Richard Murphy
Not Racist But A Bi-Cultural Critique
Coming Up Roses
By Michael Carson
Victor Gollancz 224pp £12.95
In the wake of the Satanic Verses furore, Michael Carson’s second novel bravely weighs in with an incandescent satire of life in a contemporary Gulf oil state, not at all unlike Saudi Arabia. While Prophet and Koran escape direct mockery, Carson’s account the gilded brimstone world of nouveau orthodox Islam is scathing and, needless to say, unlikely to endear him to the zealots of the Rushdie-bashing brigade.
Coming up Roses is a splendid novel, threading a dexterous path between gentle and savage humour in the black tradition of Waugh’s Scoop and Updike’s The Coup. While the foibles of Arab and European expatriates in the mythical, oil fat kingdom of Ras al Surra are Carson’s special targets, he’s more broadly concerned with the dehumanising influence of militant religious orthodoxy and the sad comedy of modern consumerist alienation. By satirising his own culture as well as Arab Islam, with complex, sympathetic characters on both sides, he turns what could have been a racist novel into a sharp and cogent bi-cultural critique.
Carson’s first novel, Sucking Sherbet Lemons was a lovely, funny coming of age tale that explored a fat adolescent’s struggle to reconcile Catholicism and his own homosexuality (the latter wins). Coming up Roses is again about organised religion, seen both from ‘inside’ and from the doubly marginal viewpoint of gay
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm