Through the looking glass, and down the rabbit hole : the world of the watcher and the watched
Patrick Flanery’s third novel takes the reader almost immediately into a shifting sands world.
We are never quite sure, for example, where the narrator, a middle-aged History Professor, now teaching film studies, back in New York after 10 years in Oxford, is, in time. He appears to move between a something-has-happened future, a present where something-is-about-to-happen, and his earlier, settled Oxford past. Except that he begins to take the lid off that past, and there are further shifts, Not least of which is identity and origin. Jeremy O’ Keefe is not allowed to be American in America – influenced by his 10 years in England, his fellow Americans are convinced he is a Brit, but, despite his attempts to ‘acculturate’ himself in England, he was firmly not allowed to forget he was American.
At the start of this book, O’ Keefe’s voice is measured, precise, almost pedantic, a correct, dry, considered and intelligent academic voice. O’Keefe (in the voice which Flanery gives him) is very much the didact, donnish, instructing the reader at all times. It’s a little like sitting in on a lecture, with cultural references offered, and you, as reader, are expected to engage and get the references. But this voice begins, subtly, but inexorably to shift, becoming a little waspish, sharp, sarcastic, full of asides that indicate that all is not quite as we, the readers, might assume about Jeremy O’ Keefe. Is this a narrator to be trusted? Is he an unreliable narrator? Might he be disordered, even deranged?
I was very quickly floundering, anxious, confused – and Flanery was deliberately taking me to that place, because this uneasy, doubting world, so different below its surface, is the world the narrator inhabits. A world where nothing is quite as it seems. Jeremy O’ Keefe appears to be under surveillance. And may have been so, for quite some time.
This is the theme of the book : the increasingly ubiquitous surveillance society, particularly in democracies. Surveillance is not only something confined to totalitarian societies. Developed democracies, and advanced technology allowing advanced surveillance. coexist and feed each other. Watching, being watched.
Flanery is a wonderfully crafted writer who writes ‘about stuff – big stuff’, but, at least in his first two novels, without polemic. Character, place, narrative, relationship, authenticity in character, voice and action are the authentic containers for the philosophical ideas Flanery wishes to explore.
Unfortunately, with this, his third book, I began to feel, from about half way through the book, that the ‘about’ had become more central than the fictional framework.
Something Flanery has done brilliantly in his previous novels, is to offer complexity through having more than one narrator, more than one point of view, each of which is fully engaged in, so that a depth and range of arguments can be explored. In I Am No One, we really are only taken into Jeremy’s point of view. Initially, whilst O’ Keefe is unsure what it going on, and it seems as if he could be having some problems with his memory – at least, this is his initial, quite rational conclusion – the reader is satisfyingly presented with a few choices: Is Jeremy a reliable narrator? Are the things which are happening really happening? Is he suffering from paranoia? Does he have some neurological physiological or psychological trauma? Is he perhaps suffering from paranoia and yet right to be paranoid, because the things that are happening are real?
So far, so good. We learn, fairly early on, that Jeremy is writing the sequence of events which are happening, for some reason. There comes a point as he begins to reveal more of his past to the reader (and whoever, in the novel might be the recipient of his writing) where we see what the answers to all the above questions might be. And most importantly, some of the revelations the reader is given not only answer our questions about what is going on, but, surely (as Jeremy knows his own history) would have answered his own questions, too, at an earlier stage. Without plot spoilers, which I don’t want to indulge in, it is difficult to explain. But the result is the wonderful unsureness which the reader experienced before Jeremy comes clean about what is happening retrospectively, then has to seem authorial contrivance (Flanery’s). And as O’Keefe is a history professor with a particular interest in surveillance society – he specialised in the Stasi – he knows what might alarm States. I felt as if the ‘ambiguities’ about what was going on, as far as the reader is concerned, were being artificially maintained for us, by Flanery, and I couldn’t quite believe the narrator’s questioning of the ambiguity of what was going on, in terms of is-it-real-or-am-I-imagining-this?
A further example of where I think Flanery ended up fumbling and dropping the balls he was juggling, is the often resurfacing dark hints which Jeremy drops about how, at an earlier stage in his academic life, before Oxford, he failed to get tenure in his previous post in American academia. The narrator returns to that, time and again, and I kept waiting for the revelation of what had happened. But it never comes.
It’s been a real struggle to review this. Patrick Flanery is a wonderful writer, and I Am No One is still a good and important book. Unlike his earlier books, however, I think this one is more of a cerebral book, challenging to the intellect alone. One of Flanery’s strengths as a writer is to take the reader into the mind, heart, gut of his central characters, to come inside their idea of the world, to understand and believe their authenticity. It was accepting O’Keefe’s authenticity which I began to struggle with after the ’I-won’t-reveal-the-spoiler’.
Part of the problem is that Jeremy, being the man he is, rather stands outside his own emotional and visceral experience. There is a kind of aloofness in his voice. He observes himself, and doesn’t quite come close inside himself. He is more of a watcher, and we don’t have anyone else presented from their ‘inside’ – we only have Jeremy’s view of how they are viewing him.
I suspect, had I never read any Patrick Flanery before, I may have liked this more warmly and enthusiastically than I do. I don’t think I would have surrendered to it, I don’t think I would have loved it, but I would have liked it more decisively – because I would not have those two extraordinary novels to make comparisons with, and would not have seen what I am missing, with this. That I believe it is worth reading is given that, until about half way through, even this early in the year, I thought this was going to be one of my books of the year, which both previous novels had easily been
Do read it – even in my disappointment I can see how good a writer Flanery always is, and this is still a pertinent and thought provoking novel. And then, if you don’t know them already, do read Absolution, and do read Fallen Land.
I wait, eagerly, for Flanery’s next novel
I received this as an ARC from the publisher, Atlantic Books
Although the book is available in hardback and Kindle in the UK from February 4th, American readers will have to wait until July for a wood book copy, though the Kindle is available from 4th February
I Am No One Amazon UK
I Am No One Amazon USA
Excellent review! Yes, I think our expectations for this book didn’t help it in the end. Like you, I spent some time speculating as to how I’d have felt about it without those comparisons to the previous two, and I’m not at all sure. One thing I loved about it was how different Jeremy’s voice was to anything Flanery had given us before and how beautifully he sustained it, especially for the first half or three quarters. But had it been the first book I read, I may have thought that was sinply his ‘style’ and not been so impressed by it. On the other hand, his previous books meant I was expecting him to say something important about the small-p politics of the modern West, so perhaps took that a bit more for granted than I would have coming new to him…
But, since it’s the book that has generated most discussion between us this year (and for ages, really), it clearly still provoked us both to do a good deal of thinking…
Those are great points, FF. I agree that, if this had been MY first Flanery, I also would have thought Jeremy’s voice was Flanery’s. I do wish there HAD been another ‘inside the head’ voice though, both for the reason that he is so very brilliant at completely engaging with more than one voice, and, as I state in my review, as he can do that, it gives such a possibility for different viewpoints to be entered into by the reader, in a visceral way. I think one of the things which has most impressed me about his writing was, in Fallen Land, Krovik’s narrations. A really uncomfortable, disturbing character, ‘wrong’, and yet because Flanery could write his inner dialogue, it made me, as reader, understand (without condoning) the ‘Krovik’s’ I thought that was extraordinary, and I think some of my feeling of the arguments here being more cerebral for me, was that (once the ‘reveal’ was given) I came completely out of O’Keefe’s reality and no longer found myself living in HIS world. So I was thinking about the theme, not thinking and feeling and having gut reactions simultaneously. I absolutely agree that the ‘provocation’ he gives at least to two of his readers (!) is superb!
Yes, I agree – the fundamental problem arose because of the first-person, single-voice narration. I also wondered if it would have worked better as third person, in terms of the ‘thing’ we cannot mention, but that would have meant missing out on Jeremy’s voice, which I wouldn’t have wanted to do…
It has inspired me with an urgent desire to re-read Fallen Land, though – I’ve been putting it off till I read more of the GAN Quest books, since part of the reason for that was to see if I still felt my claim for it to be a contender was justified, but I think I need to fit it in soon…
Heh heh, was that you inside my head, then, as a wee voice has been saying ‘why not read Absolution and Fallen Land again?’ You know ‘Jeremy’ had me endlessly Googling all those films he talked about, and all the books he mentioned, like a really good student! And I loved that.
Me too! Haha! I was kinda glad he stopped talking about the films eventually – my list was getting too long…
Ah HA! Twirls Poirot type moustache and plays a quick, triumphal Scherzo on the violin. I have solved your earlier TBR mystery. It was Patrick Flanery, not Puir Wullie at all, at all
Aaaaaaaarghhhhh!! Puir Wullie! I kinda wish I hadn’t fed him to the haggises now…
Thank you for such a thoughtul review, though, with my TBR pile increasing beyond all reasonable bounds I think I’m tempted to pass on this one and maybe try one of Flanery’s other books first…
He really is an amazingly thoughtful and thought provoking writer, saying profound things. It’s quite hard to imagine how I might have received this one if I hadn’t read the other two, where he sets a very high bar for himself, but i suspect, as said in my review, I would have been less reserved in my recommendation. I’m quite amazed that he isn’t more pushed and publicised. I find myself still thinking about this one, even though I read it about a month ago.
Very nice review. I’ve just read this, my first Flanery, and came looking for other bloggers’ comments. I agree very much with what you say about the air of contrivance that comes into the book, in fact I can locate precisely the page where I thought, Oh this is starting not to work (p. 150). I found Jeremy an intriguing character – loved all the business about his dislodgement for unspecified reasons from Columbia and his problems with the Brits. The disappointments for me were in the more “realistic” section of the book, the affair with Fadia and so forth. It felt as if there were two styles going on, and I kept thinking there would be a more elegant way of dealing with the whole theme about surveillance, but it would be a much shorter book. I’ll look for the earlier books.
Thank you. I do believe he is an extraordinary writer, and even when his work is less than perfect he is streets ahead of many.