Books: Pompeii By Robert Harris (2003)

“All along the Mediterranean coast, the Roman empire’s richest citizens are relaxing in their luxurious villas, enjoying the last days of summer. The world’s largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum, and Pompeii. But the carefree lifestyle and gorgeous weather belie an impending cataclysm, and only one man is worried. The young engineer Marcus Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay of Naples. His predecessor has disappeared. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta’ s sixty-mile main line—somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Attilius—decent, practical, and incorruptible—promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. His plan is to travel to Pompeii and put together an expedition, then head out to the place where he believes the fault lies. But Pompeii proves to be a corrupt and violent town, and Attilius soon discovers that there are powerful forces at work—both natural and man-made—threatening to destroy him.”

Like all historical novels that mix both fictional characters with historical fact, there is a bit of too much soap opera going on. Yes, it’s a disaster novel born out many 1970’s Hollywood films (Towering Inferno, Earthquake, and even Titanic, the 1997 version), but Harris also tries to make comparisons to the Roman Empire and America. This theme appears to come off deliberately, as the English author uses typical American terminology such as describing Pompeii as “boomtown.”

Another aspect to this genre is the creation of a sort modern character. Attilius is such, a man who seems to have little use for superstition and even religion in a time period rife with it. But who also seems to grasp science better than most and can solve almost every problem that folks have. He comes across as a natural leader, which causes friction among the many rich folks of Pompeii. This is the soap opera aspect, where the town leaders balk at his pertinent to know more than them. But even he, in the end, realizes the missed opportunities of what was coming: 

"Still, he tried to convey the power of what he had witnessed when the roof of the mountain lifted off. anand the blasting of the summit was merely the culmination of a host of other phenomena – the sulfer in the soil, the pools of noxious gas, the earth tremors, the swelling of th land that severed the matrix of the aqueduct, the disappearance of local springs. All of these were interconnected."

 Again, it plays out like modern James Cameron Titanic film. And like that film, the books eye-rolling romance falls short. A great book to learn about Pompeii and volcanoes, though.

Books: Conclave By Robert Harris (2016)

“The pope is dead. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will gather to cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election. They are holy men. But they are not immune to the human temptations of power and glory. And they are not above the tribalism and factionalism that consumes humanity. When all is said and done, one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on Earth.”

I found Conclave a bit unputdownable, if that can be used. I’m not much of a Catholic anymore, or have much belief in God, but I approached this much more as a thriller than anything else. And it doesn’t disappoint, because we’ve seen in many books, TV, and movies what the acquiring of, the exercising of and the inevitable corrupting effects of what power brings. And we should not be shocked or surprised that in Universal Church, power and corruption is, well, universal. I’ve read only one other Harris novel, The Ghost, back in 2008, yet like that book, here he once again writes how easily things can be become undone. The idea of electing a new Pope seems easy, but here, those things become entangled like weeds in a garden.

Still, people are just people; they’re flawed, delusional, and filled with hypocrisy. They might be all dressed up in fancy dresses, but this is the only way a melodrama like can work. And work it does.

There is a movie version of this novel due in November, starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini as Sister Agnes. It took me a while to figure out why Fiennes is playing Cardinal Lawrence in the film (I saw the trailer and looked up the details online), and not Cardinal Jacopo Baldassare Lomeli as in the novel. The Dean of the College of Cardinals is described as an Italian in the book and Fiennes is obviously English, so instead of him putting on would probably be a terrible accent, the producers chose to rename him. Also, I can assume Sister Agnes role will be beefed up a bit, because you don’t get Rossellini for such a small, yet pivotal, role in the novel.

Books: The Ghost by Robert harris

The Ghost is a dark paranoid thriller about a former British prime minister named Adam Lang (who seems to be a model for Tony Blair?) who is up against a firm deadline to submit his memoirs to his publisher. However, the project is dangerously derailed when his aide and collaborator, Michael McAra, perishes in a ferry accident off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. To salvage the book, a professional ghostwriter is hired to whip the manuscript into shape, but the unnamed writer soon finds that separating truth from fiction in Lang’s recollections a challenge. The stakes rise when Lang is accused of war crimes for authorizing the abduction of suspected al-Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan, who then ended up in the CIA’s merciless hands. As the new writer probes deeper, he uncovers evidence that his predecessor’s death may have been a homicide.

I don’t like first-person novels. The only explanation I can arrive at is because I like knowing what everyone else is thinking. For this thriller, however, not knowing is what makes it work. It’s hero remains unnamed through the whole book, which I found interesting, but he is clearly cut from the same cloth as most of John Grisham’s heroes.

It’s a bit long in the tooth, but very easy to read, especially with its gallows humor and offers an insight into politics most do not see.