Melog

by Mihangel Morgan

This novel tells the story of the dull life of unemployed academic Dr. Jones and how it changes forever when he sees a young man naked on a building top, threatening to jump to his death. Persuaded to descend, the stranger is befriended by Jones. The stranger, named Melog, explains that he has been exiled from Laxaria, a country colonized by Sacria, which has banned the Laxarian language and destroyed its culture. He has come to Wales in search of a lost Laxarian manuscript, the Imalic, the only surviving copy of his country's legends. Drawing on themes related to cats, noncommunication, and political oppression, this tender story of friendship is a satire of the purpose and intent that dominate people's lives.

211 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Mihangel Morgan is an author and bard who writes in the Welsh language. He is a lecturer at Aberystwyth University. Born Michael Finch, he changed his name in his twenties, adopting both the Welsh form of his forename and his mother's maiden name. He is an openly homosexual writer. He won the Prose Medal in the 1993 National Eisteddfod for his novel Dirgel Ddyn ('Secret Man') and his book Digon o Fwydod was shortlisted for the Welsh Book of the Year prize in 2006.

He is one of the most innovative, original and famous Welsh language authors, and has published five novels, six volumes of short stories and four volumes of poems.

Reviews

[Eleanor · Rating 2 out of 5]

It feels mean to give this 2 stars but it was kind of boring (I'm sorry!). It was one of those books that I can feel has a deeper meaning that I am simply not understanding. It was also one of those books that I can tell was written by a man. No I can't explain this further, but other examples include Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish, The Angel's Game and The White Forest. I don't even know if that's helpful to anyone reading this review, and it's not even necessarily a bad thing, it's just my only way of vocalising the way these (and other) books feel in my brain.

I did find this book funny in a lot of places, but I also found Melog to be a singularly infuriating character. Even though this quality is clearly purposeful, it did not protect me from simply feeling annoyed. I wanted Dr Jones to take his life more seriously and I wanted Melog to stop being so irritating.

I'm not sad I read it, but it won't be one I'll be rushing out to buy my very own copy of

[Sheenagh Pugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Melog is a novel with a rich cast of characters, but the only two who really matter are Melog himself, an avatar of that perennial literary type, the Mysterious Stranger Who Changes Lives, and "Dr" Jones, the hapless protagonist whose life is changed. Dr Jones is a failed academic on the dole, devoting his middle years to somewhat nebulous study of the vast 19th-century tome, The Welsh Encyclopedia. At least, however, this is a real book, whereas the one for which Melog spends most of the novel searching, The Imalic, may well exist only in his imagination, as may several other things like his country and his history.

Melog is a young man, emaciated, with striking blue eyes and unusually white skin and hair, whom Dr Jones first sees theatening to throw himself off a high building. He's thus in an accidentally rather angelic pose (he is also stark naked) and Dr Jones' first impression, indeed, is that Melog is extra-terrestrial. True, the first request an angel makes is not usually to be taken to the nearest chip shop, nor are they generally portrayed as habitual liars, thieves and fantasists.

But an "angel" is a messenger, and the function of these characters in literature tends to be to bring people news of themselves. In this, Melog is in a long tradition indeed; quite apart from his Welsh antecedents, in English literature he is very reminiscent of at least two Melville characters, the Confidence Man and Bartleby, while David, the protagonist from Robert Alan Jamieson's Da Happie Laand (Luath, 2010) is proof that the tradition of the Mysterious Stranger carries on after him. There's a lot more to be said about this aspect, which I rather fancy doing in a later and more lit-critty post, but examining literary precedents and successors, for all its interest, doesn't really tell you whether you're likely to enjoy the book at hand, which is after all what reviews are for.

Basically Melog is an exasperating if engaging character who leads the timid doctor out of his habits and on quests which look almost, but infuriatingly not quite, certain to be wild goose chases. This book is very concerned with the fluid boundary between truth and fiction, which it crosses and recrosses with alarming ease. Since, like Dr Jones, we can never be entirely certain of what is going on, it is easy to enter into his combined excitement, bewilderment and fear. This cocktail can sometimes be fiercely comical; Melog is both deeply serious and sometimes very funny, as when Melog turns up in a car and invites Dr Jones for a spin:

Dr Jones pressed a little black button like a round sweet and the car flooded with lovely music. Unfortunately, because he was worried that he might soon be dead, Dr Jones could not relax into the luxurious leather seat or gaze at the landscape or listen to the entrancing songs. Trying to settle his nerves, he said –
I didn't know that you liked the songs of Schumann.
Is that what this stuff is? Melog said.
What do you mean? Dr Jones said. He felt the sweat on his forehead grow cold.
I haven't heard this music before, Melog said, overtaking a lorry at terrifying speed.
So what's the disc doing in your car? Dr Jones asked. He sneaked a look at the speedometer and saw the needle touching one hundred and ten miles an hour.
It's not my car, Melog said.
Melog. Whose car is it?
I don't know.
What? You've stolen this car?
I don't look on it as theft, Melog said, slowing to 90 miles an hour to take a corner. I look on it as a loan. (The wheels went over a hedgehog.) All property is theft, as they say.
In his extreme terror Dr Jones gripped the soft deep sides of his seat with all his strength.
Pity I didn't pick an automatic though, isn't it? Melog said. Bet it's a lot easier than having to change gears.
When did you pass your test?
Oh, I haven't taken the test.
Melog, Dr Jones said, his face white as Melog's hair, how many driving lessons have you had?



In some ways this terrifying drive, with each bit of revealed information increasing the anxiety, is a microcosm for the novel. But unlike Dr Jones, we do have time to study, and become fascinated by, the landscape of shifting fact, fiction and imagination. Mihangel Morgan has written an erudite novel of intricate concerns and questions – its epigraphs are all concerned with the nature of truth - but he never forgets, in his quest, the need to create convincing characters and places and tell a good story. I love this novel; if it has taken me years to get around to reviewing it, that is partly because it is one you see more in, each time you come back to re-read it.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice explanations and musings over word origins, Welsh ones in particular.
Didn't really explain anything in regards to plot though.
i didn't like the front page illustrations - felt they weren't accurate to the text descriptions, that they took something away from a mental image. I thought they implied an unnecessary cartoon aspect, which is impossible to ignore, as the offending pictures are slap-bang on the front cover!

[Cath Beard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Melog/ Golem. Translation itself is a source of transformation that the novel goes through, presented here in English. Funny, insightful and touching on many of the anxieties of the welsh creative community, this Christopher Meredith translation is one of my most loved books.