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Review
Praise for ‘Black Ajax’:
‘Mr Fraser is a great historical novelist and in Black Ajax he is at the very top of his form. Damme if he ain’t.’
Christopher Matthew, Daily Mail
‘This is not a flashy novel, wearing its learning noisily. It’s rigorous, intelligent, meticulously horrifying. Wonderfully well done.’
Nicci Gerrard, Observer
Book Description
“Every page is sheer unadulterated pleasure.” The Times
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
It is the story of Mark Franklin, an American former outlaw who has made a fortune with a lucky strike in mining and comes to Edwardian England to settle down in Norfolk, the county his ancestors emigrated from several generations before. He becomes a country squire and city gent, marries into the upper classes, and has a surprisingly eventful time. And no, this is not a romp, it's a lovingly slow-paced detailed and substantial novel, brimming with introspection, description, and first-rate dialogue as Franklin discovers that the risks, the threats, and the bad guys may not be as obvious as they are Out West but they are real nonetheless There is a touch of a Henry James "American innocent abroad" about this strong quiet incomer, but his ability to cope is not in doubt.
For many readers the high spots will be Franklin's occasional encounters with the aged but still lively and unscrupulous Flashman, but there are many excellent characters and scenes that these should not be allowed to diminish.
Sometimes the author's lovingly-detailed background information and scene-setting gets a little too detailed and goes on a bit too long but this is a minor concern when set against the book's many good things. As an enjoyable and (as always with MacDonald Fraser) informative read it is highly recommended.
I've been to England many times, and I love it. Unfortunately, my family's roots are not in the UK, nor have I had the longed-for opportunity to take up permanent residence there. In MR. AMERICAN, it's Franklin's great good luck to have made a fortune from a Nevada silver mine. This allows him to return to England in search of his roots - his forebears having immigrated to the Colonies hundreds of years before - and purchase the house, Manor Lancing, which dominates the Lincolnshire village of his ancestors, Castle Lancing.
I learned in English Lit 1A that every novel incorporates a conflict, which, in MR. AMERICAN, is subtle. To modern fiction readers, fed a steady diet of lurid murders-most-foul, global conspiracies, and courtroom duels, it may not seem like much of a conflict at all. Author George MacDonald Fraser, a Brit himself, has chosen to introduce into Edwardian society of pre- WWI England a rugged individualist matured in the late-19th century American West, and develop what happens. The WASP values that Franklin possesses from such a background - chivalry, self-reliance, forthrightness, loyalty, lack of class pretension, suspicion of authority - are occasionally at odds with the upper class social circle that soon adopts him.
For the reader, Mark will present as an appealing, stand-up fellow. The book is populated with interesting characters: Samson, Franklin's gentleman's gentleman; Pip, the effervescent West End stage actress; King Edward VII; Lady Helen Cessford, the militant suffragette; Peggy, the daughter of an impoverished country squire; Kid Curry, the unwelcome visitor from Franklin's ... um, shall we say, irregular past. And above all, there's the outrageous and aging rascal, General Harry Flashman, the hero of a whole other series of books by author Fraser.
I was undecided for a bit on the number of stars to award this novel - 3 or 4. At almost 600 pages, it isn't the type of book that keeps one riveted. The dramatic moments are occasional and of short duration, and there are a lot of loose ends that would have made an absorbing sequel inasmuch as the storyline ends in 1914 with the outbreak of the war. (Since MR. AMERICAN was published in 1981, no sequel has been written to my knowledge. Pity.) In the final reckoning, I gave it four stars because it's about an American who finds "home" and adventure of sorts in a green and pleasant land. I'm envious.
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