Guerrillas

Liked "Guerillas" (1975) far better than "In a Free State" (1971), which described an ill-starred roadtrip in Uganda by two rather unpleasant Brits, Bobby and Linda. Almost everything post-colonial and African there is described in racist, negative terms, with only two exceptions: the precolonial, highway-building Baganda people whose king is overthrown while the pair is approaching their expatriates' compound there. And Bobby pointing out to Linda a faraway valley with terraced hills, saying, 'This is what we left them', implying Africans can make progress, colonial rule disrupts, corrupts."Guerillas" is set on a bauxite-rich island in the Caribean. Again, full of VSN's powerful, minutely-detailed descriptions of loss, failure, decay and futility. Enters privileged Jane (29), who sees London as a monument built by great men in a glorious era. She found no greatness in her many lovers, only mediocrity and complacency, until meeting Peter Roche (45), a white South African anti-apartheid activist, jailed and tortured, then released under international pressure. He is the doer, the man able to transcend himself she dreams of. But is he?When Roche lands a PR-job on the island, with company housing on the exclusive Ridge, Jane follows, soon realizing the island has no great past and will never produce anyone or anything great. Roche raises eyebrows from Ridge neighbours for (again) siding with blacks. The story truly begins after Jane has spent four months, appalled and intrigued by everything, incl. Roche and his principal charge Jimmy (Haji James Ahmed), high commander of a 'revolutionary commune' subsidized by local firms and multinationals to prevent him from becoming a real nuisance...Jimmy is half-Chinese, educated, deported from GB for rape and sexual assault, a troubled, split personality, lonely in his HQ (a discarded company home), writing a hagiography about himself as Clarissa. With all characters defined, this reader bows out with two-thirds of the book to go.Novels are propelled by their characters. Here, VSN creates a rich cast of conflicted and conflicting actors, some fairly lucid and passionate (black journalist Meredith Herbert, Jewish businessman Harry de Tunja); others, rich and poor, suffering from delusions or worse. That makes this book so much better than its 1971 predecessor, the development and interaction of a raft of characters on an island with no past or future.Final words: (1) This is a novel of ideas and thoughts. Chs 1 and 10 can be a real slog with 30 and 41 pp, but are key to presenting the main actors, then letting them argue. (2) The other chapters provide minor action scenes, plus VSN's unrivalled descriptions of poverty, corruption, stupidity and confusion. (3) How can (1) and (2) together be visualized? My pub quiz question to readers: how many VSN novels have been made into movies?Still, a deep book about rootlessness and (post-) colonial trauma.