Dear Raed is back, with pictures.
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I’m re-reading Gulf by Robert Westall (have I blogged about this before? I can't find it in my archives). This blog contains spoilers for the book, but I figure most of you don't read children's lit anyway.
Gulf is incredibly believable and moving. The story is narrated by an English boy, Tom. His younger brother, Figgis, is extremely sensitive to other people’s feelings and experiences. When the Gulf War starts, Figgis begins to pick up the feelings and thoughts of a young Iraqi boy, Latif, who goes off to join the fighting. The connection between the boys gets stronger and stronger until Figgis is just a shell, a body shared with Latif. He ends up in a psychiatric hospital, where he builds a barricade in the corner of the room, and huddles their, always watching the sky.
After some of my experiences in psychiatric hospitals, I know that sometimes people are diagnosed with illnesses when in fact they are incredibly sensitive, and often incredibly intelligent. If a boy did start picking up the experiences of a boy in Iraq, yeah, he probably would be sent to a hospital. But he’d be very lucky to encounter someone like Dr Rashid, the kind and understanding doctor in the book.
The characters are revealed in clever and subtle ways. Especially interesting was the way that every character had a different view of Saddam. Some saw him as a hero, others as the ultimate tyrant. Tom describes him as “…human. Like a used-car dealer you wouldn’t trust an inch, and yet you might have a drink with him in a pub, and listen to his stories.”
It’s amazing, because although there are no direct descriptions of Iraq, a very vivid picture of the place and the people is built up through the actions of Figgis holed up in a corner of the hospital. I think perhaps it’s more effective than a story simply told through the eyes of a kid in Iraq.
The ending is incredibly sad. After Latif dies, Figgis turns into your average bratty kid wanting bigger and better toys, a new mountain-bike, a CD walkman. I almost wished he had died instead. The saddest bit is when Tom says "And suddenly I'm scared; because nobody seems to give a damn about anything outside our house any more…” I cried for the last few pages.
Posted by Fionnaigh at May 27, 2003 12:47 PM