Monday, February 09, 2009

Crabwalk - post II

As the battle between the father and son – moderate and Nazi - starts to come to the fore the narrator is sidelined. His ex-wife seems unconcerned by their son’s behaviour and the mother is proud that her grandson is defending her own views.

As a result the narrator turns up at memorials to the sunken ship, surfs the web to catch the latest propaganda put out by his son and then turns his hand towards his own research.

If this is a book that is partly making a veiled attack on the web and the power of the internet to disseminate not just racist propaganda but factually incorrect history then it is successful.

But in terms of it charting the personal journey the writer makes as he delves into his past and pulls on his material for a novel it is harder going. Although his story is taking shape sadly no one around him seems interested and as a result you sense he is writing for a selected audience of one.

More tomorrow…