Some Kind of Grace

by Robin Jenkins, James Meek (Introduction)

Two British travellers, David and Margaret, have disappeared in the wild mountainous region of northern Afghanistan. The authorities in Kabul say that they have been murdered by the inhabitants of the small village. But John McLeod, a friend of the missing couple, travels to Kabul and starts his own enquiries.

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Author of a number of landmark novels including The Cone Gatherers, The Changeling, Happy for the Child, The Thistle and the Grail and Guests of War, Jenkins is recognised as one of Scotland's greatest writers. The themes of good and evil, of innocence lost, of fraudulence, cruelty and redemption shine through his work. His novels, shot through with ambiguity, are rarely about what they seem. He published his first book, So Gaily Sings the Lark, at the age of thirty-eight, and by the time of his death in 2005, over thirty of his novels were in print.

Reviews

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Για πολλά χρόνια γνώριζα την ύπαρξη του βιβλίου στα ελληνικά, και η αλήθεια είναι ότι το περιληπτικό κείμενο που βρίσκεται στο οπισθόφυλλο της έκδοσης μου είχε κινήσει από την αρχή την προσοχή (σε προδιαθέτει για μια εξωτική ιστορία γεμάτη περιπέτεια και μυστήριο!), όμως η μέτρια βαθμολογία του βιβλίου στο Goodreads με λίγες αξιολογήσεις, με απέτρεπε από το να το ψάξω σε κάποιο παλαιοβιβλιοπωλείο (μιας και είναι για χρόνια εξαντλημένο) και να το αγοράσω. Όμως τελικά πέρυσι τον Οκτώβριο το αγόρασα, γιατί διάβασα δυο-τρεις πολύ θετικές κριτικές στα ελληνικά και πείστηκα για την ποιότητα και τη σπουδαιότητά του: Λοιπόν, όντως πρόκειται για ένα εξαίσιο μυθιστόρημα, μείγμα ψυχολογικού θρίλερ, περιπέτειας, πολιτικού μυθιστορήματος και ταξιδιωτικής λογοτεχνίας, με τον συγγραφέα να μεταφέρει με μοναδική ευκολία τον αναγνώστη στο Αφγανιστάν της δεκαετίας του '60 (ή τέλη δεκαετίας του '50), στην άγρια και με τον τρόπο της μαγική αυτή χώρα (τουλάχιστον εκείνα τα χρόνια, τότε που δεν υπήρχαν Ταλιμπάν), με τη γραφή και το όλο ύφος και το βάθος στους χαρακτήρες και την πλοκή να θυμίζουν λίγο από Γκράχαμ Γκριν ή Τζον Λε Καρέ, πάντα κάτι πολύ θετικό. Ο Τζένκινς ήταν ένας πολυγραφότατος Βρετανός συγγραφέας (Σκωτσέζος), αν και όχι τόσο γνωστός όσο οι προαναφερθέντες, αλλά κατά τα φαινόμενα αρκετά ποιοτικός και οξυδερκής. Οι εμπειρίες από τα χρόνια που έζησε σαν Βρετανός Ακόλουθος στην Καμπούλ, οδήγησε τον συγγραφέα να γράψει αυτό το βιβλίο, θέλοντας να αναδείξει με τον έναν ή τον άλλο τρόπο τους ανθρώπους και τις συνθήκες που επικρατούσαν στο Αφγανιστάν, καθώς και τον τρόπο που οι Δυτικοί (Αμερικάνοι, Βρετανοί, Ρώσοι κ.λπ.) επηρέαζαν τις κοινωνικοπολιτικές νόρμες της χώρας αυτής. Πολύ, πολύ καλογραμμένο και οξυδερκές μυθιστόρημα, συναρπαστικό, ταξιδιάρικο και περιπετειώδες, γεμάτο από χαρακτηριστικές σκηνές και περιγραφές των άγριων τοπίων του Αφγανιστάν. Για λεπτομέρειες δεν τσιμπάει και πέμπτο αστεράκι από μένα, πάντως με ικανοποίησε τα μάλα. Και είναι κρίμα που δεν κυκλοφορεί πλέον στα βιβλιοπωλεία, αλλά και που δεν έχουν μεταφραστεί στα ελληνικά άλλα βιβλία του Τζένκινς, όπως π.χ. το The Cone-Gatherers (το πιο γνωστό του) ή το The Changeling. Ή οποιοδήποτε άλλο, τέλος πάντων!

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like Dust on the Paw, this is a fruit of the author’s time in Afghanistan, and paints a portrait of the country in the late 1950s, some of its people yearning for modernity but with pockets of utter poverty in its most rural areas.
Our viewpoint character is a Scotsman only ever named as McLeod, a diplomat between posts, returned to Afghanistan after a time away. In his previous term there he had formed an attachment to Karima, an Afghan woman he had thought to marry. However, he did not own the many thousands of sheep her father deemed necessary in a prospective son-in-law.
He is interested in the fate of a former friend, Donald Kemp, who has gone missing along with his female companion, Margaret Duncan. The authorities are anxious to convince him they were both murdered: indeed, a village has been punished for the crime, with two of its men in jail in the city awaiting execution. McLeod has his doubts and, against the wishes both of the authorities and the diplomats sets out to see whether the pair are still alive. In the village concerned he finds, “as everywhere in this country, a mixture of pathos and sinisterness.”
A local Commandant confides in him and in their conversation compares the Bible and the Koran. “‘Everything is in it that suits you. If you wish to kill your enemy, search through the pages, and you will find sanction. If you wish to forgive him and love him like a brother you will find sanction for that too. A man takes his choice of what God advises.’”
About the human condition McLeod thinks, “No wonder the Koran and the Bible, advising human beings, had to give such contradictory advice.”
Despite being set in Afghanistan this is unmistakably a Scottish novel. On the journey McLeod’s thoughts compare the landscape to parts of Scotland such as Edinburgh Castle and the mountains of Wester Ross, he thinks of a local headman as glaikit, hears a voice call to him in Gaelic, and also remembers Margaret Duncan’s parents referring to the bad fire.
Yet its conclusions and themes are universal.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

At its core this is the story of the curious religious fervour of (are they married or aren’t they?) Donald Kemp and Margaret Duncan back in a time when this really mattered. It’s not an issue that most people in the UK would identify much with any more, but it made it an interesting and different read. There is also plenty of emphasis on Afghanistan’s increasing importance to both the US and the Soviet Union showing the situation in the country before the Soviet invasion of 1979 and all of the issues that the interference by western powers created as a result of that.

It was written in 1960 so it does have some descriptions of some of the local Afghans (one village in particular) that feel dated and uncomfortable today but ultimately it seems that the author is sympathetic towards them as well as complimentary towards much of Afghan culture (including aspects showed by the same aforementioned village) whilst also being equally critical of most of the western, ex-pat characters and their motivations. From the introduction to my edition it seems that one of the author’s fortes was to try and show subtlety in his characters - nobody is all good or all evil, most of us can be a bit of both given the right (or wrong) situation..

Jenkins as a writer (to my knowledge at least) seems to have fallen by the wayside even though, whilst reading this, I have found plenty of blurbs and articles describing him as one of Scotland’s greatest writers. He was pretty prolific and wrote a few novels based in Afghanistan having lived there for a few years in the fifties. With some reservations I liked this and will be interested in trying more of his work.

[Tristan B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intéressant récit de voyage, aux descriptions qui transportent dans un pays étranger sans nom, mais qui pourrait être n'importe quel pays de l'Est où l'occupation occidentale se fait sentir. Fascination pour l'autre et clash culturel sont les deux thèmes qui bercent ce récit.
Le livre m'a semblé mal traduit. À lire en anglais.