This Land is Our Land?

There is a problem that leads to much heated discussion among readers of crime fiction. It is that noir fiction and popular writing is seen as less "serious" than "literature".

And it is probable that this is never going to be solved.

The history of the novel continues, a river of words in full spate, with everybody having an opinion on where
it may be heading. Having lived through "The Death of the Novel" in the 1970's, which I had not the energy to
take seriously and now faced with a plague of thrillers that have replaced the bouncy Chick Lit of the Boom Times,
I suppose the only option is to go with the somewhat erratic flow.

I have an excuse for not diving headlong into "Bloodland" ... I could not follow a plot to save my life
and my idea of inexorable nightmare is to go back to reading Shakespeare. Hamlet really tired me...
Politics I still regard as the haven for a lot of shouty people who can't seem to make a coherent sentence or answer any question good, bad or
indifferent. History from the scant attention I gave it in school, seems to have been compiled not only by the
victors, but by anybody who was still left alive after some grotesque plague or battle and had access to writing
implements.

Not a good start...

So rather than review "Bloodland" by Alan Glynn, it might be more useful to look at its topicality.
Since people now live increasingly in cities, noir is suitable as a genre within the tradition of
Robert Louis Stephenson, Bram Stoker and Arthur Conan Doyle. There is usually something nasty lurking
in the shadows away from the bright street lights. The wonderful noir films of the 1940's and early 50's are
the highlight of the genre for me, but Alan Glynn is always quick to remind readers of his particular affinity
with the paranoid films of the 1970's when corrupt activities by governments filled the newspapers.

Having spent hours listening to (mostly male) friends belabour the ups and downs of Watergate, I have little taste for
any more discomfort when it comes to bedtime reading. Nixon's statement on being found out in a mistruth.. "I mis-spoke myself" ...actually made me laugh at the time... but then I have a sense of humour that makes most real life dramas seem ridiculous.

But back to the writer in hand...

On first reading, "The Dark Fields" (now remodelled as "Limitless") brought back memories of Ray McInerney's
"Bright Lights, Big City" and Tom Wolfe's "Bonfires of the Vanities". The frantic consumerism of 1980's New York
finally has found its place firmly in every city on the Planet. Friends who have been to Moscow are stunned by
the glittering shopper's paradise that this once grim place has become. Ex-Pat wives around the world have
very little to do of a day apart from shop and consume.

The greed culture of everyday life is introduced very early in "Bloodland" as the reality of life in the Congo is juxtaposed with the calm
domesticity of the average European housewife. Nobody knows the horrors that the male protagonists have seen and up to the point that I have read, the women are not interested.

This I recognise. When friends who worked in Africa came back to find what Europeans considered to be a problem it caused rifts and invitations stopped being sent back and forth. I found them hardened, they found me
trivial and self-indulgent. One useful outcome was that their stories made me take the measure of my own inadequacies. Nothing would get me to the places they described.

The coltan trade, as explored by Mr Glynn is not for the faint of heart,
but anybody who listens regularly to "From Our Own Correspondent" on Radio Four will be quick to see where the roots of this novel lie.

Without the trade in rare metals, I could not sit writing this piece and have the expectation that it will, within seconds, appear on the Internet. I stopped buying little ivory gifts in the past, as that was the commodity shown to be destructive to life in the Congo. Oil was in the news for a considerable number of years, as the living conditions of those who stole from piplines was a constant and dismaying reality. That, I have to admit did not stop me driving a car.

There is much in the news about the coltan trade and anybody looking for more information on mining in the Congo could find this useful:

cellular-news.com/coltan/

Capicitors cannot function without this highly prized metal.

Actions have consequences as I expect to find as I read on in "Bloodland".

This novel deals with a world that is in the direct line from the highly moral writers of the early 20th Century who insisted on holding the mirror up to social issues. We live in a global community so the cacophany of voices that has so bewildered me as I read the first few chapters is exactly right. It is like channel hopping on TV and finding a confused and somewhat shattered representation of reality.
And everywhere is the possibility of violence.

Unlike so many who insisted on lauding Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" in class, I was more interested in the fact that Conrad had a very serious nervous breakdown as a result of what he had seen during
his travels. It is a truly terrifying book.


And, as Joseph conrad was always quick to understand... we are all in the same boat.

It is strange therefore, that it is so little known about Mr Glynn in Dublin at the moment.

Perhaps this is about to change?