Arthur and George by Julian Barnes

 Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021--San Antonio

Aurthur and George by Julian Barnes was my first book to read during the GREAT TEXAS WINTER STORMS (two bouts of freezing rain followed by 4" of snow within a 5-day period and the longest period of below-freezing temperatures in the history of records here in San Antonio) of 2021.  I had waited a week since finishing my previous book to start another because I needed to spend time on other things.  But then the storm hit and I had no electricity, no Internet, no heat except from a gas fireplace, etc.  I couldn't download another book due to the Internet being out, so I started searching my bookshelf for a book I hadn't yet read that sounded interesting.  Arthur and George is a combination of the stories of the lives of Arthur Conan Doyle (who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories) and George Edalji, the quiet son of an Indian Church of England priest and his Scottish wife, who grows up being teased and discriminated against.  The first part of the book covers their lives separately by going back and forth to tell their stories of growing up.  Then the story turns only to George to tell of a crime he is accused of committing, his trial, and his time in prison.  From there, the story turns back to Arthur to tell about his marriage, his interest in spiritism, and his life with a second woman.  He becomes aware of the miscarriage of justice against George, born and raised in England but never accepted as British because of his heritage.  The book continues with Arthur working to get George a pardon and compensation for his miscarriage of justice.  It continues with Arthur's eventual marriage to the second woman after his first wife's death, his continued investigation of spiritism, and his eventual death.  It is not a biography, but it is built around true facts and told as historical fiction; it even has an afterward which tells what eventually happened to all the major characters following the point in time when the novel ends.  I found sections of the book to be extended too long and of little interest to me.  And it was too many stories within one book--the story of Arthur's life, the story of George's life, the story of discrimination in England, the story of a true crime series that occurred, and the story of spiritism and those who believe in it.  It was a finalist for the Booker Prize and I enjoyed it most of the time; as a compromise due to the multiple stories being jumbled together and my lost interest at times, I rate it 3 1/2 stars out of 4.