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A review by angrywombat
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth
5.0
Wow. I totally understand how this won all those awards.
This is probably the best historical novel I've read - and one of the top novels i've had the good fortune to encounter. This was so immersive and I can't get Buccmaster out of my head :)
Buccmaster is a self-important man of some rank in middle ages england. A "socman of holland with three oxgangs" A man who despite his language and beliefs would be oh so familiar to anyone - one of those annoying people who needs to impress on you how important they are, and how noone is giving them their proper respect, and how everything would be better without interference from the government etc etc. But this long suffering (to his eyes) man has a horrible vision of the coming future, which no one believes.
The the Normans invade and England begins to burn... including his home, farm and town.
I don't want to give away spoilers, but this is a powerful book, and Buccmaster and his reluctant followers try to act as ancient guerrillas against the staggeringly powerful normal knights and their burning and pillaging of the english countryside. But the attitudes of these english resistance fighters is quite ironic given their hate of the "ingengas" (foreigners) but then also consider the welsh (the original britons who were invaded by the saxons) to be annoying and not worth anything..
This book plays with the idea of invasions, cultural change, religions, superficial racism and all manner of topics that feel especially familiar given todays politics and how no one seems to be aware that the things they hold so dear against "foreign ideas" are in fact just as foreign, just a few generations older...
I was totally blow away by this book, and almost feel bad trying to read something new after it - I just think anything will pale in comparison.
This is probably the best historical novel I've read - and one of the top novels i've had the good fortune to encounter. This was so immersive and I can't get Buccmaster out of my head :)
Buccmaster is a self-important man of some rank in middle ages england. A "socman of holland with three oxgangs" A man who despite his language and beliefs would be oh so familiar to anyone - one of those annoying people who needs to impress on you how important they are, and how noone is giving them their proper respect, and how everything would be better without interference from the government etc etc. But this long suffering (to his eyes) man has a horrible vision of the coming future, which no one believes.
The the Normans invade and England begins to burn... including his home, farm and town.
I don't want to give away spoilers, but this is a powerful book, and Buccmaster and his reluctant followers try to act as ancient guerrillas against the staggeringly powerful normal knights and their burning and pillaging of the english countryside. But the attitudes of these english resistance fighters is quite ironic given their hate of the "ingengas" (foreigners) but then also consider the welsh (the original britons who were invaded by the saxons) to be annoying and not worth anything..
This book plays with the idea of invasions, cultural change, religions, superficial racism and all manner of topics that feel especially familiar given todays politics and how no one seems to be aware that the things they hold so dear against "foreign ideas" are in fact just as foreign, just a few generations older...
I was totally blow away by this book, and almost feel bad trying to read something new after it - I just think anything will pale in comparison.