Books like Mountolive

Past DiplomacyWhen I was in secondary school, one of Gerald Durrell's books was all the rage. It might even have been on the syllabus. Looking through his bibliography, the only one I can think it might have been is "Beasts in My Belfry". It wasn't particularly demanding, so my English master (who was also the librarian) suggested that I would enjoy his brother, Lawrence. Thus it came to be that I read, first, "White Eagles over Serbia" and then "Justine".While the latter began a passion that has survived to this day, the earlier influenced an educational choice that almost shaped a career decision that I realised then (and even more so now) would have been a grave error.Although the novel was about spies, it got me fascinated in diplomacy. So it was that I headed off to study in Canberra, from where I hoped I might gain entry to the Diplomatic Corps.I realised pretty quickly that, even then, you probably had to be the child of a diplomat to gain employment. However, a more important reason for my loss of interest was that, around this time, people started hijacking planes and killing diplomats, in pursuit of their political interests. If negotiation and diplomacy didn't work, there was always revolution. And if revolution didn't work, the last resort was terrorism, although in those days I think we used to refer to it as guerrilla action.I didn't fancy being shot or blown up by a guerrilla. Still don't.Unsuited by Way of TemperamentThe other reason for my change of plan was that I realised that I was probably temperamentally unsuited to diplomacy, which won't surprise anybody who knows me from GR.In those days, I was relatively polite and occasionally charming. However, it was a time of political turmoil, and it became apparent that, if you wanted to achieve just evolutionary (let alone anything more radical) change within your lifetime or a term of parliament, being polite and diplomatic wasn't enough. You had to crash through or crash.In business and political life since then, I still distinguish between executives or managers or politicians on the basis of whether they are either leaders (or doers) or diplomats (whose primary role is to ensure that nobody rocks the boat or causes any problems with either the electorate or the shareholders).Ultimately, as you get older, and lose interest in leadership and diplomacy, you tend to focus on doing your own thing, provided you still have sufficient energy. Of course, life can become a little predictable when you run your own show, hence the need for an occasional skirmish to raise your body temperature.Skirmish and IntrigueI mention this background, because unexpectedly "Mountolive" thrust me back into this world of political and diplomatic intrigue, not to mention espionage.The first two volumes of the Quartet fascinated me as a metaphysical investigation of love and narrative perspective. I expected it to continue for the remaining two volumes. However, here at least, there was an abrupt change of focus that, initially, I found unsettling.Mountolive is an English diplomat who has previously spent time in Egypt, speaks Arabic and gets assigned back there later in his career as the Ambassador. He featured in a minor way in the earlier volumes. However, they focused more on a "vaguely amiable bespectacled" English teacher and would-be novelist. In this volume, we learn for the first time that his name is Darley. He seems to be regarded as "a good fellow, gentle and resigned," ineffectual, possessing "the shyness that goes with Great Emotions imperfectly kept under control" and of no great significance in the lives of those who really "matter" in the scheme of things (his anomalous love of Justine excepted).On his first assignment, Mountolive became involved in a relationship with a married Coptic woman named Leila, who happens to be the mother of the businessman Nessim (and his brother, Narouz), which ultimately makes her Justine's mother-in-law.While Mountolive seems to be a similar age to the main characters in the first two volumes (or perhaps a little older), this one lifts us up a generation.From Microcosm to MacrocosmAt the same time, it focuses more on the pre-war geopolitics of the Middle East.Thus, while the first two volumes examined the multiple facets of the mirror ball that was one generation's love action, this volume reverse zooms, so that we can get a broader perspective and context.Durrell shifts us from microcosm to macrocosm, without sacrificing the intimacy of his language or point of view. He lifts the veil on the Arab world. In his hands, it and we become less disoriented. At times, Durrell's writing reminded me of Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene and John le Carre.Superficially, Egypt is determined to establish its pride of place in the world, that "our simple satisfactions should not be less than those of your homeland." Nevertheless, there are multiple sources of tension: imperial, economic, racial, political and religious.Just as America would later inject itself into the hornet's nest of the Middle East, England did so then for similar reasons. It was more advanced in the development of capitalism. It regarded itself as superior for this reason alone. It needed raw materials, trading partners and markets for its manufactured goods. What better way to ensure the long-term complicity of a country than to conquer and occupy it. Under its sovereign power, perhaps, "the feudal pattern of life", the traditional rivalries between races, religions and sects could be suppressed. Whatever was necessary to do business.The role, then, of diplomacy was to ensure the uninterrupted operation of the imperial or global market.From Kaleidoscope to PanoramaMountolive's arrival as Ambassador takes us back to the time of the first volume, "Justine". We encounter different perspectives from those we were exposed to earlier. Then, we looked through a microscope, perhaps even a kaleidoscope. Now we see an entire panorama, from a distance, through a telescope. Ironically, what we see now changes what we saw then. The further away we get, the more we see. But equally the mosaic pieces have formed a larger aggregate. We understand more (and differently), because we see more context (and differently).Durrell dragged me unsuspectingly into this world. I resisted for 50 pages or so, then his picture started to take shape. Once I adjusted, every word on every page contributed to the intrigue.The Pride, Stripped BareMountolive quickly learns that England's superiority is temporary and illusory. Nothing is as simple as it seems. England has no mortgage on sophistication or deception, let alone pride. It is the same in politics, as in love:"Somehow his friendship for them had prevented him from thinking of them as people who might, like himself, be living on several different levels at once. As conspirators, as lovers - what was the key to the enigma? He could not guess."Mountolive confronts the reality which "had always lain lurking behind the dusty tapestry of his romantic notions...Now this old image had been husked, stripped bare...[He could no longer remain] hidden behind measure and compromise."Master and BondsmanThe novel builds towards the most amazing crescendo (which word, ironically in the case of a novel partly about mid-twentieth century Islam, derives from the same root as "crescent": to spring up, grow, swell, increase, thrive). The last chapter takes us into the heart of internal family and national politics. These are the same people we got to know in the first two volumes. Yet we were not yet aware of what was really happening behind the scenes.The chapter is one of the best in the novel, and one of the best I have encountered in my reading anywhere. (It reminded me a lot of Saul Bellow's "The Adventures of Augie March".)I don't recall ever being turned around so convincingly over the course of a novel. Durrell is a master. Once he turned me around, I became his bondsman. The experience was truly enthralling.REVIEWS OF "THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET":"Justine" (Vol. 1 of 4)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."Balthazar" (Vol. 2 of 4)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."Clea" (Vol. 4 of 4)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...