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Troubles was Book One of J.G. Farrell's Empire Trilogy (Book Two was The Siege of Krishnapur and Book Three was Singapore Sling). Together all three books tell the story of the Empire's descent and decline but each in their own idiosyncratic way. In the case of Troubles, the book revolves around a crumbling hotel in the fictional Wexford resort of Kilnalough - a more fitting metaphor is hard to conceive of - especially as the owner is an old Anglo-Indian hand who bought the hotel on retiring from service in India. Edward Spencer is also descended from an Anglo-Irish family and is a staunch Unionist who is feeling increasingly besieged by nationalist sentiment in the depths of Ireland. Indeed, this unleashes something of a descent into madness as all of Ireland plunges into chaos and dispute - with increasingly dark and macabre consequences.
The hero of the book is actually a Major Brendan Archer who has been demobilised after the war but who developed a pen pal liaison with Edward's daughter Angela that seemed to have got out of hand and may have accidentally (as far as the Major was concerned) ended up with a promise of betrothal. Indeed his presence at the Majestic Hotel was to try and sort out this confusion and extricate himself from the situation. Things do not go according to plan as he gets sucked into the bizarre goings on in this dilapidated hotel with its strange clientele of old ladies, feral cats and twins who get into all sorts of interesting scrapes. They are later joined by some rather intimidating looking Black and Tan Auxiliaries who use the hotel as accommodation but whose manners and temperament the other guests find perturbing to say the least.
The hinterland of the characters in the book is fascinating as many of the guests or visitors to the hotel are old Colonial hands who had retired after working in India or the tropics. There is one funny aside of an old woman still thinking she was in India and when it was explained that she was being moved to England she retorts "But I'm not pregnant!" - which was obviously the fate she expected for a woman in India who had managed to get into the family way unexpectedly. There is another delightful paragraph where some old Colonials fail to understand the subtle jokes about the differences between Catholics and Protestants: "The Colonials looked blank, beng more used to division of people by race than by religion. This sort of thing was too subtle for them. After all, a white man is a white man when all is said and done." It is fascinating seeing the old colonial mindset wrestle with the new realities confronting them. But it is also a good reminder that many of the sons and daughters of the Anglo-Irish Ascendency were indeed wedded to Empire and had served all over the world as soldiers, administrators or planters of some kind. That many returned to Ireland to retire and look for the quiet life is often forgotten as we dwell on the overwhelming narrative of native Irish population doing battle with the forces of law and order. Indeed many a Catholic son had served in the armed forces. The British Army had long favoured Ireland as a recruiting station. Many of the Protestants were more likely to have been officers, but plenty of Irishmen had taken the Queen's shilling too.
It should be said that this is a darkly comical book. The humour is black in what is a very claustrophobic setting with few characters other than the guests and staff themselves. And yet this claustrophobia and remoteness from the rest of Ireland is what makes it feel such an appropriate metaphor for a declining Imperial possession dealing with a surge of nationalism - the hotel is being buffeted by forced beyond its control. There is also little sign of fairness as those trying to stay out of politics altogether or even those sympathetic to the plight of an independent Ireland get caught up in the confusing maelstrom of intimidation and terror which slowly escalates throughout the book.
The Majestic tries to have one more heave of the old heyday of splendour and decadence of the hotel with an enormous banquet and formal dance. This only seems to act as a catalyst towards yet further destruction and the madness of Edward as events take both comic and sinister turns - as of course they should in a black comedy.
I have to say that I really enjoyed this book. Despite the claustrophobic setting, the story takes some unexpected twists and turns - not least concerning relationships. This is a funny book with a number of laugh out loud scenes which actually alleviates and makes accessible what is otherwise one of the darker and grimmer parts of Imperial History. It is quite hard to make the Irish War of Independence 'fun' without detracting from the serious situations it threw up. The book allows you to see that Unionists far away from their majority in Ulster really were facing an existential crisis to the world and society that they knew. All was crumbling around them and eventually their world would collapse in ruins - not unlike the fictional Majestic Hotel! |
