Incendiary
By Chris Cleave
Here is a book full of violence, grief and explicit sex. Why would anyone want to read such a novel?
And yet it is a story of an articulate and wryly humourous woman who has had more grief than a heart can bear; the loss of her son and her husband. The novel takes the form of a letter she is writing to Osama bin Laden who (she believes) is responsible for her loss. She wants him to know the horrible thing he’s done, the darling son and brave father he’s killed in hope that he’ll stop such wanton destruction.
The woman remains nameless throughout the book, as does her husband and son, but we get to know them very well.
Her husband works as a policeman. Not just an ordinary policeman, his job is bomb disposal. He’s called out, day or night to do a job and when he goes, her life is on hold until he returns safely. She lives in dread of the day he does not return.
Their son is four years and three months, and dearly loved.
They live modestly, partly because bomb disposal is not as highly paid, as you might imagine, and because her husband takes a whirl on the horses or the dog races or the cockfights. It helps relieve his stress. He generally loses.
This wife and mother is no saint, as she is quick to tell you.
When her worry and stress gets too much to bear she finds someone to love. She says, “Now I may be weak Osama, but I am not a slut. When I get nervous about all the horrible things in the world, I just need something very soft and secret and warm to make me forget it a bit.”
This story is set in London but a London in which civility has been lost, Muslims are denied employment, and terrorists lurk and plan.
But now it is May 1st and the Arsenal plays Chelsea, and the whole world, it seems is going to the game at the Stadium. Father and son dressed in Arsenal shirts head for the game. Mom is staying home. She gets involved with a little stress reducing adultery in front of the TV as the stadium erupts in flame. Osama’s minions have bought themselves a place in heaven along with 1,000 football fans. She heads for the stadium, and sees the destruction first-hand. She searches madly for a boy, “just four years and three months who carries a blue rabbit with him.” The destruction she witnesses begins her spiral into madness. This is not a story for the faint hearted, but it’s a powerful story of people living one day at a time, the best way they can.
Chris Cleave is the author of Little Bee a much gentler story but one with understated violence. His book Incendiary was Short listed for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize. It was Chris Cleave’s first novel.
Peggy Freeman is freelance writer living in Red Deer.