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The Mysteries of Algiers
In 1959 in Algiers, city of intrigue and disguises, the French settlers are making a last stand against the FLN liberation army. For Philippe, a desert intelligence officer, survival means knowing the mind of the enemy. But who is the enemy? How to find him?
Entertaining and very nasty, this calculatedly intellectual comedy succeeds well as an unheroic quest starring Philippe, an interesting monster of disarming honesty - The Listener
It is a gruesome black comedy, whose blackness is so intense as to be almost unreadable - if it weren't so well written. - Time Out
In a plot which snakes and twists, the reader cannot risk letting his concentration drop for a moment... At times the death-defying narrow escapes are firmly in the tradition of James Bond...as well as being a rattling good yarn, this is a study of moral bankruptcy of those who pursue abstractions through violence...very successful. - Times Literary Supplement
What separates Irwin's story from the usual spy thrillers is not only his wit and satire but also his verbal pyrotechnics. - The Washington Post
Entertaining and very nasty, this calculatedly intellectual comedy succeeds well as an unheroic quest starring Philippe, an interesting monster of disarming honesty - The Listener
It is a gruesome black comedy, whose blackness is so intense as to be almost unreadable - if it weren't so well written. - Time Out
In a plot which snakes and twists, the reader cannot risk letting his concentration drop for a moment... At times the death-defying narrow escapes are firmly in the tradition of James Bond...as well as being a rattling good yarn, this is a study of moral bankruptcy of those who pursue abstractions through violence...very successful. - Times Literary Supplement
What separates Irwin's story from the usual spy thrillers is not only his wit and satire but also his verbal pyrotechnics. - The Washington Post
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Robert Irwin
107 books141 followersRobert Graham Irwin was a British historian, novelist, and writer on Arabic literature.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 22, 2015
JUST AS STRANGE, BUT MUCH NASTIER
A really odd novel, which reads as though Alistair Horne's history of the Algerian War had been rewritten as pulp fiction. It contains the admirable phrase ‘the aesthetics of fascist philately’ – to which the rest of this review can be no more than a footnote.
I previously knew Robert Irwin only from the excellent anthology of classical Arabic literature he edited, Night and Horses and the Desert, and to discover that the academic behind that sober collection was also responsible for this insane and violent jaunt through wartime Algeria made the shock even greater. I'm going to try and sum it up, but bear in mind that's it's twice as weird as it sounds.
The setting is Algiers in 1959-60, with the French army several years into their nasty war with the nationalist FLN. The protagonist – ‘antihero’ is too weak a word for the monster at the centre of this book – is a French intelligence officer, a devotee of ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques who is deeply involved with the shadowy world of double and triple agents. The plot consists of one cliffhanger after another, taking in prison breaks, desert sandstorms, femmes fatales, a man with no nose, a killer called ‘Teddybear’, the aforementioned right-wing stamp-collecting, scenes of sexual gunplay, and a production of Wagner's Ring cycle.
Our narrator, Captain Philippe Roussel, is a terrifying, patrickbatemanesque creation, who explains the most unpleasant scenes with a detached dry wit. The effect teeters on the line between funny and appalling, depending on how recently you ate and what kind of mood you're in. It is shockingly violent in places, which is not inappropriate given the setting – but the tone is very strange. It isn't presented entirely earnestly, but nor does it feel gratuitous – the historical detail is too rich and accurate. The whole thing starts to take on
Irony, of a particularly dark and dare-I-say British kind, is ramped up to eleven throughout. Here is Philippe lost and alone in the vastness of the Sahara, thinking about the proclaimed unity of France, ‘whole and indivisible from Dunkirk to Tamanrasset’:
It's a short book but it has a strangely oppressive atmosphere. I read the final couple of pages this afternoon on a plane as we came in to land at Algiers airport, and the novel had freaked me out so much that part of me didn't want to get off! But I think I'd recommend it, all the same. As long as you bring a strong stomach and a well-honed sense of irony, you should have plenty of tasteless fun.
A really odd novel, which reads as though Alistair Horne's history of the Algerian War had been rewritten as pulp fiction. It contains the admirable phrase ‘the aesthetics of fascist philately’ – to which the rest of this review can be no more than a footnote.
I previously knew Robert Irwin only from the excellent anthology of classical Arabic literature he edited, Night and Horses and the Desert, and to discover that the academic behind that sober collection was also responsible for this insane and violent jaunt through wartime Algeria made the shock even greater. I'm going to try and sum it up, but bear in mind that's it's twice as weird as it sounds.
The setting is Algiers in 1959-60, with the French army several years into their nasty war with the nationalist FLN. The protagonist – ‘antihero’ is too weak a word for the monster at the centre of this book – is a French intelligence officer, a devotee of ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques who is deeply involved with the shadowy world of double and triple agents. The plot consists of one cliffhanger after another, taking in prison breaks, desert sandstorms, femmes fatales, a man with no nose, a killer called ‘Teddybear’, the aforementioned right-wing stamp-collecting, scenes of sexual gunplay, and a production of Wagner's Ring cycle.
Our narrator, Captain Philippe Roussel, is a terrifying, patrickbatemanesque creation, who explains the most unpleasant scenes with a detached dry wit. The effect teeters on the line between funny and appalling, depending on how recently you ate and what kind of mood you're in. It is shockingly violent in places, which is not inappropriate given the setting – but the tone is very strange. It isn't presented entirely earnestly, but nor does it feel gratuitous – the historical detail is too rich and accurate. The whole thing starts to take on
the quality of a nightmare, where at any moment something just as strange, but much nastier might happen.
Irony, of a particularly dark and dare-I-say British kind, is ramped up to eleven throughout. Here is Philippe lost and alone in the vastness of the Sahara, thinking about the proclaimed unity of France, ‘whole and indivisible from Dunkirk to Tamanrasset’:
It is truly wonderful to me as I walk over and round these rolling and curving dunes, bleached of all colour by the noonday sun, that I am taking a walk in Metropolitan France. Over there to the left, one might see the mairie, a tabac, some cafés and a few old men playing pétanque during the lunch hour – only there is a very large sand dune in the way. And just ahead where I am walking now there is doubtless a vineyard, and a team of labourers clearing out a ditch. Oh! But there is an only slightly smaller sand dune in the way! Everywhere I look, everywhere I turn, there is glorious, beautiful, prosperous, bustling France. One cannot see it, because of all the sand that is in the way, but it is there. Our legislators and map drawers tell us it is there, so it must be so.
It's a short book but it has a strangely oppressive atmosphere. I read the final couple of pages this afternoon on a plane as we came in to land at Algiers airport, and the novel had freaked me out so much that part of me didn't want to get off! But I think I'd recommend it, all the same. As long as you bring a strong stomach and a well-honed sense of irony, you should have plenty of tasteless fun.
January 1, 2019
This vastly interesting thriller takes place over several months in 1959-60 in Algeria, at the height of the struggle for liberation from France (1954-62). It would certainly be useful to familiarize oneself with the history of Algeria's colonization by France, and especially the fight for independence (at the very least, rent "The Battle of Algiers" which will get you in the right mood). The story centers on a French army officer who turns out to be an agent for the FLN, his exposure by his neo-fascist lover, and his attempt to go underground. The book is highly effective at showing both the underbelly of the fight for liberation and its flip side on the French side. It's also a believable portrait of a committed Marxist and his adversaries.
June 23, 2022
Picked this up just to have a rest from reading something else. Intended to read the first chapter or two but couldn't put it down. Dark subject laced with the blackest comedy. James Bond as a Marxist/Leninist hero.
October 19, 2016
Philippe Roussel is a mercenary-for-hire embroiled in the Algerian revolution, working undercover against the French. Though this story is well-written, it is unremittingly dark. Roussel is not a very sympathetic character, killing people nonchalantly while spouting Marxist philosophy, and few of the others he encounters in his travels are model citizens either. The point being that revolution is a nasty business, I suppose, and in the end does anything really change? Reading this in the midst of the ugliest American election season I have ever witnessed was not an uplifting experience.
March 22, 2014
Was excited to read a novel about Algeria before independence. But this satire about ideologues, revolutionaries, and conservatives didn't appeal to me at all.
February 17, 2023
Превосходная пародия на шпионский роман, Ирвин на высоте и в этой своей работе.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews