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| The dashing Sir Roger |
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Born of a Protestant father and a Catholic mother in Dublin, Casement (like Oscar Wilde) grew up in darkest Ulster. Unlike Wilde Casement was an energetic and unashamed gay man who recorded his adventures in the famous "black books". The black books read like a less funny version of the Orton Diaries but apparently they still have the capacity to shock for Vargas Llosa seems disgusted by them and is convinced that they were faked by British Intelligence to discredit Casement. (This is a venerable but pretty much disproven idea). As a result of Vargas Llosa's discomfort and avoidance of the wild polyamorous homosexual aspect of Casement's psyche The Dream Of The Celt presents Sir Roger as a strange, rather dull, saint of a man. Although the lives of some Irish Saints make compelling reading (St Patrick and St Brendan come to mind) unfortunately this book falls flat as a work of art. I did enjoy the rich South American scenes in Dream of the Celt but the great Vargas Llosa's hetero machismo (or perhaps just his novelistic imagination) has let him down badly here I'm afraid.
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More on the interesting life of Sir Roger Casement, via Wikipedia, here.
18 comments:
Casement deserves a statue somewhere if only for his work in exposing the atrocities in the Congo. His report helped end a regime that had killed millions of Congolese. Ever read The Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham? It's a great history of the gobbling up of Africa by the European powers in the nineteenth century.
Cary
There is a statue in County Kerry.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluesky4691/4441582982/
I havent read the Pakenham, but The Heart of Darkness gave me an insight into the misery of the Belgian Congo.
A very interesting guy Casement and deserving of a better book than this I think.
I was surprised to see Llosa wading into the murky world of Irish politics 1914-1916.
Steve,
Yeah and unfortunately he hasnt quite done enough research. His view of the period is rather naive and old fashioned. It isnt that far removed from a Quiet Man version of Ireland.
I knew nothing of Casement until I read the NYRB review of several books about him some years ago. You can find the beginning of it HERE. Unfortunately you soon hit a pay wall, but maybe some will have access to it through a library. As I recall, there was a shock value to the diaries even then, not so much the gay themes, but the young boy themes. But it seems like it may have been a more balanced article on Casement than Vargas LLosa's novel.
Seana
The diaries are no more shocking than Joe Orton's diaries. For Llosa to primly ignore them or pretend that they're forgeries and that Casement was some kind of secular saint is a very old fashioned method of hagiography. It turns the book into something of a joke. Doubtless it'll get great reviews and win lots of literary awards on the back of Llosa's reputation.
I think the difference in the bios is that Orton never came across as a male Mother Teresa, did he? It's the disjuncture that intrigues people.
But no, I don't know what Vargas Llosa's reasons might be.
Seana
Thats why this book could have been amazing. A male Mother Teresa with an insanely dark side: what novelist wouldnt love that? Mario Vargas Llosa apparently.
Wait a couple years and write it yourself.
Actually, that reminds me of something that happened today that I almost forgot to mention. I was in the bookstore and this woman who looked familiar but not that much came up to me and said, you recommended this book to me awhile ago called Fifty Grand and I was wondering if you have anything more by that author, because that was a really good book. I said, well, I'm not sure what we have right now, but there will be a couple of things coming out here this fall. So we went over to the aisle and all that was there was Bloomsday Dead. And I told her that unfortunately it was the third in a trilogy, and the first was in a kind of print on demand situation. I even warned her that it was a bit pricey, but she said, I don't care. So I ordered that for her and then she said, so what about the second one, and I ended up finding that one for her on a second hand book search. She said, do you think I should get the third now, and I said, I would. So she did. While she was standing there waiting for me to go through some of the rather cumbersome ordering procedures, she was looking at the table where we have all those Fifty Shades books and she said, everyone's telling me to read these and I tried these but I could barely get through the first one, and I won't be trying to the second.
Whatever the opposite of adding insult to injury is, I think that would pretty much be it.
Seana
Thats great. I only she hope she's not disappointed. The Dead trilogy has a lot more swearing and violence than many people can handle.
The print on demand thing is such a scam. It means that the book will never technically go out of print and the rights will never go back to me. If I had known that I dont think I would have signed that contract all those years ago.
I think she will. She seems to like good writing.
We have just gotten this new espresso book machine that prints up book on demand in the store and I just noticed that Dead I well may be is available through them. So at least in the future I won't have to tell people it will be 7 to 10 days to get it from the east coast.
Hi Adrian Ever heard of David Rudkin [Irish playwright]? He wrote an amazing play in 1973 before your time obviously called Cries From Casement As His Bones Are Brought To Dublin also later published in book form which I see is avalable from Amazon. Dealt trenchantly with the gay diaries.
Seana
I want one of those machines for my house!
Kiri
Never heard of him, but that sounds completely fascinating. I like the title too, which reminds me of that Frank McGuinness play Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme...
But yeah I mean how can you write anything interesting about Casement without delving into his sexuality.
There is apparently one at the University of Melbourne Library, which might be close enough.
Yeah, I don't really see a downside for the store, although I think I'm going to have to answer a lot of questions about it, most of which will annoy me.
Hello. I just read Dream of the Celt and enjoyed it very much. I think you are mistaken when you say that Llosa believes the diaries are forged. He states quite explicitly in the book and again in the epilogue that he thinks the diaries are real, but that Casement himself probably invented or exaggerated some of the gay sexual encounters in the diaries - and only some. The book inself describes many instances of Casement procuring male prostitutes. Why did you think he believes the diaries are forgeries?
Sean
Thank you for your comment. Apologies for not getting to it sooner. (I have comment moderation on all blogposts that have been on the site longer than 90 days in an attempt to cut down on spam comments which have been giving me a headache!)
I read an interview with Llosa where he says explicitly that either the diaries are faked or exaggerated. I dont know why Llosa feels the need to embrace wither exigence because the reality of the diaries makes Casement's life more interesting and complex.
Painting Casement as some kind of chaste nature loving saint is not only false but its also rather boring.
I'm glad you liked Llosa's book. I've liked his stuff in the past but this time, alas, I was quite unmoved.
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