Gripping in parts, the book fails to move as the theme, even as it is original and imaginative, does not get the treatment it deserves. It remains a book which is at best passable, says SONAl PRAKASH
The Uninvited
Author: liz Jensen
Publisher: Bloomsbury, Rs 299
liz Jensen’s novel, The Uninvited, despite its limitations, is an interesting piece of work in the genre of science fantasy, which will not disappoint a reader who is fond of reading books falling in this category. The novel is a first-person narrative by an anthropologist, Hesketh lock, who works with a firm called Phipps & Wexmann, which is hired by companies all over the world to troubleshoot sabotages.
As the events in the novel unfold the reader is whisked away to China, Sweden, Dubai and then back to london to enable the protagonist to solve the mystifying occurrences of sabotage in the organisations located in these countries. The content of novel, since it is a science fantasy, violates the conventional norms of possibility. Jensen takes her point of departure from the deliberate violation of norms and facts we regard as essential to our conventional conception of reality. In this case it is the concatenation of sabotages of industrial organisations in different parts of the world. The saboteurs are surprisingly their respective companies’ some of the most diligent employees. When interviewed by Hesketh, these saboteurs claimed that they were overpowered by ‘spirits’, ‘trolls’ or ‘djinns’, depending on the country and culture they belonged to, who triggered them to sabotage the firms they were working with. It is obvious that Jensen is using the fantastic to make sense of the world, which most agree, is governed by rationality and science.
The novel’s hero is a bit unusual person who finds it hard to express himself emotionally and lacks the niceties one normally associates with men of his ilk. His women companions, therefore, are often disappointed because of this laxity in him — whether it is his long-term girlfriend Kaitlin or others with whom he cohabited in the novel. But the fulfilment that he does not achieve in his relationships with women is more than made up by the loyalty and love that his stepson Freddy K bestows upon him. Freddy K does not make demands on him and accepts him as he is. Hesketh may seem almost as mechanical as a robot, but the reader will gradually discover that in reality this is not the case. If in others, like Ashok Sharma, Hesketh’s colleague and superior, moments of stress led to emotional outbursts, Hesketh’s reaction in such circumstances was to fold a complicated and imaginary origami sheet mentally, at some moments, at least more than ones.
In the novel the usual rules of the universe are violated. The reader confronts a series of episodes in which children reject the protection and tutelage of their parents, even going to the extent of killing them, and remaining remorseless about their actions. This departure from regular and discoverable laws does not mean that The Uninvited lacks logical consistency. Jensen has been able to loop together the fact and the fiction in the novel so that there are no missing links. The occurrences in novel, particularly in the beginning, may seem farfetched but their explanation, even though it remains a cryptic one, is there for the readers to surmise.
like many science fantasies, there is an element of time travel in Jensen’s work. The novel starts in the present world but ends in the futuristic one. As Naomi, one of the characters in the novel, explains to the protagonist, “We belong to the Old World. Time doesn’t work the way you think. They’ve come back to stop us.” Here ‘they’ refers to the children who seem to have discovered a world of their own, with their own language, behaviour and diet. One of their representatives is Freddy K, Hesketh’s stepson.
The plot of the novel in the beginning would seem bizarre. The link between the repeated incidents of industrial sabotage in different parts of the world and the parallel cases of deaths of parents or even grandparents killed by their own children seems a bit hard to swallow. But Jensen, through her protagonist who is supported by his mentor, Prof Whybray, is able to link the two happenings. However, the explanation for these events remains wishy-washy.
As is often the case with good science fantasies, they keep the readers on the edge testing their patience till they read the last line. But nothing of the sort happens while reading this book. In fact, at times this reviewer welcomed the diversions that the author made from the main story, which revolved round deducing the mystery behind the strange incidents, in order to describe Hesketh’s personal life and his dealings with Freddy. Admittedly, gripping in parts, Jensen’s The Uninvited failed to move this reviewer. The theme, even as it is original and imaginative, does not get the treatment it deserves. To make the long thing short, The Uninvited remains a book which is at best passable.