The New Republic

Lionel Shriver

HarperCollins

Otago Daily Times, April 14th 2012

The New Republic is Lionel Shriver’s latest release, but actually her second novel, written in the aftermath of We Need To Talk About Kevin at a time she was viewed as publisher’s poison. It is the story of former fat boy Edgar Kellog, a man has always been a follower, albeit one who desperately wishes to be the idolised rather than the idoliser.

Casting aside a lucrative but stultifying career as a corporate lawyer he decides to follow in the footsteps of a schoolboy hero and enter the glamorous, if uncertain, world of journalism.  Foreign correspondent to the Portuguese province of Barba is not exactly the romantic position he imagined, but it is the only offer on the table. Regret sets in the moment he arrives in a dreary region distinguished only by its indigenous fruit (the foul-smelling and worse tasting pera peluda), the incessant wind known as o vento insano, and the SOB, a terrorist group whose attacks on international targets in the name of Barban independence are the only reason the rest of the world has even heard of the sorry backwater.

To make matters worse, he is being sent to replace exactly the sort of man he longs to be. Barrington Saddler is legendary among his fellow journalists, a charismatic, larger than life character who has a knack for being in the right place at the right time.  Even his arrival in Barba coincided with the emergence of the SOB, turning what was supposed to be a period of journalistic purgatory into career gold, and his mysterious disappearance has been accompanied by a sudden cessation in SOB hostilities.  Edgar soon realises this may be more than just coincidence, and as he begins to uncover Barrington’s secrets he slowly find himself the centre of events – and with the uncomfortable insight that it is not such an enviable position after all.

Although Shriver has a well-earned reputation for dealing with morally and politically difficult questions, her novels are tempered by a sharp and well-observed sense of irony and a tongue-in-cheek black humour.  With its themes of terrorism and the price of popularity and power, The New Republic does not shy away from such challenging material but leaves it up to the readers to draw their own conclusions.  Not as grim as some of her other work it is an enjoyable diversion. Part cautionary fable, part adventure story, it escapes the bleakness of some of her other work and achieves a balance between entertainment and ethical ambiguity that raises it above mere polemic.

https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/former-fat-boy-makes-his-dash-foreign-correspondent