Mortals by Norman Rush
What O What A Book
Surely someone has already pointed out the irony of the surname Rush
for a writer who can devote a long paragraph to uneven paving tiles.
Mortals--the follow-up to Norman Rushs National Book Award-winning
Mating--is a complex, unhurried tour de force; the beautifully rendered
story of the end of a marriage. Ray and Iris Finch are white American
expatriates in Botswana. A school principal and Milton scholar, Ray is
also a contract agent for the CIA. But Rays new boss doesnt want to see
the gorgeous reports into which Finch has channeled all the talent and
ambition that might otherwise have gone into poetry. He is asked to
submit only his notes. This is clearly a demotion, and it occurs at the
same moment that Rays adored wife begins to develop feelings for her
doctor, a charismatic black American with dangerous political ideas. Like
many brilliant novels, Mortals has an Achilles heel. The book is too long
by as much as 200 pages. Those pages arent without interest, and if--like
the author--you find the narrative voice of this novel compelling in itself,
you will not mind the lengthy anecdotes, hair-splitting, and digressions that
Rush indulges in. Other readers may do a little judicious skimming in the

second half of the book and still experience the pleasures of this masterful
and psychologically acute novel. --Regina Marler
Personal Review: Mortals by Norman Rush
Whatever else might be said for or against "Mortals," its absolutely original,
captivating prose is a remarkable achievement in itself. In an age of
literature-by-cookie-cutter it's gratifying that "Mortals" got published at all,
despite its being the long-awaited follow-up to a prizewinning novel that
came out in 1991--practically a century ago given the speed with which, in
today's fickle literary marketplace, next-big-things keep coming and,
inevitably, going. Rush's endlessly observing, endlessly cogitating narrator,
Ray Finch, might harbor a few unkind thoughts about James Joyce, but it
can't be denied that "Mortals" is one of the most accomplished exercises in
sustained stream of consciousness since "A Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man." Although it reads at times like a novel that Ernest Hemingway
might have attempted to write if he had felt the desire to one-up Malcolm
Lowry's "Under the Volcano," it has a voice all its own.
That voice is the sound of Ray talking--or, rather, thinking--to himself. His
recurrent tic of groping for the right word, employing the phrase "a what" as
a stopgap until he can find the noun he needs, is a perfect analogue for the
uncertainty with which he navigates his two careers in Botswana (as
college instructor and CIA agent), his marriage to Iris, and his unresolved
relationship with his stateside brother Rex. The weakest parts of the novel
are the scenes between Ray and Iris, whom Ray worships, but whom he
also suspects is having an affair with Davis Morel, an American doctor
recently relocated to Gaborone. Seen through the prism of Ray's
uxoriousness and jealousy, Iris never comes off as a convincingly
independent person, with a life and mind of her own. (Rex fares better, but
perhaps that's because we get to experience him more directly, through
extensive excerpts from letters he writes to Iris and from the manuscript
collection of his aphorisms and anecdotes that he has entrusted into Ray's
care.) Ray flagellates himself so often with the prospect of Iris's
unfaithfulness that we are convinced it can't be true. It's an open question
whether the solipsism is a weakness in Rush's authorial vision or Ray's
tragic flaw; perhaps it's both. Either way, throughout much of the first half
of "Mortals" most of the narrative tension derives from waiting to see
whether Ray will implode under the pressure of his own worst imaginings.
But then, in the novel's gripping second half, Rush adds a healthy dose of
political violence to Ray's existential despair. In his capacity as CIA agent,
Ray is sent north across the Kalahari to track a grassroots agrarian
movement lately taken to killing the cattle of the country's wealthy
landowners. During this journey, a number of revelations occur that will
forever alter Ray's connections with Iris, Rex, Morel, and the agency. And
although once the revelations have occurred the novel plays itself out fairly
predictably along the lines they suggest, in no way does this diminish the
reader's pleasure in following Ray's clattering trains of thought all the way
to the end of this very long, very rich, and ultimately very satisfying book.

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