my A2 recommended war reading list for English Literature. I saw this title and all that was running through my mind was the song A Long Long Way to Tripperary so I felt I had to read the book as I kept singing the song over and over again. This was a brilliant short book which I was able to read in a couple of days. I wasn't able to put it down. However it was still full of so much detail. Even though it was very graphic at times it was still very fast paced. I definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to get into war books. It's a great quick read that is easy to keep hold of. It combined the reality of war with the hardship of family relationships. It is not a classic war novel but it is still brilliant. 

It starts of with the birth of so many young men whose parents cherish them. However it highlights the fact that they are unaware that in 18 years time they will be fighting for their country. You can only guess what the ending of the book is which greatly contradicts the beginning but you still have to read on. Willie Dunne is an ordinary Irish boy who signs up to the army. He goes through so many Captains and each time he loses more and more of a relationship with them. It shows the true hardship of war. The book also demonstrates the reality of love relationships torn apart by war. It is not the most saddest book but it still pulls those strings. 

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. 

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

What a weird book! I wasn’t expecting that ending but even until the last page I had no idea how it would end. Sorry I haven’t written for what feels like ages but it took me quite a while to read this as I’ve had so much other work to do. Ok so it is used as a GCSE text for boys and I found it hard. Maybe that’s because I’m not a boy and I’m in my second year of A-Levels. Not particularly helping my case, am I? Anyhow, the book… I’m not sure what I was expecting but not what I got. I was 10 pages in when some guy in my form asked our form tutor a question that gave the whole ending away so I’ll try not to give it away for you. I hate it when people do that but this is going to be hard. It’s a nice easy read which I definitely recommend. It teaches the importance of rules in society and if there’s no rules, then chaos will break out…

I love both reading and writing dystopias and I’m always intrigued to find out how it ends because how will a futuristic disastrous society end. No one knows and that’s the whole point. I always struggle to find a worthy, gripping ending to my dystopia novels. The end to this one isn’t the best but it somehow still grips you and leaves you in shock.

The novel’s title in itself is a metaphor for society being like a group of flies which ironically is called a “business” of flies. Society in itself is a whole business co-operation which depends on everyone working together and following set rules. “The Lord” is Ralph, who thinks he is everyone’s soul faith but everyone starts to divert away from this and starts to have faith in themselves. This causes just a little bit of an uproar. Ralph is voted chief and throughout the book, this causes upheaval.

A simple conch, it took me ages to work out what that is too, regulates civilisation on the island but it soon becomes the object that destroys the unity on the island. I suppose this reflects the true reality of society because we depend on so many things and so many people to control society. It’s a surprise that what happened on this island doesn’t happen in society. You’ll have to read it to find out what I mean by that.

You build up a relationship with all the characters and when the slightest thing happens you panic. The characters will all reflect someone that you know or that is one of your close friends. You start to wonder how it would plan out if it was a bunch of people you know that are thrown onto an island. For a reason unexplained, a bunch of young boys are thrown onto an island with no rules and no adults. They have to survive on their own.

I definitely recommend this book if you have the time where you can focus and reflect on how it imitates not just the society in 1954 but also the society of today in 2015.