Chekhov’s Mistess

More on Hobson’s Island

I’m about half-way through Stefan Themerson’s Hobson’s Island (you’re thinking, “can he read any slower?” but I belatedly got the book-length ”n+1” issue four in the mail and have diverted my scarce reading time). In my last ramble, I mentioned the philosophical buoy bouncing along the surface of the book with what may have come off as a warning. But at this point I’d say that the philosophical basis of the book appears to be less didactic and more conversation, as in this is just the way my friends and I talk.

The concept of Hobson’s Choice is mentioned in one passage, but almost to dismiss that cloud so that any more meaning to get out of the concept of Hobson’s Choice (you can have any color car as long as it’s black) or free will can be had without the elder Hobson standing over it.

We left the book’s first character, the deposed ruler of Bukumla, on his way (we must assume) to Hobson’s Island. Themerson cycles through the cast of characters, each being fully developed before wholly moving to the next – although they are usually introduced in the section preceding them. This works well as everyone of them is a compelling character on their own and of course everyone in the book is inter-related in some way. At one point I found myself having to map them out in my notebook to give my self a hint at how they would all come together by the end.

I got a bit frustrated in the second chapter “D’Eath into D’Earth” when first I stupidly missed the second father in “father’s father” and thought the editor had screwed things up and had written about Deborah’s grandfather as her father. This was compounded by the fact that this grandfather of hers changed his name to D’Earth from D’Eath and then later his father is referred to as Mr David D’Earth even though he never changed his name from D’Eath.

But even though it’s easy to get confused, the novel is not dense or tricky (standing in complete opposite to Pamuk’s Black Book, which I recently read). In fact the web of relations between all the characters is actually pretty fun in that Shakespearean way. And that reminds me of my last note when I mused over a possible comparison to The Tempest.

Having only read the first chapter (and hints from the jacket) I was under the impression that the book would merely follow the deposed ruler to Hobson’s Island in Prospero’s footsteps, but that is not the case and on the surface at least, there’s little resemblance between the two (this is what you get when writing about a book as you go along, I would never have mentioned that tiny little bubble of a thought had I only written about the book after the fact).

Themerson’s writing is thoroughly enjoyable. Here’s a short (aforementioned) passage:

“Her (Deborah’s) father’s father was born in a little thatched cottage (half in Sussex half in Surrey) on 31st December of 1899 and baptized (by his own father) a week later, which means that his flesh belonged to the nineteenth century while his soul awakened to the twentieth…”

At least Themerson is as fond of parentheticals as me. The character being introduced here, the former Sean D’Eath (then named Sean D’Earth) is interesting because he’s a contemplative sort who has never really done anything. As it turns out, he’s an atheist too and based less on his intellect and more, rather, on his disappointment over the death of his mother. I only mention this because I think Themerson draws fairly nuanced characters, belying the seemingly light nature of the book.

More later…

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About this Post

• Posted by: Bud Parr
• Date: July 03, 2006
• Filed Under:
  Wise Men Fish Here: Literature

• Comments:0
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