64 pages • 2 hours read
Richard FlanaganQuestion 7
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Parts 2-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary
Flanagan describes his father, a quiet man who was both “substance and non-substance” (41). His father was from a small town in Tasmania. He would tell stories about the people there, but not about those that he saw die as POWs in Japan.
Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary
When Flanagan’s father returned from the POW camp, he took a trip all over Tasmania. Flanagan talked to other POWs from Tasmania who described finding peace in the Tasmanian wilderness after their experiences of captivity and forced labor.
Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary
Flanagan’s father grew up poor and felt ashamed about it. As a young man, he asked a shopkeeper in the wealthy city of Launceston for a shirt he had seen in Hobart. The shopkeeper refused his request, describing Hobart as “a convict town” (44).
