 |
|
hardback £18.99
Cornerstone
Paddyfield.com
ALSO SEE
The Guardian
The Observer
The Independent
The Independent
the Christian Science Monitor
More reviews by Peter Gordon
Readers may purchase reviewed books from Paddyfield.com, Asia's online bookseller.North American readers may prefer to buy US editions from Powells.com.
|
|
|
Lustrum by Robert Harris
I should start this review by coming clean and noting that LUSTRUM, the latest historical novel by ROBERT HARRIS about the Roman orator and senator Cicero, has nothing, except for a few asides about Pompey rampaging around the Levant and the booty returned thence, to do with Asia. But I have liked Harris's last few books, especially Imperium, this volume's predecessor.
LUSTRUM continues Cicero's story, as told by his secretary and slave Tiro (a real person, who invented shorthand and the ampersand, and who really did write a biography of his master, a biography now -- unfortunately for posterity but perhaps fortunately for Harris -- lost), through a fateful four-year period (or lustrum) starting with Cicero's election as consul. One does not need to have read Imperium to enjoy or appreciate LUSTRUM and, indeed, the second novel is less obviously coupled to specific modern political events than its predecessor; this more muted message allows more complete and believable character development.
Ancient Roman law, politics and rhetoric are not perhaps the most obvious inspiration for a modern page-turner, but Harris is John Grisham in a toga. Contemporary politics pales in comparison with the Roman variety which was literally, rather than merely metaphorically, a blood sport. Needless to say, Cicero's year as consul is turbulent, and his time as ex-consul fraught. As a stand-up kind of guy, Cicero often finds himself in hot water opposing other politicians who prefer to take short cuts. The water is of course hottest when Cicero is tempted by short-cuts himself.
Bribes, murders, political skullduggery, arranged marriages and sexual antics aside, there is a lot of actual history in LUSTRUM, making reading this political thriller, as guilty pleasures go, rather less guilty than many.
It is perhaps easy to understand why Tudor England, the Roman Republic and other richly textured periods of Western history are used as setting for historical novels, while just as richly-textured periods in Asian history tend not to be, or at least not in English. It is however something of a pity.
Peter Gordon
07/02/2010
|
Peter Gordon is editor of The Asian Review of Books. |
| |
|
