Phil WhitakerCritiques

Unusual subjects covered with tremendous skill in this novel of cartography which alternates between London and East Africa. Characters were beautifully drawn – particularly the rather stuffy John who works in a now defunct Government department shuffling maps around. You’re never totally sure what direction it is heading in, though the title is a broad hint, and it keeps its secrets admirably right to the very end. It reminded me a little of “The Remains of the Day”.

Stunning depictions of the African plain where one of the characters is engaged in the legwork of creating maps, as well as the technicalities of cartography itself. Helen hated being a junior cartographer but I thought it sounded fab.½

Zoe's father Ray, a former police officer, has died in a single vehicle car accident. There are three strands to every chapter in this novel: the first describes a trip Zoe, her husband Paul, and daughter Holly make to Nottingham to meet Declan, with whom Ray spoke for 45 minutes shortly before his death. Then there is a strand (which I found irritating and mannered) where Declan, who has refused to reveal anything to Zoe in person, tells her all the things he wants her to know about what he and Ray did when she was a small child. Finally there is a strand describing testimony at the inquest into Ray's death.

There were things about the story which puzzled me: why did Zoe's mother abandon her when she left Ray? Why does Paul dislike Ray so much? Why did Zoe marry Paul/what does she see in him? Why, given that Zoe seems to love Ray so much, does she see so little of him? Why did Ray not meet Holly until she was two months old? What was the significance of the photo/sketch of Zoe's family? (Just that it was before the affair was revealed?) Why was Zoe told that Ray wasn't born in the cottage he always said was his birthplace? I wasn't sure if I had missed the significance of these questions, or if they just petered out in the text.

The fourth Phil Whitaker novel I have read and the least successful.½

The story of John Hopkins, who has worked for the international section of Ordnance Survey all his adult life, first as part of the civil service, mapping the "empire" (in the late 1950s) and then as a commercial enterprise as the empire became the Commonwealth. There are two main periods of time: the present (1996) and the past (1957-62). In the earlier period John shares a flat with Laurance, an overseas surveyor for the same civil service department, who spends 10 months out of every 12 in Africa. John tries, largely unsuccessfully, to date Helen, who eventually elopes to Africa with Laurance.

In the present, John, who has never been abroad and has rarely left the south of England, travels to Lancashire, a trip involving four different trains and a bus, to visit Helen and ponders their shared past. Their shared story is revealed through John and Helen's memories and through letters and memos that John has kept.

I enjoyed this novel very much. In a similar way to Whitaker's "Eclipse of the Sun", John's character is gradually, subtly and ultimately very clearly revealed through his narration. Despite his limitations and flaws (and the appalling cheating at cricket admission) I sympathized with him. Helen's character was less successfully drawn: to me she seems at first immature and then just colourless really. I enjoyed the idea that John would marry his secretary. Laurance's letters were written in a distinct voice and he was a likeable character, although again morally lacking in some ways (although I don't think he would have cheated at cricket!).

The description of the work of the Ordnance Survey and of cartography in general was very interesting, as was the depiction of the struggle for independence of African countries. I'm not sure if T--- was supposed to be a thinly veiled actual country; I don't know enough about that era. Medicine's dilemma was well described.

My only criticism is that the parts set in 1957-62 were not always laid out in chronological order, which was unnecessarily confusing and led to repetition at least once.

Rajesh teaches high school science and hopes to impress a new Western-educated English teacher with his presentation about an upcoming eclipse of the sun. The story is told from the points of view of Rajesh (who we soon realize has something of the narrator of "Remains of the Day" about him) and his wife Shumila.

The is the second Phil Whitaker novel I have read and I enjoyed it very much, although it was harder-going than "Sister Sebastian's Library". It evoked the city of Nandrapur clearly and aroused sympathy for both the deluded Rajesh and Shumila, who loves him more than he perhaps deserves. I also enjoyed the character of Dr Mukerjee: the fact that he sends Rajesh a bill at the end was a great touch. The suggestions that religion may have more of an influence than Rajesh is willing to allow were gently done.

Elodie travels to what is described in the blurb as deepest Africa, but read more like Morocco, to try to find out what has happened to her sister Bridie. Bridie is a nun and has been working in a town called Beb, but he's not been in contact with her order or the local bishop for months. There are chapters describing Elodie's search (she gets help from the British consul, speaks to the bishop, travels to Beb with her lover Hennning) and these are interspersed with chapters describing Elodie's relationship with Bridie as teenagers and then as adults, culminating in Bridie's decision to become a nun. Finally there are emails Elodie sends to her mother, estranged husband and children back in England.

I thought this was a great story; it was in some ways a detective story, but there was also an examination of faith and religion, discussion of the ways we repeat our parents' mistakes, and perhaps slightly too much (for me!) on Elodie's work trying to stamp out malaria. If there was a weak spot for me it was that Elodie's relationship with her children seemed superficial and I wasn't sure her romantic happy ending would work out. (Also there were quite a few typos in the text...)

Highly recommended.

A very neatly constructed tale with a rather literal take on the traditional love triangle. This time the two men and one woman are employees of the Ordnance Survey, the government mapping agency of the UK. One of them is a surveyor whose life is spent using the traditional map making technique of triangulation. You can just imagine the author's chuckle to himself as he came up with the idea. He pulls it off pretty well giving each of his three principals different voices and characters. He has also done enough research to bring the period of the late 50s, early 60s to proper, grey life. And he has travelled to Dunsop Bridge, the tiny village that is recognised as the geographical centre of Britain where the heroine has her home. The shops he noticed on the main street of nearby Clitheroe when he wrote the novel more than 10 years ago are still there and still thriving. All very well done but a bit too neat really.