Bloomberg
Jan 26 2007
Indian Mutiny, Armenian Slaughter, African War Evoked in Novels
By Hephzibah Anderson
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) — In 1857, Indians rose in rebellion against the
British occupation. Julian Rathbone re-enacts that squalidly brutal
conflict of 150 years ago in “The Mutiny,” a novel that
meticulously explores the causes and consequences of what many
Indians call the First War of Independence.
The story opens in 1853, as Sophie Hardcastle, an 18-year- old
English rose, adjusts to life on the subcontinent, where her husband
works as a lawyer for the British East India Company.
While Sophie negotiates stuffy colonial society and gives birth to
her first child, a parallel narrative charts growing resentment among
the natives, introducing historical figures including the rebel
supporter Azimullah Khan and Ranee of Jhansi, who became known as
India’s Joan of Arc. Other real-life characters include the author’s
great-grandfather, a Liverpudlian businessman and philanthropist.
The two narratives merge in May 1857, as the unrest spills into
Sophie’s privileged world. In the mayhem that ensues, she becomes
separated from her infant son and his Indian nanny.
Rathbone captures the chaos all too accurately: The main characters
are soon engulfed in a crowd of walk-ons who meet grisly ends within
a page or so of their introduction. Narrative focus dies with them.
As the body count rises, so does swashbuckling heroism and bleak
humor.
“This all should be fun,” an officer declares while riding into
battle with a captain whose wife and children have been murdered.
“Shake you out of the doldrums.”
Though Rathbone successfully animates the complex religious and
political background, his novel lacks an emotional core. “The
Mutiny” is from Little, Brown (447 pages, 16.99 pounds).
`Skylark Farm’
Antonia Arslan draws on her own family history in her first novel,
“Skylark Farm,” a powerful account of the estimated 1.5 million
Armenians slaughtered during World War I.
The story centers on two brothers, Yerwant and Sempad. Yerwant, the
eldest, is just 13 when he leaves Turkey and his hated stepmother to
study at an Armenian boarding school in Venice. He later trains as a
doctor, marrying a local woman and raising his sons as Italians.
Sempad stays behind, becoming a respected pharmacist and fathering a
brood of his own.
After 40 years abroad, Yerwant is finally set to return to Skylark
Farm, their ancestral home in the Anatolian hills, in 1915. His
departure is days away when Italy enters World War I and seals its
borders. Sempad, overjoyed at his brother’s imminent visit, fails to
heed warning signs, including rumored disappearances within
Constantinople’s Armenian community.
Tragedy overshadows this novel from the start, tinting scenes of
simple contentment with poignancy long before men and boys are heaved
into mass graves and women and girls are raped, rounded up and driven
on a death march across the Syrian desert.
In the end, four of Sempad’s children escape to join Yerwant in
Italy, tempering the story with transforming heroism. Translated from
Italian with impressive subtlety by Geoffrey Brock, “Skylark Farm”
is from Knopf (275 pages, $23.95).
`Measuring Time’
Helon Habila’s award-winning first book of fiction, “Waiting for an
Angel,” reads like a collection of interconnected stories set in his
native Nigeria. His second, “Measuring Time,” is a full-blown novel
about twin Nigerian boys, Mamo and LaMamo, whose mother dies during
their birth.
Growing up in the village of Keti, the twins learn to despise their
wealthy, domineering father long before they learn of his
philandering ways. By the time they reach their teens, they’re
plotting to escape, though only LaMamo makes it, running away to seek
fame and riches as a soldier.
War Mail
Mamo, who has inherited their mother’s sickle cell disease, stays
home and turns to books for solace. He eventually becomes the local
school’s history teacher, falling in love and finding unexpected
celebrity by trying to write a “true” history of his people. Year
after year, letters from LaMamo arrive from conflicts across the
continent, in Mali, Liberia, Guinea.
Both brothers encounter corruption and scrutinize their own
consciences. Then, as drought and religious violence strike Keti,
LaMamo returns, with grim consequences.
Throughout this memorable novel, tradition and modernity, loyalty and
liberation tussle. In its final chapters, Habila dares to hope for a
better future, capping a majestic feat.
“Measuring Time” is published by Norton in the U.S. and Hamish
Hamilton in the U.K. (383 pages, $13.95, 16.99).
(Hephzibah Anderson is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions
expressed are her own.)