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Georgy Girl meets A Taste of Honey, 21 April 2007
On coming of age, Gillian learns from her kindly parents that she was born a boy. Disgusted at this "deceit" and no longer certain of her identity, Gillian joins the Guyanan Air Force, whose Air Vice-Marshal strives to free men from Time: the present, past - AND the future. Gillian certainly wants to free herself from her past, so throws herself whole-heartedly into the fascistic Air Force, which comes, on government authority, to take over the village of Georgetown.
In a series of memorable episodes, Ms Nurse shows the villagers falling under the thrall of the Aerodrome. Their essential decency cannot compete with the unprincipled thuggery of the Air Force. Their sense of dislocation is mirrored by Gillian's gradual discovery of her true parentage. Georgetown, it seems, is awash with adultery and inter-relatedness. More grist to the Air Vice-Marshal's views on human weakness - and to Gillian's disgust at the village. Highly comic, though, to the reader, as he/she surveys the twists and turns of the plot.
Fascism, democracy, Right, Left - these are never explicitly mentioned. The politics are illuminated through the characters, whose motives drive the plot. In contrast to "1984", there are no long and boring disquisitions on the political system.
Though the Air Vice-Marshal is undoubtedly fascistic, he is no mere Hitler- or Mussolini-clone; race is never mentioned - the AVM's own very personal obsessions inform his political ideals. However, this emotionally stunted man has a deep affection for Gillian, and with good reason. Nothing here is quite as it seems on the surface, and both the AVM and the Rector have unexpected histories!
Though Gillian eventually rejects the methods and aims of the AVM, she never loses a sense of admiration for that enigmatic and charismatic man. The novel's refusal to condemn the Air Force in black-and-white terms gives it an ambiguity and generosity which rescues it from the didactic, hectoring spirit of "1984". That we come to condemn the Air Force while learning to understand its superficial attractions is a measure of the subtlety of the narrative and the humanity of it characters.
Where the Air Force despises human weakness and human love, the novel depicts both with tender understanding. Its prose is beautifully crafted without ever being stiff. It has everything I expect of a novel: plot, pace, character and local colour, all intelligently interlinked; it is thought-provoking, intelligent, insightful of both fascism and human nature, and yet is highly entertaining and readable, encompassing both comedy and tragedy. It sets up its own convincing world of a highly idiosyncratic but very Guyanan fascism and draws us into it. This a very substantial and satisfying novel and work of art, which in essence celebrates the fundamental decency of Guyanan values.
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