Simon sweats, pacing his cell. That's what you do, it turns out, when what was safely tucked away in books becomes real life. You're in a cell and sure enough you pace it. There's nothing else you can do. Nothing left.
--Helen Dunmore, Exposure (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2016)
Dunmore's novel is something of an oblique spy novel, with its poetic style and its emphasis on how children's lives are affected (Dunmore is a poet and author of children's books). The novel is told from several different points of view: Simon, his wife Lily, their three young children, Simon's former lover and current co-worker Giles (who is also a spy for the Soviets). Simon tends to do Giles' bidding, including hiding a file from the Admiralty, where they both work, and ends up taking the rap. The book takes place in England in 1960 when sodomy was still illegal and spies had deeply penetrated English intelligence. Most of the novel deals with Lily's struggle to pay the bills and the children's struggle with name-calling and ridicule from their peers. Lily and the children --Sally, Paul and Bridget -- stay loyal to Simon, even when Lily is told of Simon's earlier affair with Giles and he is threatened with exposure. It seems to have not been unusual for young men in England to have homosexual affairs (Evelyn Waugh's biographers mention his, for instance, though they are usually described as brief and temporary) but combine that knowledge with espionage and that could produce substantial prison time. Dunmore handles this all with intelligence and style, as well as a keen insight into family dynamics.
No comments:
Post a Comment