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A review by selfwinding
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
4.0
I didn't quite know what to expect when I picked up this book other than historical fiction with a bit of a mystery. I was pleasantly surprised!
One of the most effective things about this book is the way it switches between the point of view characters. We mostly stay with Arthur and George, but occasionally we get some other POV that is important for carrying the narrative forward. I usually only include a POV if that character has an arc and I’m going to stay with them for a long time, but in a mystery/procedural (which this largely is), the plot rules a little more heavily than every POV character getting an arc.
George’s character in particular is expertly crafted in just a handful of lines that say so much about him. “It may seem a harmless game to place a penny on the rail and see it flattened to twice its diameter by a passing express; but George regards it as a slippery slope which leads to train wrecking” (p 63). I love this because we get George’s view of rules and rules breaking here along with his exactness (“flattened to twice its diameter”). It's a perfect summation of some of George's key personality traits.
I also really enjoyed how this book handled racism, since some people look at the circumstances and say, “Clearly race is involved,” while other people (namely the one suffering the injustice) insist that race isn’t a factor. It was very cool to see the varying points of view, especially in a way that feels somewhat inverted.
One of the most effective things about this book is the way it switches between the point of view characters. We mostly stay with Arthur and George, but occasionally we get some other POV that is important for carrying the narrative forward. I usually only include a POV if that character has an arc and I’m going to stay with them for a long time, but in a mystery/procedural (which this largely is), the plot rules a little more heavily than every POV character getting an arc.
George’s character in particular is expertly crafted in just a handful of lines that say so much about him. “It may seem a harmless game to place a penny on the rail and see it flattened to twice its diameter by a passing express; but George regards it as a slippery slope which leads to train wrecking” (p 63). I love this because we get George’s view of rules and rules breaking here along with his exactness (“flattened to twice its diameter”). It's a perfect summation of some of George's key personality traits.
I also really enjoyed how this book handled racism, since some people look at the circumstances and say, “Clearly race is involved,” while other people (namely the one suffering the injustice) insist that race isn’t a factor. It was very cool to see the varying points of view, especially in a way that feels somewhat inverted.