Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
It is 1945, and London is still reeling from the Blitz and years of war, 14-year-old Nathaniel and his sister, Rachel, are apparently abandoned by their parents, left in the care of an enigmatic figure named The Moth. They suspect he might be a criminal, and grow both more convinced and less concerned as they get to know his eccentric crew of friends: men and women with a shared history, all of whom seem determined now to protect, and educate (in rather unusual ways) Rachel and Nathaniel. But are they really what and who they claim to be? A dozen years later, Nathaniel begins to uncover all he didn't know or understand in that time, and it is this journey - through reality, recollection, and imagination - that is told in this magnificent novel.
I branched out of my usual genre with my first ever spy novel. I like historical fiction and for some reason, I'm always drawn to WWII/post-WWII storylines. That era just fascinates me. Warlight was nothing like what I was expecting. It took a while for me to read as it was a much slower paced novel that I had hoped. The the main premise of the book is that of the narrator, Nathaniel, looking back on his strange and confusing childhood. This book reminded me a lot of Keruac's On the Road in the long rambling style of describing one's past with a dreamlike quality. Long soliloquy's of life's meaning made for a beautiful book but wasn't really the right fit for a book that's toted as a "spy thriller".
The book starts with Nathaniel reminiscing the wonderful moment in time where his parents decided to live their lives as if they didn't have two teenage children. Both parents take off across the sea, pursuing their dream (supposedly) and leaving their children in the care of one of their lodgers, a man nicknamed "The Moth". Throughout Nathaniel's childhood with The Moth, he meets a various cast of strange and suspicious characters that come and go throughout his life, leaving their mark as they do. Finally, as an adult, he's uncovering the mystery of his strange past and how it's affected who he is as a person today.
This book has an extremely interesting premise and beautiful writing, unfortunately, for me, it fell flat. I expected this to be a fast-paced, post-WWII spy thriller. What could be more exciting? It was not that at all. Yes, there were murder mystery elements and "bad guys" lurking around very few corners, but this was definitely not a thriller. There were things I liked about it, the writing was so beautiful, this author could make a brick wall sound interesting, every word was poetry. Ondaatje did a great job with some of the characters too, the main character was extremely fleshed out, even with all the mystery surrounding him, I felt like I knew him well. I can definitely see why this book is so highly praised.
There were, however, problems I had with this book that made the experience a little less enjoyable. This book takes place mainly in 1945, but it was written this decade, I get that sexism was rampant at the time, but the women in this book, including the narrators' mother, could have been used as more than just objects to move the plot along. Every single instance where a woman was introduced they were described as alluring, allusive, and confusing, they never had actual personalities they were just sensual creatures who could never be fully understood by the male narrator so "we might as well stop trying and just admire the beauty". The plot pace was my main issue, it moved along so extremely slow and there were plot points that didn't seem to pertain to the story at all and I'm still trying to understand why these 15 odd pages here and there were relevant for me to have to read? It needed a little bit more excitement thrown in to keep me interested.
Overall this book was definitely well-written, it just didn't hold my interest for long. If you liked All the Light We Cannot See and On the Road then this might be a good fit, it reminded me of both. There's not a lot of dialogue but if you want to be completely transported to mid 20th century London, look no further. The descriptiveness of the setting blew me away. It's 3 stars for me, it really is a beautiful book but I personally didn't find it as interesting as it could have been.