Mission Song by John Le Carre, Little, Brown and Company, £13.99 Review by Piers Mostyn The hero of this novel, Congo-born Salvo, is an interpreter who works freelance for a British inteiligence agency.
He reminded me of the "The Spook Who Sat By The Door" a 1969 existential thriller by Sam Greenlee, in which an agent's black identity causes him to doubt his loyalty to "the firm". That just about gives the plot away.
Salvo falls for Hannah, also African, a nurse who inspires him to break from his socialisation in Western ruling class culture. For his sins he ends up being deported - spending time in an immigration detention centre, in which Somali asylum seekers are protesting at their forced removal, en route.
There's great play on Salvo's identity. His fluid status is a plot in itself. Born of a liaison between a white missionary and a black mother, accepted within the inner sanctums of the secret services, he is then brutally
power underlying globalisation. Absolute Friends is a rage against the Iraq war and the moral bankruptcy of the British-US alliance underpinning it. This book weaves together elements of both themes with a critique of the leadership and politics of the forces best placed to resist the imperialist intervention. A moral imperative weighs on both central characters to struggle against this barbarous set-up - at whatever the personal cost. Few authors of Le Carre's status are exploring these urgent contemporary political themes. He's a bit like George Orwell in reverse. Orwell started as a leftie journalist who used the novel form to explore contemporary political issues but ended up succumbing to the establishment and even collaborating with the intelligence services in the McCarthy era. Le Carre started by working for the intelligence services in the McCarthy era, honed his craft as the creator of genre spy thrillers and has ended up using it to make observations on big political themes. Perhaps he'll complete the journey by taking up leftie journalism? SUBSCRIBE! SOCIALIST RESISTANCE is a monthly marxist paper. Our subscription rate is 1 year for £12 (UK), £15 (Europe) or £20 (other overseas. For more details fill in this coupon, ticking the appropriate box and send to us at: PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU Please make cheques payable to RESISTANCE Saturday 17 March Manchester: World wide Day of Action against occupation of Iraq. Troops out of Iraq. Support Iraqi Peoples Resistance. Piccadilly Gardens at noon. Sunday 18 March London: Jewish Socialists Group. Day School on Iraq. Palestinian writer and refugee rights expert Abbas Shiblak will be joining a top line-up of speakers. 1.00pm -5.30pm at Manor Gardens centre, Manor Gardens, off Holloway Road, London N7 Admission is £4/£2 Tuesday 20 March Birmingham: SR Public forum - 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade and africa today 7:30pm, Bennetts Bar, Bennetts Hill Wednesday 21 March London: Socialist Resistance Meeting French Presidential elections:Why we support Besancenot with Gabriel Rosenman of the LCR/JCR 7.30pm, Indian YMCA Fitzroy Square, W1, (Warren St tube) Thursday 22 March London: The Trident Debate Continues. Speakers: Julian [email protected]
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