Just Finished; Just Started
Francis A. Miniter
James Robertson, *The Testament of Gideon Mack* (Hamish
Hamilton 2006) (Viking 2007)
Robertson is a Scots writer. And I say that not just as a
reference to nationality. He is affirmatively Scottish from
his many references to Scottish writers (especially Walter
Scott and Stevenson, but many more as well) to a six page
story within the story written in lowland Scots dialect of
19th Century.
His subject in this story is a contemporary minister of the
Church of Scotland, whose father was also a minister.
Gideon Mack, the protagonist, is the first person narrator
of most of the story, which is sandwiched between two
frames, one at the beginning, and one at the end, the latter
of which casts doubt on the reliability of Gideon's
narrative, not that Gideon isn't perfectly capable of making
the reader wonder about his credibility all by himself.
Gideon becomes a minister though he professes not to
believe, a profession which his wife does not take at face
value. Early on in the story he tells us that one day,
eleven years after the death of his wife, at age 44 he is
running through the woods (he is a long distance runner in
the story as well) and having taken one left fork and then
another left fork, he goes through a dark wood and then up a
hill to a clearing where he sees a massive, eight foot tall
standing stone that was not there the week before. I have
summarized the passage to hit the points which stood out to
me.
Why? Because it is clear that the author has covertly
alluded to the opening passage of Dante's Inferno, which
begins, "In the middle of the journey of our life, I found
myself in a dark wood, having lost the right way." The
narrator then comes out of the dark wood, up a hill to a
clearing where he encounters a leopard. Threatened shortly
by another beast as well, he is rescued by the arrival of
the poet Vergil who tells him that to safely leave this
place he must accompany him (Vergil) on a journey through
Hell.
And so, at that early point in Robertson's novel, we can
expect that our protagonist will in some way have to journey
through hell himself. Of what that hell is composed is an
interesting question, and when he actually goes through it
is less than clear on first consideration. It is clear by
the end of the book that Gideon has not told us everything.
Dante's narrator tells us in that first Canto that though
it causes him pain to retell the bad things he experienced,
he will do so in order to convey as well the good. Gideon
gives us his life story, but somewhat edited, as we later
learn. And we are left to separate the good from the bad.
Just Started:
P. C. Doherty, *The Serpent Among the Lilies* (St. Martin's
Press 1990)
Medieval England and France are the settings for this
mystery. The early 15th Century, and in particular the time
of Joan of Arc. The narrator is Matthew Jankyn, who was
also the protagonist in *The Whyte Harte* which dealt with
the deposition and death of Richard II. Jankyn is sent to
France to spy on Joan.
--
Francis A. Miniter
Oscuramente
libros, laminas, llaves
siguen mi suerte.
Jorge Luis Borges, La Cifra Haiku, 6