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| Monday, 28 February 2005 |
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'Behind the assurance of recorded history' A Review of Gaston Perera's Historical Novel, "History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors and issues, deceives with whispering ambitions. Guides by vanities." From "Gerontion", T.S. Eliot Yes, history is a dangerous mistress when courted by the false lover, the historical adventurer whose real passion is his personal agenda. According to his wish, she lets him misdirect himself into the "cunning passages" and "contrived corridors" of her archives to emerge with spurious "issues" that serve primarily to feed his "vanities" or "ambitions". To the genuine student, however, she reveals her heart. Enriched by the insights afforded by the experience, he discharges the proper role of the writer of historical fiction. This is, of course, to render in imaginative terms the lessons of the past so that the present can, if it so wishes, avoid learning them the hard way. Being previously unacquainted with Perera as a writer, I wondered whether this novel might be one of those "ambitious" undertakings to "forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race." - the Joycean aspiration that can be, and has been, sadly misapplied in the context of a modern, interdependently multiracial Sri Lanka. What I found, however, was a work of historical fiction that is as balanced and objective as it is sensitive and passionate. As such, it succeeds in convincing the unbiased reader of the universal relevance of the issues at stake in a period so seemingly remote from our own. The background of the novel is the Kandyan resistance to the Portuguese at a climactic phase of the latter's campaign for islandwide domination. Its subject is the struggle for proper leadership on either side of the conflict. From this context emerges the central theme of the sad incompatibility of high-mindedness with greatness in a world that is governed by realpolitik. It is a measure of the writer's breadth of sympathetic vision that this conflict is perceived in the case of the Portuguese General de Saa as well as in that of the rightful heir to the Kandyan throne, Kumarasinghe. A counterpointed sub-theme is the relative success that greets both the Machiavellian scheming and outright power-abuse on the part of the Regent and the perfidious expediency of the "lascorin" commanders. With the thickening of the plot come several related issues. These, too, are found on both the Kandyan and the Portuguese sides, of the experience. They include the destructive effects of disunity, the corruption bred by the lust for power, the victimization of women, the complicity of established religion in rulership's abuse of power and the cynical manipulation of human beings for personal ends. On the positive side are the progress made possible by good leadership, the admirable valour of the common soldier and the need for mutual respect in marital love. This complex of issues convincingly presented indicates the extent of the writer's imaginative meditation on his material. In his introductory talk on the occasion of the launching of the book, Perera stated that once the writer of historical fiction has assembled his historical facts and his store of period lore, it is up to him to tell his story with all the resources of langauge at his command. We are obviously interested in this aspect, since the effective use of langauge is vital to the success of a serious work of fiction, whether historical or not. One finds oneself in the hands of a refreshingly educated author. More than the agreeable fluency and expressiveness of the writing, this refers to the highly civilized tenor of Perera's commentary. There is no didacticism or sentimentality, neither partiality nor design on the reader's reactions. An objective humaneness, all too rare today, pervades the writing. Perera is at his expressive best in the episodes involving action. The fury of battle, the excitement of a perilous journey by sea, the tensions of a covert operation are skilfully conveyed without losing sight of the plight of individual participants. The insights into the all-too-brief man and wife relationship are moving. The researched background material is well employed to provide the necessary depth of social context for the plot. The danger for the historical novelist lies in the very advantages he enjoys, namely the generous supply of historical donnees by way of dramatis personae, story-line, setting and sundry period information. He could be led, unwittingly into treating the personality and psychology of his key characters, too, as donnees rather than exploring and revealing these through the creative process. This becomes evident in the characterization of the protagonists, Kumarasinghe and De Saa. We are not sufficiently shown how their uncompromising idealism proceeds from their mental and emotional make-up. Hence, their largely self-defeating decisions do not carry the degree of conviction needed for the reader to be able fully to empathize with them. Dialogue and interior monologue, so useful for probing the mind and the heart, tend to be hemmed in by arrive comment, and to be illustrative rather than actually generative of consciousness. This is the case also with the symbolism employed at critical points, which seems to be excessively studied. Thus the human tragedy implicit in the fate of these two men does not affect us as powerfully as it might, its emotional impact being insufficient. That the appeal of this book is, thus, ultimately at an intellectual more than at an emotional level is a point that has to be made in his assessment as a creative work. But this in no way takes away from one's appreciation of his stimulating effect and of its distinctive contribution to the realm of authentic historical fiction. Through the serious and imaginative contemplation of his material Gaston Perera has, to borrow a phrase from "The Four Quartets", enabled us to take that necessary "backward look behind the assurance of recorded history." It is a look we can ill afford to neglect taking with him if we genuinely want to learn from the past the better to understand the present and the better to anticipate the future. - Priya David |
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