WILD ABOUT HARRY

by Paul Pickering ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 1985

Here, a first novel that welcomes comparison with the masters of Third-World comic intrigue, from Evelyn Waugh to Paul Theroux, if only because their virtues--inventive plots, invitingly dark humor, and inspired characterization--suggest, by comparison, Pickering's shortcomings. His overly clever story relies on a gross historical conceit, played out by a not very engaging (or funny) bunch of imperialist fools and native nitwits. Major Harry Copeland-Smith's desires seem simple enough: he wants to retire to England and grow roses. A British secret-service man, he desperately hopes to leave his Paraguayan outpost, deep in the violent backlands. But his assignment for the last few decades makes his retirement a tad problematical. As we learn halfway through this broadly-stroked black comedy, Harry's been guarding the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele himself, the Nazi mass-murderer, who, in exchange for information on communists, has been promised immunity., by the British and Americans, from ""Jewish extremists,"" among others. But, at one point Harry finds himself ""being fired at by a hostile sermonizing helicopter, piloted by two homosexual psychopaths with orders to kill"" him because of ""a tiff between a local smuggler, who just happens to be a priest, and the toilet-obsessed chief of police."" As if this weren't enough, Mengele throws another wrench into Harry's plans: because of his sudden religious conversion, Dr. Josef (as everyone in Paradise calls him) decides he must write apologies to all those affected by his evil past. Harry's willingness to do anything, that might hasten his departure helps explain why people want to kill him, and leads, after numerous twists and reversals, to the novel's heavy-handed denouement--a clunking irony that teaches Harry a lesson as it reveals his creator's trendy nihilism. This contrived tale of jungle excess nearly resolves itself into a cheap moral: Like Pickering's dithering Brits, sleazy Latins, and efficient Yanks, we're all potential Nazis. Recent headlines about the ""world's most wanted man"" will no doubt attract readers to this fervid invention, but those same headlines make this book grotesque, if not worse--a trivialization of the Holocaust.

Pub Date: Oct. 24, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION