War story unlike any other war story.

'Empire of the Sun' is by far the best war book I have read. Not that I am a big reader of war books at all. I tend to avoid the fiction books as I have found over the years that no matter the imagination of the author, war was entirely more gruesome, graphic and even funnier than anything that could eventuate from one human mind. I find most war fiction embarrassing and trite.

However, while 'Empire of the Sun' could be classed as a memoir, the author freely admits that his experiences are not exactly the same as young Jim, the protagonist of this tale. I guess most memoirs stretch the truth and make adjustments from reality to suit the format, J.G. has just admitted that he went a little further. Here Jim loses contact with his parents early in the novel during a siege on the city and we know that J.G. was interned with his parents in real life. Maybe there is more fiction than non-fiction here and I may need to eat my words.

There is so much to love in here, but I think this book may not be for everyone. Firstly, this book is pretty graphic in it's description of Jim's surroundings. There are realistic descriptions of corpses, death and disease throughout. But it's never gratuitous and it's always frank. It's not a novel with an uplifting tale of adversity. Yes, you could make a great guess that Jim survives the ordeal, but does he or anyone overcome adversity? Not at all. This is definitely not a rallying book. You do not cheer on the good guys. And despite what Hollywood would make you think, you do not cheer on the end of the war.

And I think that is one of the big messages of the book. War does not start on a declaration and it does not end with a surrender.You do not flip the war coin to find peace written in shiny silver letters. It seems to be that the happiest years of young Jim's life were when he was eating one sweet potato a day, slowly wasting away, getting every disease that came his way all the while running around an internement camp idolising the Japanese pilots and ingratiating himself to the Japanese officer in charge of the camp. Throughout the book Jim wants the Japanese to win the war and does not see how they can lose it because they have the bravest soldiers in his opinion.

J.G. really does capture the naive innocence yet canny and literal understanding that children have. Adult speech is littered with sarcasm, exaggeration and metaphors that children take literally. Only their observations of the world around them hold true. Jim knows when someone is about to die in the camp hospital as they were given the one and only mosquito net. And yet he could not understand when the war had ended nor could he understand why the next war hadn't started when everyone in the camp was saying "The next World War will start soon" in reference to the communist rising.

The fact that Jim adapts to his life much more than any adult is unsurprising.

So, for me, this is a damn magnificent read. I valued the look at war from a child's perspective. I also learnt that the end of war can be worse than war itself and the story is far from over when the diplomats shake hands and documents are signed.

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1 person found this helpful

A child's perspective during wartime

This is the 1st and only JG Ballard book which I have read. Based upon the Author's own experiences, it is interesting to look at the impact of this in shaping the artist and the artwork which he was to go on to produce. I look forward to reading more of his novels.

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