 Chinamen has nothing to do with China. It has quite a lot to do with the lives of men, as exemplified by the transformation of its hero from a rather unpleasant, self-centered, over-aged, sexually inept lad to a sadder, kinder and perhaps a little wiser man. The title, Chinamen, is from cricket and refers to a left-handed wristspinner’s googly. Mr. Fowles’ thriller is rich with such entrancing special language, as it deals with an amateur cricket league composed of professional actors. The cross-pollinations of the two types of performance, the athletic and the theatrical, give this book a flavor which will charm any fan of the English language.
The hero of this story is Alan Prentice, a perpetually unemployed actor and amateur cricket player. He is scornful, resentful and contemptuous of almost everything, including himself and his lovers. He does respect the game of cricket. When he finds himself dragged into a nasty confrontation with the brutal murder of a team-mate in the almost sacred precinct of the cricket locker room, he is outraged as well as shocked. He embarks on a private quest to solve the crime, a quest which forces him to examine his own cruelties and deceptions. Compassion and bravery are demanded of Prentice as he follows clues through the parallel worlds of cricket and theater. Almost against his will, virtues he has never bothered to acquire are visited upon him and he learns to abandon his spiteful, cold-hearted mask for a more truthful, humane relationship with his world. Mr. Fowles weaves puns and allusions, the particular, intimate language of sports and the stage, sharp observations, and acerbic humor into this dark tale of murder and maturation.
Among the pleasures offered by this book are opportunities to examine the difference in language, attitude and mutual mythology which lies between contemporary America and England. For anyone used to the watered-down cross-Atlantic version of British idioms usually forced on the American reader, Chinamen will be a revelation. Expect a fascinating encounter with the sharp-edged, sophisticated and well-honed weapon English can be when wielded by a talented and experienced English writer like Mr. Fowles. His account of the ragged setting and physical danger involved in local cricket games will come as a surprise to those of us who think of cricket as a slow, quaint gentlemen’s game played out on perfectly trimmed, impossibly green lawns in a cool, polite, non-existant England. Mr. Fowles shows us cricket in an England of dusty, drought-stricken, untended fields. Similarly, his theatre people are, perhaps, famous, talented and beautiful, but they are also artificial and devious, always jockeying for better parts and more money. He handles those contrasting spheres of drama and sport with great skill and convincing familiarity. Though he makes no great fuss about it, he convinces us that the honest performances of sport are more creditable than the illusions of drama.
In beautifully polished detail and unerring structural firmness, Mr. Fowles engages the reader’s interest in the gradual redemption of his hero. Chinamen’s suspense is crafted perfectly and the premises are convincing. Chinamen is a thriller with plenty of suspense; it is also a unique, thoughtful novel by an immensely talented writer. |
