The Wake

The Wake is the story of one man's experience of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and its aftermath. Unfortunately, that one man is Buccmaster of Holland, a rageful bully, obsessed with his own status as an independent landowner in the Lincolnshire fens and with the pre-Christian gods of England. I say “unfortunately” because the major barrier to reading the book, for me, was intense dislike of this character. However, it was clear that Buccmaster's unlikeability was deliberate, so I kept reading.

Buccmaster and a ragtag band of survivors of the war set out to drive the French out of England. They hear rumors of other, similar groups of “green men” fighting the French, and they tell themselves that soon the whole country will rise up together and drive the French out. Buccmaster, as the leader of his little war band, is driven by visions of the old gods of England. One of the central tensions of the book, for me, was the beauty of Buccmaster's visions, the sympathy I could feel for those visions, contrasted with the brutality and ugliness of Buccmaster himself.

I expected to find the language of The Wake a bigger barrier than it was. The author, Paul Kingsnorth, created a not-quite Old English, with a pre-Norman vocabulary and spellings that would enable the reader to enter more fully into that past world. There is a helpful glossary for words that are likely to be completely unfamiliar, and, after a few repetitions, some words' meanings become obvious. Many other words look unfamiliar at first because of their spelling, but saying them aloud makes it clear what they are. After about 5 pages I understood the spelling conventions, recognized the most frequently used words and could find the glossary quickly when I needed it.

At the end of the book I didn't like Buccmaster any better, but I had a better understanding of him–and a conviction that this story was worth pondering. I'd love to discuss this book with someone, so if you read it, let me know.