Simply a book review!

Today, the subject which I would like to address is that of a literary work which I have spent some time reading through during these last few weeks.

The title of said book is A Prisoner of Birth, and I shall do my utmost to avoid any spoilers in this here 'review', if you allow me to use a language such as English for a fucking moment!

Oh, sorry, where was it?

Right, the book!

The author of this magnificent work of art is the Right Honourable Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare. And no, I'm not making that up, that's his actual title; he's a former british MP and Baron of Weston-super-Mare.

On the cover of the book, though, it just says Jeffrey Archer.

The topic of the very book itself is one of a young man who ends up convicted of murder due to a conspiracy by four people whom he, his girlfriend and her brother meet at a local pub. From there on, the book explores his quest for redemption and retribution.

Now, what struck me about the whole story after having read the whole thing is the relevance and importance of the characters. I find that in most works of fiction, the characters exist very much to drive the plot, and instead, no matter how homosexual this will sound to you, in 'Birth...' the characters and their interactions ARE the plot.

Allow me to explain; you know how, in, for instance, The Return of the King, Aragorn and his party sweep in to save the day at Minas Tirith at the end of the battle? That is an event. Characters drive the events, but they are not the events. If you'd ask me to describe the plot of the book, I'd be describing events and happenings, but not the character arcs themselves.

In 'Birth...', you have very few such events. So few, in fact, that I could count them on my one hand. That is to say, one of my hands. I would not use this as a forum to announce the loss of one of my hands, that would be silly. The story is told very much, if not entirely, from the perspective of the characters, and most of the 'action' takes the form of inter'action' (see what I did there) between either allies or enemies.

As for the main characters, there is little that can be said off the bat without spoiling the plot. The main protagonist is very much a blank slate from the start; a kind, honest and generous man, if not very learned at the start of the story. Who he is evolves from the events of the story.

The main antagonist, however, is established a tad more. He is shown as a major player and a major threat, and it is obvious that he is the one whom the protagonist needs to outsmart.

Supporting the protagonist is a throng of various allies. Not only do these display uncompromising loyalty, they also show signs of considerable competence. There are no bumbling fools to be found here, and they do end up outsmarting the allies of the enemies at several turns.

Moving rapidly towards the end of this comparably short review, I would like to take a moment to point to a particular quirk of writing that the Right Honourable Lord Archer seems to use to intentionally endear himself to me, namely not dumping tonnes of exposition in our laps. He uses the characters' points of view to show what is going on, and rarely, if ever, do we find out more than the characters. The best way to illustrate this is by pointing to a scene in the final act where two allies to the main protagonist are discussing their strategy, and one points out that they must not let [relevant character] realize the importance of [plot point] before it is too late. In this instance, there is no exposition at all, and we're actually left knowing LESS than the characters.

That warms my heart to no end; a writer skilled enough to leave us in suspense rather than tell us everything that happens and has happened and hope that we feel suspense in spite of understanding absolutely everything that is going on.

To sum up, the book is an excellent story, and one of my big favourites in the world of realistic fiction. It contains a great deal of humour, though not traditional joking but rather seriously told moments that make you laugh anyway. If I was in the habit of giving scores, I would give it one, but I'm not, so I won't.

I suggest you pick up and read it, because this book is truly two of a kind.