Arthur & George (Julian Barnes)

Funny how two people's lives can be so interesting to a reader, even before the twists and turns of the plot ensnare you in their stories. Such is the case with Julian Barnes' 2006 novel, Arthur & George. These characters as you might guess from the title are Arthur and George, seemingly ordinary blokes, until their fictionalized characters become recognizable in history as Sir Aurthur Doyle and George Edalji, a solicitor who gained notoriety in England for being unjustly accused of a crime he didn't commit. Arthur, already a world acclaimed crime writer, inventor of the one and only Sherlock Holmes, feels compelled to help George who has written to Arthur of his case. A case of two men, whose philosophies propel them forward into what become at length undesirable and barely enduring. For Arthur, whose grows up in a family of women, honor is a missive he holds upright, almost as if he lays it upon this pedestal. While George is blighted by his own adherence to the law he believes to the bitter end will save him. Barnes is a gifted writer, whose shifts back and forth between these two men's lives lived simultaneously feels natural. Albeit the tangent of their meeting begins late in the book, when the intrigue of a crime fighter against the prejudices of a small village unfolds, there is much before and after to keep a reader up late nights reading.