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This novel was by far the most readable on the Booker
2000 shortlist, but sadly, as we all know, such books often don't win the
prize. It was also the best written and most consistent book: thankfully,
justice has now prevailed and Matthew Kneale has deservedly walked off with the
Whitbread. I hope this honour will also generate more sales for English
Passengers. It should, by all rights, be glued to the bestseller lists
like Captain Corelli was, but with far more cause and reason. Of all the
books on the Booker shortlist (though I've yet to read Michael Collins' The
Keepers of Truth), English Passengers was the most rounded and thoroughly
researched. Matthew Kneale spent seven years crafting this ingenious
novel, and it shows. Perhaps Margaret Atwood should have put in a few more
hours to remove the few quirks from the otherwise excellent Blind Assassin.
Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley starts off this
magnificent, polyphonic novel. He's the leader of a crew of Manx
smugglers. This is where you get the first hint of the authenticity and
complexity that Kneale has worked into this tome. Kewley's a brilliant,
lively character along with his fellow Manx shipmates. If you bother to
look at the census returns for the Isle Of Man for the nineteenth century,
you'll see that there are Kneales mixed up with the Kewleys and the Mylchreests
(indeed, the Arts and Books section of the Telegraph related recently that
Kneale was born on the Isle of Man and that his father was who I thought he
was). So, Kneale, with his glossary of the Anglo-Manx dialect, seems to
start off writing about characters who are fairly close to home. However,
historical sources do relate that Manx smugglers did wander widely and that
some were forcibly transported to the New World, where they endured the
hospitality of Port Arthur prison in Tasmania. This is an interesting
story in itself, and very amusing as Kewley and crew try to offload their
ill-gotten gains. But then the Sincerity attracts the attention of the
Customs, and Kewley is forced to consider the indignity of taking on board
paying passengers.
This is divine timing on the part of the Reverend
Geoffrey Wilson, who needs a ship to go to Tasmania to prove his theory of
Divine Refrigeration. His discourse offers the rather surprising argument
that the Garden of Eden is to be found within Van Diemen's Land. Wilson
has been fired up by the writings of Darwinists, who believe that the Bible is
not to be taken literally when it comes to the question of Genesis and the
Origins of Species. Unfortunately, Wilson's sponsor is the infantile
entrepreneur Jonah Childs whose notion of a good idea would be to use wallabies
as pack animals. Childs' judgement seems lacking when he chooses a rather
lacklustre botanist for the trip, and a rather too eager volunteer as ship's
surgeon in the shape of the odious Doctor Potter. It doesn't take long
for Wilson and Potter to realise that they are natural enemies, and it
seems that we could be in for a battle of the survival of the fittest, as each
take turns to try to convert Kewley's crew. Try as he might, Kewley is
unable to dump his passengers, so off into the New World they sail.
The book also goes back in time to the 1820s to
present Peevay's narration. Peevay is a Tasmanian Aborigine who
relates how the 'ghosts' take over the land of his people, and drive them to
extinction. He is the product of a rape: his mother was snatched by a
white sealer and imprisoned on his island. She escaped, but is forever
haunted by the seething hatred she feels for the man who did that to
her. Much of Peevay's early life has been without both his mother and his
father. When his mother rejects him due to his mixed blood, Peevay cannot
help but yearn for his father. Peevay's jealousy is roused when Mother
lavishes affection on his weakly half-brother Tayaleah. Soon the ghosts
launch the notorious Black Line. In the event of its ludicrous failure,
the Tasmanian Aborigines are dispatched to Flinders Island under the protection
of an Angel of Death: Robson. To the casual observer, a novel full of
individual narrators might be a nightmare to navigate, but Kneale is a superb
Captain. It helps that his characters are so vital, so engaging to read,
even if they write the vilest of polemics, as Potter does. It could seem
that this is an awful mishmash to put into one novel. However,
Kneale's thinking is always quite stimulating and naturalistic. From my
background reading, it looks as though Kneale's not the first author to have
approached Tasmania from the perspective of the Garden of Eden: Brian
Castro's 'Drift' had the 'Intercostals' sealer McGann stealing Pallawah women,
utlizing the analogy of Adam and Eve.
Although Kneale employs locations and institutions
exceptionally well, I was a bit disappointed that he didn't use the real names
of the historical figures. Governor George Alder was possibly the
historic Governor George Arthur, Robson was based on 'bricklayer' George
Augustus Robinson. However, this gives Kneale a necessary dramatic
license: this is a very entertaining book after all. In his epilogue
Kneale mentions that the odious Doctor Potter was based on the real life
'disgraced' surgeon Robert Knox (who, whilst in Edinburgh, employed the
notoriously work-shy Burke and Hare - why then didn't Channel 4's Booker prize
pundit Ian Rankin choose
this novel as his favourite?!!). It's shocking that the notions of such a
vile man should ever have been taken seriously
after that disreputable scandal. However, although the genocide
of the Tasmanian Aborigines is shocking in 'English Passengers', the real life
stories of Truganini and William Lanney are even more so. As it is also
sickening to see Darwin quote from Knox in 'The Descent of Man' and Darwin's
own thoughts on the Tasmanian Aborigines. It's even worse to
read fairly modern narratives, such as E. T. Emmett's 'Tasmania by Track
and Road', relate that: "Theirs was a case of arrested evolution" (1940s).
Yet Kneale is such a skillful novelist that you cannot help but feel some pity
towards the deluded Wilson and Potter. Matthew Kneale comes from the
Evelyn Waugh school of black comedy, with the added bonus that he's merciless
to the evils of racism. Unlike many other literary novelists this year,
Matthew Kneale hasn't put a foot wrong in his travails.
Authortrek Rating: 10/10.
|
Visit
our Matthew Kneale
page for “English Passengers” Reading Guide, Matthew Kneale biography,
Matthew Kneale bibliography, Matthew Kneale articles, and Matthew Kneale
interviews |
