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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 6, No. 16 |
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On the run from destiny
in remote Madagascar
of TheColumnists.com
Ever since I read Joseph Conrad's "An Outcast of the Islands" and "Heart of Darkness" and just about anything by Graham Greene, I've been a sucker for novels about troubled men from the civilized world seeking spiritual redemption in primitive lands.
Especially if there's a good deal of suspense involved during their search for redemption.
And I suppose that made me a well-primed reader for John Robinson's debut novel, "The Sapphire Sea" (William Morrow, $22.95), which I hadn't heard about until a review copy recently arrived in the mail. It's probably a little late for Robinson's book to catch on like wildfire. It was published in 2003 and the paperback edition is already coming out, but don't let that discourage you from discovering this gem--a brisk and exciting thriller with a significant layer of literary value.
Robinson headed for Africa right after he was graduated from Harvard in 1991 and spent a long time absorbing the cultures he lived in while working as an English instructor, a guide on Mt. Kilimanjaro and, most importantly, as a dealer in rare gemstones. He has made extraordinarily good use of that experience in "The Sapphire Sea," which takes almost entirely on the island we know as Madagascar off the southern coast of Africa.
Robinson's hero is Lonny Cushman, a former New York gem trader who went to Madagascar to make his fortune, but perhaps also to run away from a failed marriage to a woman he never loved and the domineering influence of his wealthy father, who's also a renowned gem dealer. Though Lonny has kept his head above the polluted waters of his new homeland, he isn't exactly floating on a wave of prosperity. Worse yet, he's beginning to realize he's made a mess of his life and wants to put much of his new life behind him.
When we first meet Lonny, he isn't real personable. You don't want to hug the guy and wish him well. He seems a self-centered sort whose goals are nebulous at best. He lives in the provincial capital of Diego-Suarez, where his primary interest seems to be getting rich. Initially, that appears to be a rather slim prospect. He's reasonably well-liked by the native types because he doesn't seem to look down his nose at them on grounds they're sub-human like so many other "colonials" do. And he's at least tolerated by the local wheelers and dealers, who seem to respect him as an honest trader who doesn't get in anybody's way. His workday often involves riding his motorcycle out into the countryside, trying to buy gemstones illegally mined by villagers inside the king's protectorate.
But things begin to change dramatically on one of those bike trips out in the countryside. Lonny is approached by a native who wants to sell him a large sapphire, but Lonny isn't prepared for exactly how large--and how perfect--this stone turns out to be. As the book goes on, various people take turns at trying to describe this sapphire. Let's just say it's about as big as a melon and meets all the gemology requirements for absolute perfection.
Lonny thinks it's just about priceless. Ultimately, we learn it's worth as much as $100 million. Lonny buys it for what, to him and to the native, is a ridiculously large amount of money. Yet he knows he's just made the deal of his life.
If this sapphire is worth what he think's it's worth, Lonny believes he can afford to leave Madagascar, return to New York, begin to play a crucial role in the raising of his young daughter, buy the biggest estate he can find and spend the rest of his life flipping the bird to his unappreciative dad.
But giant gems and the dreams that go with them often complicate the lives of people in stories by Conrad, Greene and characters usually played by the late Trevor Howard or perhaps the young Michael Caine. And they certainly complicate the life of trouble-prone Lonny Cushman.
For one thing, his acquisition of the sapphire was illegal because it was purchased in the king's reserve. Oddly enough, the king, who's known as The First Rooster by his tribesmen, has just returned from a trip and learns about the sapphire in Lonny's possession. Another bad dude who learns of the sapphire is Col. Ratsimanga, a violent chap with all the charm of Idi Amin, who wants to take the gem from Lonny. Our hero also receives a visit from Malika, a lovely African-American diplomat who works for the CIA. She wants to get Lonny, who's American by nationality, out of Madagascar before he touches off an international incident.
This doesn't lead anywhere too pleasant for Lonny, who's soon running for his life during a native rebellion, accompanied by his friend Alexis, a former French commando-type who runs a night club in Diego-Suarez; The Bishop, a Catholic priest with virtually no congregation, who seems always to be pursued by a lynch mob, and Ali, an elderly native who's unnaturally loyal to Lonny.
Their goal is the lonely lighthouse at the northernmost point on the island, where they hope to escape on a fishing dhow that will take them to the Comoros islands between Madagascar and Mozambique.
All along this feverish rush through the wilderness, where the roads are dirt tracks, armed soldiers are in pursuit and local villagers are menacing, Lonny gets plenty of opportunity to renew his faith in God, practice his halting Swahili and ponder the wisdom of pinning so much hope on a gemstone that may be as much a curse as it is a blessing.
I don't want to inflate the achievement of Robinson's novel too much, but I found it a worthwhile read and a rare example of the action thriller with social significance, a book that teaches while it entertains. You don't find many books like that these days, so I believe in treasuring them and encouraging their authors to go back to their word processors and do us some more real soon.
©2005 by Ron Miller.
This column first posted March 28, 2005.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
writes about television mysteries for MYSTERY SCENE magazine
and teaches classes in mystery for the Academy of Lifelong Learning
at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.
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