Friday, May 22, 2020

Book review - "The Concubine" by Morris West (1958) (warning: spoilers)

Also known as McCreary Moves In - this feels like it was written as a Robert Mitchum vehicle, with its enigmatic, hard drinking Irish oil drilling hero in the third world, who talks about his Irish ness every chapter at least.

He's not terribly honorable - he goes to work for a man then sets about seducing his mistress (it's meant to be love but it feels like possession), then when he gets revege he decides to torch an entire island (did I read that right? Not just the baddies but the island on which live the whole population?)

It's a shame the story is a bit smelly because West's prose is very sure and I loved an adventure tale set in Indonesia. McCreary has some devoted native sidekicks off course.

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