Mortals

By Norman Rush

The greatly anticipated new novel by Norman Rush—whose first novel, Mating, won the National Book Award and was everywhere acclaimed—is his richest work yet. It is at once a political adventure, a social comedy, and a passionate triangle. It is set in the 1990s in Botswana—the African country Rush has indelibly made his own fictional territory.

Mortals chronicles the misadventures of three ex-pat Americans: Ray Finch, a contract CIA agent, operating undercover as an English instructor in a private school, who is setting out on perhaps his most difficult assignment; his beautiful but slightly foolish and disaffected wife, Iris, with whom he is obsessively in love; and Davis Morel, an iconoclastic black holistic physician, who is on a personal mission to “lift the yoke of Christian belief from Africa.”

The passions of these three entangle them with a local populist leader, Samuel Kerekang, whose purposes are grotesquely misconstrued by the CIA, fixated as the agency is on the astonishing collapse of world socialism and the simultaneous, paradoxical triumph of radical black nationalism in South Africa, Botswana’s neighbor. And when a small but violent insurrection erupts in the wild northern part of the country, inspired by Kerekang but stoked by the erotic and political intrigues of the American trio—the outcome is explosive and often explosively funny.

Along the way, there are many pleasures. Letters from Ray’s brilliantly hostile brother and Iris’s woebegone sister provide a running commentary on contemporary life in America. Africa and Africans are powerfully evoked, and the expatriate scene is cheerfully skewered.

Through lives lived ardently in an unforgiving land, Mortals examines with wit and insight the dilemmas of power, religion, rebellion, and contending versions of liberation and love. It is a study of a marriage over time, and a man’s struggle to find his way when his private and public worlds are shifting. It is Norman Rush’s most commanding work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307789365

Reviews for Mortals

[benjaminsiegel-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not nearly as good as Mating, but stunning writing at points, and a reasonably compelling intrigue at the center of the story. First half is tremendous, as is the coda at the end; action scenes towards the last third are less compelling.

[kokipy_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this book on the strength of Rush's prior book, Mating. Mating remains in my mind as an extraordinary work, engaging and successful on many levels, not least the author's ability to tell a first person narrative from the POV of his remarkable heroine. Mortals is not in the same class, although my three stars is a measure of its success against Mating, not as a general comment. It is itself a good and engaging story, but it is not worth more than three stars compared to Mating.I found it a bit slow at the beginning, although the pace picked up quite a bit and ultimately carried me through the end. I am not quite sure about it. The protagonist, Ray, is a 48 year old English teacher in a school in Gabarone, Botswanna. He is married to a woman he loves absolutely, and their relationship is at the heart of the story, although the plot is also driven by his role as a contract agent for the CIA, Botswanan and South African politics and other topical events and issues. I was convinced of the fundamental fact of Ray's love for his wife. I was not convinced that his wife is a particularly remarkable person. A puzzle for me is whether Rush believes she is, or whether Ray is a reliable narrator in this respect. I would like to give Rush credit for the art of creating a relationship that is compelling and convincing for the couple but that the reader has distance from. But my doubt about this issue makes the book not ultimately as successful for me as Mating. I have the idea that Rush may have thought Iris was pretty much an ideal character. She is a believable human being and I understood Ray's feelings for her but i did not find her extraordinary. Male readers may disagree with me on this :)I also felt that Rush used the book as a vehicle through which to express his own feelings about the CIA and its actions around the world - legitimate concerns but the politics interfered a bit for me, although admittedly they were relevant and necessary for the plot. So, on the whole, this was a pretty good book, but not his best work by a fair margin.

[ectopicbrain · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully realized characters. Some insight into the craziness of the politics of an African nation.