Oscar Wilde? Blah blah blah. W. B. Yeats? Blah away, O human child. Jim Bob Joyce? Blah, blah. Blah: blah. Ten million web pages devoted to each of those well-known bastards.
You'll find no hype here. No rehashed university essays. I'm highlighting Ireland's overlooked, equally noteworthy literary talent, and I'm doing it in my own words.
James Gordon Farrell popped his mortal clogs trying to catch a fish. That was in 1979. Today, nine hundred and ninety-nine Dublin pedestrians out of an imaginary thousand have never heard of him- and that's on O'Connell Street, right outside of Eason's! Yet, he's one of Ireland's few sons who have won the coveted Booker prize- an award for the best English-language novel of the year published outside of America.
That acclaimed novel was The Siege of Krishnapur, bringing home the gold in 1973. (Or maybe instead of a medal they give you a book, I don't know. I'll ask Roddy Doyle if I ever get the chance to thank him for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.) Farrell's father was from Liverpool, working extensively in India and other outposts of the British Empire. The decline of that empire and its effect on those locations became Jim's Farrell's biggest theme.
I am no admirer of the Victorians or their oddball social constructs, so the first third of The Siege of Krishnapur was a chore. In depth discourses on dance etiquette in mid-nineteenth Calcutta? My arse! "This is as tedious as Pride and Prejudice!" I thought. But, I'm an Irish fiction nerd, so, I popped a can of Beamish and read on.
To delight my capricious little heart, the novel improves dramatically with the addition of conflict. As soon as the Sepoy mutiny begins in earnest, the text takes on a tension. Characters begin to do interesting things, the plot takes its grip, and there's relevance to the airy philosophies that had been bandied about. The siege brings a wealth of accurate historical insight and information, and some of the imagery is striking. Best of all, it's done with humor. There's an absurdity to the whole thing that would make Matt Groening proud.
"Begorah!" I said to myself. "What started off as dreary as a Dublin January has become a first-rate historical novel full of quirky characters, laughs and action! Fair play to ya, Farrell." If he had included the Indian perspective, I'd have walked away with a well-rounded understanding of the whole shooting match. Maybe that's intentional, though: the book as it stands made me curious enough to read up on the events of 1857 from the Indian POV.
Fave scene: Lucy and the bugs. Great stuff!
Three and a half stars out of five.
Farrell wrote six other novels, most notably The Troubles (concerning the Irish War of Independence) and Singapore Grip (set in the Asian aftermath of World War II). Lavinia Greacen has written a biography of Farrell that sounds both thorough and informed. Mick says: don't be a lightweight eejit like me, get the straight story for yourself. Bring this Anglo-Irishman memory and insight back to life by pursuing J. G. Farrell's historical novels, then finding out about the man himself.
- Added to the DFA Guide, January 2005.
Guide Index. Red words? Check the Dub Glossary!