Jon Lymon reviews The Wall by John Lanchester

I write dystopia, therefore I read dystopia. And The Wall by John Lanchester was a recommended title in the genre.

And I can see why.

It manages to be both dark and entertaining, not something that’s easy to achieve. In this world, kids of a certain age are required to patrol the wall, defending their nation, keeping on watch for people – Others – trying to get into the country the wall is built to protect. National Service, if you please.

I must have missed the bit when it was explained why the wall was built in the first place – to keep people out yes, but presumably to battle against rising sea levels, which is another challenge we’re all going to have to face unless there’s some kind of change to the world’s approach to climate. But that's another story.

The protagonist is Kavanagh whom, when we join the story, has just been drafted in to start his 2-year stint as a wall guard. It seems there's no choice. You have to do your bit. It’s a good writerly device that allows the reader to discover what’s going on in this dystopia as Kavanagh discovers it.

Suffice to say, there are attacks on the wall that the guards have to fend off, and relationships that develop between the guards who are all of a similar age, and all thoroughly bored of pacing up and down their stretch of elevated concrete, looking out to sea to see, well, most times nothing.

We get to discover more of the world they’re protecting during Kavanagh’s holidays from wall duty, but it’s never specified where this story is based. From the weather, I pictured Devon in the southwest of the UK.

Overall, it's a story that's more thought provoking than terrifying, but certainly a read I enjoyed, even if much was left unexplained.

But that, for me, is a good thing. In this day and age when so many are delegating their thinking to machines, it's refreshing to read stories that require readers to engage their brains.

Which, incidentally, is the theme of my latest dystopian novel DEAD HEADZ… just saying!