HISTORICAL FICTION: I'm not a fan of historical novels, I'm rarely convinced of their relevance and the stilted, over- curlicued language irritates me. Marian Keyes reviews Rose Doyle's Fate and Tomorrow.
I'm not a fan of historical novels, I'm rarely convinced of their relevance and the stilted, over- curlicued language irritates me. But I'd enjoyed Rose Doyle's previous novel, Friends Indeed - an interesting and unusual book about the Wrens of the Curragh.
It's 1902 and Nessa O'Grady's world is falling asunder: she's the daughter of an old, once powerful, Irish landowning family, but because of successive land acts the O'Gradys have been forced to sell their estate to the pesky peasantry, and Mr O'Grady has elected to drink himself to death with the proceeds. Nessa's family are facing impoverishment and disintegration - so far, so Molly Keane. But with one vital difference: the O'Gradys are Catholic - and this becomes an important issue.
The patriarch O'Grady rages: "No more than two or three of the tenants I gave land to are making any use of it . . . they're wasting it, destroying the work of centuries . . . small farmers won't work and won't learn . . . I should have fought the land acts."
These sentiments are echoed when, through several twists and turns, Nessa ends up marrying a wealthy adventurer and moving to King Leopold's Congo where the atrocities committed by the white colonisers against the Africans are justified by: "The black man has no concept of work, nor of time. His principle occupation . . . consists of stretching out in the sun like a crocodile . . . they're a dissolute lot but I give them work regardless."
The similarities between Nessa's husband and father are obvious, and the introduction of Roger Casement - "He's an African- lover, that consul" (surely a tongue-in- cheek allusion to the "black diaries"?) - makes it clear that this is a novel comparing colonialism in Ireland and the Congo. However, by making the Irish oppressor a rich Irish Catholic, it seems Doyle is suggesting that Ireland's is a class issue rather than merely a colonial one.
Barbara Kingsolver's excellent The Poisonwood Bible examines the contemporary Congo - a country still struggling with its colonial heritage.
And as for Ireland? Well . . . Jerome O'Grady predicted that if the old ruling classes didn't regain control, it "will end in a shabby, sordid Irish republic ruled by corrupt politicians and the ignoble rich".
Might he be right? And, if so, which is better - shoddy self-determination or benign (or not-so-benign) dictatorship?
However, this isn't merely a novel of ideas. Indeed it doesn't have to be read as one at all; it can be enjoyed just as a great, pacey, diverting read. From the first page there's a strong sense of place and Nessa is a sympathetic character. I genuinely felt for her when she arrived in the Congo - the misery of any woman who has to move somewhere unpleasant because of her husband's job: the enervating heat, the giant-sized ants, the crawling sense of menace, then the dawning horror as the extent of her husband's savagery is revealed.
Admirably, Doyle doesn't make a meal of the atrocities; nevertheless there were a couple of times when I had to put the book down and wait for the giddiness to pass. This is a well-written, thought-provoking, enjoyable book. And not a curlicue in sight.
Marian Keyes is a novelist. Her latest novel, Angels, has just been published by Poolbeg