The Line: A Man's Experience; A Son's Quest to Understand (2005) By Arch and Martin Flanagan
 
The Line: A Man's Experience; A Son's Quest to Understand is a memoir written by Arch and Martin Flanagan. It details Arch Flanagan's experiences as an Australian prisoner of war of Imperial Japan during World War II. The book is divided into sections: Cleveland 1914-1928 - a short history of Arch's childhood growing up in rural Tasmania; The War Years 1940-1945, and Long Long Ago - a memoir of events that Arch remembers from his time in the war; Tribute to Weary - a tribute written by Arch in memory of Edward (Weary) Dunlop.

(from the book's back cover)
"This is Dad's book. It consists of four pieces Dad has written over the past twenty years which reflect on the railway, together with a commentary by a son who came to understand the centrality of that experience to his own life. Dad wrote the first of these pieces two years after I came back from Thailand. It was the first of his writing I'd read beyond half a dozen letters he'd written me when I was wandering the world in my mid-twenties. What struck me about those letters - the first I recall him having written me - was the sparse way he used words. It was like there was something between the words, sort of like the drone that underlies the music of the bagpipes, that I recognised as being intuitively my own ..."

Arch Flanagan, 91, is a retired school teacher. In 1943, as a sergeant in the Australian Army, he was forced to labor on the infamous Burma Railway upon which it is said one man died for every sleeper laid. In the 50 years since, Arch has written four separate pieces, a memoir and an obituary for his commanding officer, Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop.

Martin Flanagan is a poet, writer and journalist and is the fourth of Arch's six children.
 
Soft Cover 
190 Pages
In Good condition