My review of The Blood Latitudes by William Harrison

 

The Blood Latitudes
by William Harrison
(MacMurray & Beck)

William Harrison's The Blood Latitudes is a brutal thriller set amidst the horrors of 1994 Rawanda.  Its central protagonist, Will Hobbs, is settling into the predictable routine of retirement outside of London when his son Buck and Buck's wife and child pay him a visit.  Buick is a reporter like his father, and soon to be taking over the position of war correspondent that Will once held in Africa.
      The presence of his son's family, especially Buck's beautiful, dark-skinned wife, Key, stirs in Will feelings of loneliness and longing.  Will sees his son about to embark on the same mistakes he made many years before--absentee husband and father (Will's wife, now dead, had a long-term affair in his perpetual absence): The memory of his wife's infidelity is now carried like a weight around Will's neck.  Even as Will wishes a different life for his son, theirs is an uneasy relationship.
     As the war in Rwanda ignites, Buck is called to his post sooner than expected.  Suddenly, Will finds himself in the position of surrogate husband.  This makes for an uneasy morality, especially when Buck ends up missing, and Will goes to Africa to search for his son.  He caries with him thoughts of Key, and the opportunity of the second chance she represents.  Will knows all too well that the prospect of Buck being found alive is slim.  Africa "was a great graveyard, after all," Harrison writes, "where thousands of years later men's bones somehow said more than their lives were ever able to say."
     What follows is an odyssey of war as Will, stranded and without resources, is soon in an uneasy relationship with Papa Ngiza, leader of a rogue Hutu militia.  Will depends on Papa and his unit for food and transport as they make their way through a strange and apocalyptic landscape that closely resembles Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian in its abject horror and easy violence.  Harrison makes good use of description, and the geography takes on a life of it's own.
     William Harrison is best known for his short story and subsequent screenplay of the 1975 film Rollerball.  He is also the author of Burton and Speke, which was later filmed as Mountains of the Moon.  The Blood Latitudes is his fifth novel set in Africa.  Even with its savagery, Harrison's Africa is a refreshing background for his tale of familiar literary themes: father/son relationships, love, war, and morality.  He has succssefully blended  the best qualities of thriller, mystery, and human drama into a readable and literate adventure.  Buck's fate is predictable, but what Harrison presents us with is as much a page-turner as a compelling novel of complex characters and questions not easily answered.



This review first appeared in the Alibi (www.alibi.com) in January 2001.  The Alibi archives go back to 2004 so I had to post (by permission) for posterity.

High Calibre Fairytale

     As bittersweet as it is to see your children get older it's fun when they reach an age you can begin to share with them the more serious, or mature films you've enjoyed.  Or even the better-than-average thriller.  Of course, my tastes tend to be pretty dark.  So, I often proceed with caution.
     I think, though, that in our culture films serve as milestones in a person's life.  Some of my best memories with my dad involved movie marathons watching the likes of William Devane in Rolling Thunder, or Alec Guinness in The Bridge Over the River Kwai.  I hope my daughter has a wider range of "best moments" with me than I had with him, but as a family we do enjoy the movies.
     And so, on a recent Saturday morning, I decided my daughter was ready for Hanna.  My wife and I had seen it when first released and had really enjoyed it.  And I'd looked forward to the time I could share it with our oldest.  I remember thinking, how perfect, Hanna is like a 'tween Bourne film.  If you don't know the film, it's essentially a coming-of-age story of a daughter of an ex government agent who has raised her in the wilderness preparing her for an inevitable return to society.

     Sure, the fairy-tale motif present in the film is transparent, and perhaps even overwrought, but it makes for wonderful visual moments such as when Hanna's character walks through the dilapidated theme park toward the Grimm house. And it doesn't hurt to have had a soundtrack done by the Chemical Brothers.
     My daughter had some interesting observations of her own.  She thought the Isaacs character, played by Tom Hollander, in his matching pastel track suits came across like a murderous and sinister Coach Sue Sylvester from the TV show, Glee.  And she was especially intrigued by the character, Sophie, a young teen obsessed with pop culture being raised by hippie parent travelers.  There's an interesting juxtaposition between these two characters, Sophie, and the title character, Hanna.  Sophie acts by turns spoiled and world weary, and would like you to believe she is street-wise.  Hannah spends much of the film as wide-eyed innocent experiencing the world for the first time, but possessing the skills of a trained assassin.
     All in all, it was a lot fun watching the film a second time through my daughter's eyes.  And did I mention we both enjoyed it over cups of coffee?