The Catholic Writers Guild

My rating: A+ (Superlative!)

By way of introduction, let’s blame all of this on Julie Davis, the indefatigable contributor to the Catholic Writers Guild blog. Along the way, Julie aroused my curiosity with her description of  a Young Adult novel, Farmer in the Sky (1953) by Robert A. Heinlein. Since then I’ve read other Heinlein books and began a discussion with the local librarian who just happens to love science fiction. She brought me to the dark corner, under the stairs where the sci-fi books, wrapped in brown paper, reside, carefully guarded by live snakes, spiders and the occasional gargoyle. Thanks to her informed enthusiasm, the librarian personally introduced me to the work of Terry Pratchett. I’m currently Pratchett-binging.

Pratchett’s Nation weaves living “story” vines so tightly that every thought touches all the others. Maybe Nation is a romance novel? It’s certainly a love story and for sure a deeply spiritual adventure. It may not answer the universal spiritual questions, but powerfully asks them: Does God exist? How can God permit evil? What is God like? What is the purpose and efficacy of prayer?

Terry Pratchett’s Young Adult novel introduces numbers 139 and 140 in line of succession to the British throne. The drama intensifies as numbers 1-138 quickly meet their untimely deaths. Fortunately, 139 and 140 are relatively safe if you ignore the mutiny, tsunami, shipwreck, abandonment on a devastated island, cannibals and an upbringing that prevents 140 (Daphne) from doing anything practical. She’s quite the student of 19th Century Science and ranks it as the preferred alternative to religion. You might say she’s a proper nob lass with a ton of baggage, not the least of which was the earlier loss of her mother and newborn brother.  Her paternal grandmother dominated Daphne and her father (139). Daphne’s propriety extends to her wearing both pantaloons and unmentionables beneath her grass skirt, and of course the cleanest blouse she could manage under the circumstances.

Mau, the Pacific Islander, like Daphne, lost his entire family and community while they awaited the completion of his coming of age mission. Trapped with neither a boy’s nor a man’s soul, a deadly spirit haunts Mau. Locaha, the god of death, worshiped by the head-hunting cannibals, chases after Mau. The ghosts of Mau’s Grandfathers harass the incomplete and untrained Mau, urging him to restore spiritual order. Mau’s heart grows heavy. His nagging ancestors and the divine power that allowed the destruction of his world stoke Mau’s anger. Fate brings Mau, the clever survivor together with the “ghost girl” (Daphne). They soon save each others’ lives, find ways of communicating and deepening their mutual affection. Daphne hears the ghostly voices of Mau’s Grandmothers, who share a message totally different from that of Mau’s Grandfathers. The question arises: Can the successor to the British Crown find happiness with a “primitive” islander? In reality, Mau is no less a royal than Daphne. He is the Nation.

Mau and Daphne grow as other survivors arrive along with their problems. Mau finds milk for a starving infant on an island devoid of the usual sources of milk, and lives to tell about it. Daphne delivers babies. Later, following directions in the wrecked ship’s medical manual she saws off a man’s shattered leg below the knee and dips the stump into a bucket of hot tar. Mau asks, “Didn’t that hurt?” Daphne shrugged, “Not if you lift the bucket by the handle.” Mercifully, Mrs. Gurgle, a balding, wrinkled, toothless elder crouching in a dark corner, and well versed in herbal pharmacology and anesthesiology, assists the young surgeon and her patient.

The thrilling climax features the wonders of pharmacological dark magic, the strategy of David versus Goliath, “honor among cannibals,” if not Europeans, the revelation of the primacy of the Nation and a diplomatic coup that allows the Nation to dodge assimilation while enjoying an affiliation with the British Empire. Daphne graciously accepts a compliment from a cannibal under-chief. He told her she is so bright that he’d love to eat her brain. Mau and Daphne face painful decisions that test their mutual love, growth, maturity and sense of duty.

Nation succeeds as a Young Adult novel while reaching out to the older audience. Young adults Mau and Daphne grow through confrontation with real-life problems. They maintain remarkable focus, honesty, generosity and most importantly, self-sacrifice for the good of the Nation. Members of every generation should stand as tall as these two. The reader learns with them as Terry Pratchett splices in references to history, literature, astronomy, geography, geology, anthropology and especially biology. The antics of a sea-captain’s iconoclastic parrot and such exotic species as the beer-drinking, upchucking pantaloon bird and the legendary tree octopus (not to be confused with the North American species, Octopus aborishoaxiensis) continue to amaze, chapter after chapter.

DonMulcare

A retired biologist with current interests in vegetable gardening, volunteering at a local nursing home, reading, and writing. Other activities include the study of the practical aspects of applied Gerontology, splitting logs, digging for quahogs and writing blogs. https://dmulcare.wordpress.com/