A Trip on Pascali’s Island by Barry Unsworth 10 out of 10

 A Trip on Pascali’s Island by Barry Unsworth

10 out of 10

 

 

The New York Times has called this novel ‘spellbinding’ and since it was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1980, it is confirmed to be one of the best novels of the last decades, incentivizing the under signed to read Sacred Hunger, by the same acclaimed author, which has won the Booker – incidentally, the most prestigious trophy for literature written in English currently – in 1992, though at 640 pages it is almost three times heavier than Pascali’s Island and yours truly tends to stay away from books that are so long and concentrates on the short and nevertheless sublime options…with The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin – another shortlisted novel for the aforementioned Grand Prix - to be finished in the next two days…

 

Given that the novel imparts the events taking place in the last days of the Ottoman Empire – which has had a long, if troubled  five centuries life – in our land we have a special interest in the story – after all, many of the habits, decorum, social phenomenon of the present owe much if not most to the Turkish influence, for we have been part of the same empire for centuries and use the baksheesh both as a an imported term and more or less – not at all in the future, Insha’Allah – as a core of transactions…we have now in prison the sultan of the past years, the con man that was the leader of the most powerful party, the Red Plague, the epitome of corruption and the rule of Baksheesh and for most of the modern history, this place functioned much like the Island of Pascali and the plot could have taken place near my house…

In fact, the people who live in my gated community are characters that come out of the pages of the Barry Unsworth novel, with their wealth acquired mostly through corrupt deals with the state – forms of Baksheesh involved – since if you look at the limousines and assets they flaunt, you need to add centuries of pay in public office to be able to explain so much opulence – one of those who live nearby has been at the center in the recently Oscar nominated Collective, which exposes a huge swindle, in a way like that perpetrated by Anthony Bowles in Pascali’s Island, wherein hospitals and medical facilities had been sold disinfectants in contracts, but delivered water with a drop of alcohol in reality…

 

Basil Pascali is the narrator and main character of the narrative – after all, it is clear from the title that the book is about his island or/and the action, whatever that means, takes place on the land that is his, and we see as we progress with the tale that it is at least in part his creation, given that as an informer of the sultan, he writes reports, for which he is paid alas the same meager sum for the past two decades, which keeps him hungry at times – paradoxically, given that he quite overweight, though people in poverty are more often in bad shape, obese, than the richer ones – and he admits to having less than candid, inventing things and putting on paper his impressions, the image he has of reality and even creating a parallel one, which may be what happens with the story of Anthony Bowles and his swindle…

 

The year is 1908 and we are on Greek island in declining days of Ottoman empire, where for 20 years plump and good humored, shabby but not without a certain dash, derided but not disliked Basil Pascali has spied on the small community sending his notes to Constantinople, where he intends to travel and see what had happened to his reports, why is it that nobody had bothered to contact him…indeed, they have acted as if he does not exist, albeit he can go to the Ottoman Bank and get his monthly pay regularly…the sinister truth is presented by Anthony Bowles at one point – this empire has been crumbling for quite some time, decades at least, and what has happened is nobody has read any of your messages…

The end of the sultan is approaching fast, the last ruler of what was once, centuries ago ta resplendent, powerful  empire is now too afraid to exit his palace, he only travels to the mosque, in a covered carriage for fear of assassination and even that is cut out at the end, his Macedonian troops are gradually coming towards Constantinople, the rebellion is growing and the corruption that has been one of the main reasons for this decay will end up destroying this relic and Pascali will be left without a job, unless he finds another employer or abandons the island, as it is planned for a while until the plot changes…

 

Everything changes when The English Anthony Bowles lands on the island and the intrepid Pascali approaches him with the intention of making some money – our narrator has no socks, he has to take water from a pump outside his premises, and as aforementioned, he has to sip meals for despite the fact that he had asked for a raise, he receives the same amount year after year…as explained by the Englishman, what must have happened is that somebody gave the order to the bank and then forgotten about him, they just pay on account of inertia and because of the initial bank order, but otherwise nobody is connected to him anymore in the administration, which has  more spies on the payroll than police and no means to keep pace with their information – and the tow establish a rapport.

However, Anthony Bowels is much closer to the painter on the island, Lydia Neuman, daughter of a rich Jewish father, very well connected – she is the one that would later give the ‘breaking news’ of the imminent collapse of the sultan, with the Macedonian troops in Constantinople and the disappearance of the sultan, locked inside his palace – and attracted to the tall, appealing Englishman…they will become so close as to share the same fate – let us not divulge what happens, unless you place a note and ask for it – Lydia is very present in the erotic dreams of Basil Pascali, who seems to be bisexual, if we consider his erotic projections connected with the artist and the regular coitus he has with a male partner on the island…or maybe they call that pansexual, demi- sexual or something else these days, when orientation of that kind is so varied as to escape my grasp…well, we can always search the net for more, but there are so many that I have abandoned the idea of keeping track

 

Anthony Bowles has used the corruption of the Ottoman officials to his financial advantage, giving them a lesson in the process, for he goes to them and pretends he has found precious items on the land, speculating their greed and extracting money by a ruse, which may turn nevertheless against him at one crucial, climactic moment…