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The Tyrant's Novel
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More reviews by John Walsh
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The Tyrant's Novel by Thomas Keneally
One of the things about tyrants is that they affect everything and everyone. Those of us fortunate enough not to have to endure tyranny perhaps need to be reminded of this from time to time.
When the tyrant in THOMAS KENEALLY's new novel, based clearly on Saddam Hussein, wants something, anything, then those charged with giving it to him either do so precisely according to the specifications or else face horrifying repercussions. Once people understand this, there is no real need to follow through on the repercussions: the tyrant does so anyway.
Alan Sheriff, the central figure in this very good new novel, finds his wife's life destroyed by a passing whim of the tyrant and then himself is drawn into the orbit of the so-called Great Uncle of the people. He has one month to write a novel that the tyrant can pass off as his own and that will influence world opinion against the sanctions imposed on him and his country. Must he comply or can he escape -- and if he does, what will be the implications for the others who know him?
Those familiar with Keneally's work will have a good idea of what to expect here. It is, as ever, a flawed work, driven by intelligence and passion but marred by the occasional lapse in style or logic. One particularly good idea is in the naming -- or renaming -- of the characters. As Alan introduces himself, "Look at it this way. It's the name of a man you'd meet on the street. I would very much like to be the man you meet in the street. A man with a name like Alan. If we all had good Anglo-Saxon names ... or if we were not, God help us, Said and Osama and Saleh. If we had Mac instead of Ibn."
This renaming does work. We look at the characters and their locales in a new light, not distracted by associations and emotions that may or may not be justified but do cloud our perceptions. Instead, they appear to us as people.
That the country in which the novel is set in Iraq under Saddam is in no doubt. The Great Uncle is never named but his psychopathic son Sonny, makes several appearances, the war against the Others in the Summer Islands continues to play an important role in society and Mediationists and the Intercessionists (Shias and Shiites) are arranged as would be their real life counterparts.
Yet there are some curious lapses, centred mostly on football. Real life events are suddenly mixed with fictional inventions in a way that is immediately obvious. We know, we believe, that it is true that Sonny did murder the coach and manager of the national football team. Yet the team is then described as going on to play in the semi-finals of the last World Cup, which of course they did not, although Turkey did. Is democratic Turkey to be brought into a meta-state of Middle Eastern tyranny or is it just a mistake?
Alan Sheriff acknowledges that he is one of the privileged elite of the country, with his burgeoning reputation as a writer and his beautiful film star wife. Their friends are in the media and the arts. Alan's repeated drunkenness insulates him from the reality of life in which the majority of the people exist. His excursions among the black markets and the oil barges are for research only and he seems to have little connection with what goes on around him. As Alan himself notes at the end, some people "have been involved in genuine tragedy" while his story is just one of the silliest and saddest that have ever been told.
Would it not have been possible for Keneally to have balanced the tale with some of this genuine tragedy? It would have made the implicit criticism of the sanctions policy more trenchant. As, too, would have been some consideration of an alternative.
John Walsh
07/08/2004
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John Walsh is Assistant Professor at Shinawatra International University, Bangkok. |
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