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Books Guide at the intersection of capital and chaos
THE CONSTANT
GARDENER By John le Carré Scribner, 492 pages,
$28 |
REVIEWED By JOHN
OLINGER
As I write, news is coming in of the death of John Kaiser,
an American priest from Minnesota who worked in Kenya for the last 36
years. These startling words come in the closing Authors
Note in John le Carrés The Constant Gardener.
NCRs John Allen picked up the thread of le Carrés
words in the closing section of his moving testimonial to the church community
in Africa, Faith, Hope and Heroes (NCR, Feb. 23). There,
Allen completed le Carrés brief sentence when he wrote the story
of Fr. Kaisers life and yet unsolved murder.
The Constant Gardener is a timely arrival. In this, his
latest novel, le Carré turns to the Third World and the multinational
pharmaceutical industry and creates a new protagonist, a worthy successor to
his earlier hero George Smiley, who reflects the new moral struggles at the
heart of the post Cold War world.
Only a year ago a handful of ACT-UP demonstrators at Vice
President Gores presidential campaign announcement thrust the issue of
pharmaceuticals in the Third World into the national spotlight. Their constant
dogging of the vice presidents campaign led the Clinton administration to
back off from its support of the pharmaceutical industrys efforts to
maintain its profits and protect its patents on HIV/AIDS drugs in South Africa.
In the interval, The Washington Post, in a series of front page articles
on drug testing in the developing world and Eastern Europe, addressed the
issues le Carré exposes in The Constant Gardener.
Le Carré weaves three essential story elements, drug
development and testing in developing countries, corruption in Kenya and the
politics of embassy and foreign office life, into an absorbing tale. Indeed, it
is the last element that leavens the mix and transforms what otherwise might be
a dry exposé into a powerful novel.
Those of us who may have lived on the fringes of a diplomatic
community will recognize many of the main players and scenes in this drama. The
innuendo and gossip of the isolated expatriate community feed the ambition and
betrayals that drive the story forward.
The novel unfolds from the discovery in the Kenyan lake district
of the corpse of Tessa Quayle, the wife of a British diplomat posted to the
High Commission in Nairobi. Justin Quayle, the constant gardener of the title,
appears as a faintly distracted, older husband, who endures quietly the chronic
rumors of his young, beautiful wifes infidelity. He evokes George Smiley,
whose unfaithful wife Ann haunted le Carrés early novels. Like
Smiley, Quayle suffers these rumors without demur. Unlike Smileys
situation, it is not altogether clear that Tessa Quayle has betrayed her
husband.
The decapitated corpse of Tessa Quayles driver is discovered
at the scene. Missing is her companion, Dr. Arnold Bluhm, a mysterious,
charismatic, Belgian-educated Congolese doctor who runs a nongovernmental
organization that monitors international aid programs in Africa. Dr. Bluhm is
supposed by many to be one of Tessas lovers. Scotland Yard sends out two
young detectives to investigate and they initially focus on Justin. Justin
withdraws from the life of the diplomatic community and disappears.
Surreptitiously, Justin undertakes his own investigation of his
wifes murder, spurred on by his deep love for her and his remorse at not
having paid closer attention to her volunteer work with womens groups in
Nairobis slums and with Dr. Bluhms organization. He wades through
the undercurrent of his wifes supposed infidelity, steadfast in his
belief in her faithfulness. Justin slowly unravels the trail of his wifes
work. The trail takes him from Kenya to London, to Italy, Elba, northern
Germany, Saskatchewan and back to Kenya.
Le Carrés narrative invention is on full display as
Tessas murder and Dr. Bluhms disappearance are deciphered through
interrogations, documents, e-mail and personal confrontation. Though we may
sense where he is headed, we are pulled along by the deepening portrayal of
Justin and his belated commitment to his wifes work.
Ultimately, as with all of le Carrés work, this is a
tale of faith, betrayal and love and it draws on the themes of his early
novels. For some us who grew up in the shadow of the Soviet threat, le
Carré was a constant guide. George Smiley, the unlikely hero of le
Carrés earliest novels and his greatest creation, reflected the
ambiguous moral world at the heart of the Cold War. In this new novel, le
Carré has given us a new guide and perhaps reveals more than intended of
the intersection of capital and chaos.
By the end of the story, the full import of the title is apparent,
for Justin Quayle is constant; he stands firm in his faith in his wife and in
Dr. Bluhms integrity. He is constant in the sense that the church
describes her martyrs as constant. John Allen quoted martyred Congolese
Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwas favorite saying: There are things
that can be seen only with eyes that have cried. Justin Quayle would, no
doubt, share that wisdom.
John Olinger lives, works and reads in Washington.
National Catholic Reporter, June 1,
2001
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