2012年7月1日 星期日

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver - A Review


An understated but shocking indictment of both the democratic right and the communist left and their impact on the writer who merely tries to seek and expose the truth.

The novel chronicles the life of Harrison Shepherd, a reclusive writer of mixed American-Mexican descent, who lives through the Depression in America, the era of Frida Kahlo and her equally colourful socialist husband Diego Rivera, the tragic sojourn of Lev Trotsky in Mexico and the post-war McCarthy era of anti-Communist fervour. Shepherd only wants to write novels about the former grandeur of Mexico and the causes that led to its decline, but his books eerily remind those in power that nothing much has changed between one empire and another. He becomes the object of persecution by the Committee on Un-American Activities (on whose bench sits one Richard M. Nixon, hmm!) until he finally decides on his own exit from this flawed world via the Lacuna, both a metaphoric and physical gap between one world and another.

Shepherd is the quintessential observer, hiding the dark secret of his homosexuality, while always being under the domination of a stronger older woman: first his opportunistic and flamboyant mother Salome, then the bombastic and original Frida, and finally the organized and steadfast Mrs. Brown. He is a loner and a voracious chronicler of events, sights and sounds (some sections of the book read like a travelogue); he shuns publicity and is fiercely loyal to only a few people in his small circle. And yet the power of his pen mobilizes fans worldwide and infuriates governments. However, he is unable to staunch the wave of character assassination that washes over him because of his past associations and writing - a cautionary tale for writers today as well, in our increasingly litigious society.

What impresses me about this novel is the variety of styles and devices used to carry the story: part journal, part epistle, part newspaper article, and part interjections by Shepherd's loyal secretary, Mrs. Brown, who assembles the collection into a coherent whole after her boss's exit from the stage. The writing too carries different voices: Shepherd's 13year-old beginnings, his early Mexican accent, the slang of his late teens in America, the return to servant humility while working as Rivera's cook in Mexico, his emerging confidence as Trotsky's typist and his final tongue-in-cheek rebuttals to the kangaroo court that prosecutes him after he has become a successful author; the newspaper clippings that are so one-sided and defy all conventions of journalistic balance; and Mrs. Brown's mountain English that is closer to the Biblical than Luke's.

What scares me about the subject matter is that the state (any state, be it a so-called benign democracy or a benighted totalitarian regime) can fabricate anything it wants to make someone guilty of a crime that was never perpetrated. And that we replace our demons periodically: Hitler was replaced by Stalin's Communists, who in turn were dislodged by the Terrorists - who will be next? "People want to believe in heroes and villains when very frightened -it's less taxing," says Trotsky, who also bemoans with his dying breath, "There is no hope - for social democracy." Welcome to the world of Right and Left with a giant Lacuna in the middle.




Shane Joseph is the author of three novels and a collection of short stories. His work After the Flood won the best futuristic/fantasy novel award at the Canadian Christian Writing Awards in 2010. His short fiction has appeared in international literary journals and anthologies. His latest novel The Ulysses Man has just been released. For details see http://www.shanejoseph.com





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