Listening to The Writer and the Critic recently (a monthly podcast out of Australia),
there was a brief discussion on the value of fragmenting a narrative: does it
enhance or detract from a novel? My
personal opinion that it is very similar to using present tense narrative;
sometimes an author just tries to be different to no effect for no other reason
than to break the monotony of their style, and I think the same applies to
fracturing a narrative. It can also be a
pointless way of rearranging how a story is told simply to try something
different. But there are also times that it complements the subtext under
discussion. Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s Arabesk series, as I mentioned in my
review of Pashazade, is one such set
of books, of which Effendi, the
subject of this review, continues consistently.
Introduced in Pashazade, Ashraf al-Mansur is a young man with a big question mark
plastered over his past and present.
Shoved into a situation he himself only marginally accepts, believing
the ancestry he is presented is just as ambiguous as knowing for certain how he
was altered in childhood and where his present-day life is headed. Thrust into the position of Chief of
Detectives at the outset of Effendi,
the uncertainty continues. A brutal set
of murders targeting Zara’s father Hamzah right at the start of his new career,
he has no time to step delicately into the role, the city catching fire around
him in the aftermath of the grisly deaths.
El Ishkandryia threatening to collapse inwardly, Raf must navigate a
slow boiling stew of commercial and political interests toward helping the
people he cares about toward a peaceful resolve that does not entirely destroy
the city.
The title ‘Effendi’ in fact referring to
Hamzah, not Raf (at least, I think), the novel not only hinges upon the mafioso
with a heart, but branches out into several other character perspectives. Encompassing far more points of view than did
Pashazade (and does Felaheen), the Khedive, Colonel Abad,
Senator Liz, (French guy), Avatar, General Pasha, Zara, Hani, Raf, Eduardo,
Lieutenant Ka, Sara, and others have the story told from their point of view at
various, occasionally limited, moments.
Grimwood seemingly attempting to paint the larger picture of life in El
Ishkandryia, Effendi’s list of dramatis personae is a complex,
multi-colored affair.
Thus while Pashazade focused heavily on Raf and Felaheen returns to him, Effendi
is the broader scene. Drawing in foreign
interests—Germany, France, and the US, Grimwood likewise takes a look at the
child soldier in north Africa’s deserts, the novel’s flashback episodes
centering around one Lieutenant Ka. A
pubescent fighter in a war for which sides and motivations are never as clearly
defined as the hardships and quest for survival, Ka reveals that being a youth
is beyond difficult in a land ravaged by war and poverty.
In the end, Effendi is a broadening of the canvas upon which the Arabesk trilogy is painted. Raf, Zara, and Hani’s characters evolve a
step or two, but by and large the secondary figures feature as a group, in
particular how the city is dealing with internal and external issues, to increase
the swell of story. A larger picture of
the doings and happenings, Grimwood continues to write in the same sparse, noir
style, everything consistent with what was established in Pashazade. Readers will thus
be glad to know that the trilogy continues in good hands. All that remains is
for Felaheen to answer the remaining
questions…
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