Deep Thoughts

I recently read Terry Pratchett's new book, Nation. I am a Pratchett fan and would read anything he wrote, including copy on the back of a cereal box. But this, this was something more than his usual parodies. Something great even.

It seems to have been inspired by the terrible tsunami of a couple of years ago, Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, Pratchett's take on Victorian England and trying coming to terms with the meaning of life and death. The Nation is a group of islanders. Mau is off island going through the rite of passage to become an adult when a tsunami tears through the chain of islands they live in. By the time he returns from his time alone, there is no one there to finish the rite of passage ceremony and he is caught--no longer a boy but not yet a man. Then a strange English girl steps out of the jungle and it turns out he is not alone but definitely without his people.

I loved that Mau is not your typical hero--what he's good at is asking questions and acting practically. Not a man of action, charm and wit, he's thoughtful and raging against the dark. Daphne has Tiffany Aching-like qualities and yet she's her own person. She and Mau are both willing to question the way the world is and are unwilling to take the answer, "because this is how it's always been."

Really a fabulous book. But maybe not for children. At least not a book you could entirely grasp as a child, although it would still be likable and would hold up under rereading as the child matured. The themes are big--the meaning of life, the senselessness of death, the importance of philosophical curiosity and the unequal distribution of the world's wealth are all featured. Great for high school and middle school. Definitely great for adults.

Books it made me think of:
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
other Terry Pratchett books, especially Wee Free Men