[.ca] Mortals (ISBN 0679406220)

From Amazon.com:
Surely someone has already pointed out the irony of the surname Rush for a writer who can devote a long paragraph to uneven paving tiles. Mortals--the follow-up to Norman Rush's National Book Award-winning Mating--is a complex, unhurried tour de force; the beautifully rendered story of the end of a marriage. Ray and Iris Finch are white American expatriates in Botswana. A school principal and Milton scholar, Ray is also a contract agent for the CIA. But Ray's new boss doesn't want to see the gorgeous reports into which Finch has channeled all the talent and ambition that might otherwise have gone into poetry. He is asked to submit only his notes. This is clearly a demotion, and it occurs at the same moment that Ray's adored wife begins to develop feelings for her doctor, a charismatic black American with dangerous political ideas. Like many brilliant novels, Mortals has an Achilles heel. The book is too long by as much as 200 pages. Those pages aren't without interest, and if--like the author--you find the narrative voice of this novel compelling in itself, you will not mind the lengthy anecdotes, hair-splitting, and digressions that Rush indulges in. Other readers may do a little judicious skimming in the second half of the book and still experience the pleasures of this masterful and psychologically acute novel. --Regina Marler

Only for the seriously pretentious:
Let's see, besides our protagonist being a nominal Milton scholar (though like all the other literary lights cited in this book, there is no real connexion with any of Milton's works in this book), we have the following names dropped, seemingly gratuitously throughout this opus: James Joyce (5 times), Yeats (5 times), Thoreau (3 times), Bertrand Russell (2 times), Ezra Pound (2 times), Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson (at least 3), Matthew Arnold, Jack London....and I stopped counting after that. Come now, does anyone save a literary groupie really appreciate all this display of superficial literary knowledge? Is it really intrinsic to the story? ---Here: My favourite example of the inanity of these quasi-literary speculations by Ray-" 'The drop that wrestles in the sea/Forgets her own locality' was from Emily Dickinson, a poet he hadn't read attentively enough, since clearly she had something to say to him.".....And, well, what is it? Never mind, no time for serious pondering. It's on to more Yeats among others before the paragraph ends (p.351). - The one exception to all this name dropping is Ray's recital of Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach." to Morel. But, as is commonplace, the exception proves the rule here. - I could go on about how disappointing the meretricious scholarship is in this work: Is Morel serious about citing Matthew 15:24 as proof that Jesus came only for the Jews? Is Rush? Anyone who has read the whole chapter knows that this is where Jesus turns to the Gentiles and heals the Canaanite's daughter because the Jews have rejected him. Is Rush trying to show that Morel's idealism about a non-Christian Africa is superficial and misplaced? Or is Rush simply showboating himself---I very much fear that it's the latter. 2 Stars for the few poignant passages on conjugal love. But, in the end, I would have come away much more enriched had I spent the time reading actual literature: Joyce, Yeats, Wordsworth, Dickinson........Milton.

Life Among the Males:
As your typical "Mating" fan, I was surprised to find "Mortals" devoid of the Golden Notebook atmosphere of Rush's first book. Instead, "Mortals" takes us deep into the mind and maturation of a Saul Bellow-esqe everyman, Ray Finch. Ray's painful coming of age is forced by a sequence of losses not atypical for someone coming to the end of middle age. In Ray's case, his usual coping skills of retreat, denial and genteel manipulation prove completely inadequate, and he must strip his life to the bones to build a new foundation. While the inside of Ray's mind is not as whimsically decorated as that of "Mating"'s protagonist, Ray is rewarding because we are much more likely to meet (or be) someone like him. Unlike "Mating", "Mortals" takes place in a very real world. My heart ached for the characters - their oscillations between venality, generosity, cruelty, idealism, and the many gray states where we spend most of our lives are so exactly those of people whom I know. Botswana plays its role again as an entrancing supporting character: however, this time Rush shows us the country's CNN side, culminating in scenes of armed conflict. Bertrand Russell meets "Apocalypse Now". Rush's prose is, as usual, captivating. Even so, "Mortals" is unquestionably prolix. But hang in there for the last few chapters, a bang-up ending that had me outlining a screenplay.

I rarely would rate a book a 5:
In one word: BRILLIANT. It's true, it might not be everybody's cup of tea. But if you like books that are literate, that take you to a place you've never been before and put you in the head of its protagonist then you'll love this book. I wanted to go on with the characters and find out what happens to them. And the ideas keep coming at you, but all part of an engaging story. Go for it.

An excessively detailed character study:
This is a mammoth, elephantine piece of work. Complex, multi-layered, and intellectually astute, Mortals unfortunately suffers from being just far too long. Rush probably needed a good editor to cut some of the endless pages of pointless conversation and overly embellished philosophical analysis. Iris and Ray, the main protagonists are conveyed as brilliantly complex characters, and every single detail of their relationship is dissected from their sex lives to their domestic habits. Much of the story is seen from the perspective of Ray's thoughts, as he reacts to his wife's relationship with Davis Morel - a Doctor newly arrived in Botswana, and rousing "irreligious" fervor among the locals. Ray, a contract CIA agent, operating undercover as an English instructor recounts his neurosis, paranoia's and insecurities in explicit detail, as he begins to see Morel and his colleague Samuel Kerekang, as not just subversives but also the "enemy" who is trying to spread their own brand of atheism and irreligion throughout Botswana. There are pages and pages of Ray "free associating" as he tries to counter his suspicions that Iris is having an affair with Morel. Although I found some aspects of the novel interesting - particularly the duel themes comparing Catholicism in the Western world with Africa - much of the novel was unfortunately rather cluttered and dull. Rush comes across as being incredibly well versed in philosophical aspects of world religion, but his effects to weave an engaging and intricate plot into his metaphysical diatribes didn't really work for me. His ruminations on the state of affairs in present day Africa are very interesting. Through Ray's perspective, Rush postulates that White European Catholicism is responsible for many of the problems in Africa today - from the rampant poverty, warring tribes, to the ravaging from AIDS. Perhaps if Africa had been left on its own to develop its own "enlightenment" without European influence, Africa may have been a very different place today. The novel is also peppered with Ray's gay brother's letters from back in America, written to Iris, and giving an account of life back in the West. Ray hates his brother - not through any sense of homophobia - but through a sense that his brother was the favourite in the family. His brother like most of the other people in his world is the enemy. Much of the story also recounts Iris's relationship with her sister back in California who has just become a new single mum. The lives of these two, and the decisions they make are juxtaposed with Iris and Ray's life back in Botswana. Mortals is a challenging and complex read but a book that is certainly not for everyone. Michael

An amazing and great book:
Mortals is stunning. It takes you to another world and another life, full of humor, pain, angst and thrills. It is so beautifully written you don't so much read this book as feel it. It is rich, complex and involved, and that's the beauty of it. All I can say is that the people who don't like this book are chowderheads.