LGBT Book, Film & Video Blog

Review by Anthony King @ Bay Windows

Arthur and George by Julian Barnes (Knopf)

Nominated for the Booker Prize last year, Arthur and George is Julian Barnes’s foray into the world of historical fiction. Taking lead from actual events involving Sr. Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji, Barnes tells their story with his own sophisticated style. In early 20th century England, Doyle hears of Edalji’s persecuted past and wrongful imprisonment. Doyle sets off on the journey to clean the man’s name and reinstate him as a practicing lawyer. The task is not so simple, and by no means does Barnes begin there, the middle of the story. He craftily weaves the two men’s lives together starting before they meet, and what begins as differences slowly emerge as common ground. Barnes takes Doyle’s famous writing career and loveless marriage and folds it into Edalji’s own childhood stories of racism and violence. The book is authentically English, with the reader having no doubts about the setting or motivations for these two characters. It’s an excellent return for Barnes, whose past work England, England and Flaubert’s Parrot were both nominated for the Booker as well.