The Dervish House
Ian McDonald
359 pages, read it
in wide paperback
Ian McDonald is a
British author living in Belfast with a host of nominations and awards. Only a matter of time until he pumps out
something genre defining, in my opinion.
'The Dervish House'
follows six characters over seven days and day one opens with a suicide bombing
on a train in Istanbul in the year 2027, five years since Turkey joined the
European Union. The story itself follows
these six characters as their stories cross in weird ways beginning with the
bombing. Each character presented is
unique and interesting and are delivered with the . Necdet, a youth with a problematic past is a
witness to the grisly explosion and flees the scene to keep from being
questioned. Leyla, a freshly graduated
college student hunts for a job when the explosion results in a traffic jam
causing her to miss an important interview.
Can, a small boy restricted to a world of muted sound explores the world
around him using a series of very high-tech bots. Through these bots, Can witnesses the
aftermath of the explosion and Necdet fleeing the scene. Georgios, one of the few Greeks left in
Istanbul and also a former activist is enjoying tea with a few other remaining
Greek's when the explosion interrupts the conversation. Adnan a commodity trader is planning
something big, but first he must get through this traffic jam caused by the
explosion to meet the other 'Ultralords of the Universe.' Ayse, Adnan's wife, is a curio collector and
rare arts dealer when in the aftermath of the explosion a man approaches
looking for a weird artifact of myth and legend.
Throughout the book as the web thickens these
characters become more and more entangled.
It's much like constructing a
card house which must be patiently and carefully assembled with painstaking
effort. It's a rich tale and McDonald
has left little to waste over the course of the seven days. As much effort as it take to build it, it
finishes crisp and nice and fell to the ending as quickly as I would expect a
house of cards to deconstruct. I was
satisfied and enjoyed the experience, so much so that I will be looking for more
McDonald next year.
There are things,
unflattering things, that must be said about 'The Dervish House' though. It was a painful read for me, not by any
failed prose of McDonald but because he chose the vast intricate cultural
tapestry of Turkey and I am just not familiar with naming conventions or
cultural nuances of the Far East, Middle East, Greece, and Russia. If you throw in the fact that it's the year
2027 and technology has improved with it's own naming conventions as well,
things get complicated quickly.
Furthermore, with six seamlessly un-connected characters in the
beginning you are thrown a lot of information at the get go. Something some readers are not prepared
for. At times it had to go back and read
pages at a time to ensure I got the picture that McDonald was painting. But have no fear, it lightens up and you get
used to it with a climatic ending that I think most readers will be happy with.
Tis a wonderfully
fun book indeed.
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