Stepper

by Brian Castro

Nominally a spy thriller, Stepper is based on the real exploits of pre-war Russian spies operating in Japan. It is an existential study of a spy who, in a world where identity is not a fixed idea, fails to secure his own stable identity.

Genres: Novels, 20th Century, Australia

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Brian Castro was born in Hong Kong in 1950 of Portuguese, Chinese and English parents. He was sent to boarding school in Australia in 1961 (1962, Oakhill College, Castle Hill / 1963-67, St Joseph's College, Hunter's Hill.). He attended the University of Sydney from 1968-71 and won the Sydney University short story competition in 1970. He gained his BA Dip.Ed. in 1972 and his MA in 1976 from Sydney University.

He was joint winner of the Australian/Vogel literary award for his first novel Birds of Passage (1983), which has been translated into French and Chinese. This was followed by Pomeroy (1990), Double-Wolf (1991), winner of The Age Fiction Prize, the Victorian Premier's Innovatory Writing Award and the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, and subsequently After China (1992), which again won the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction at the 1993 Victorian Premier's Awards. This was also subsequently translated into French and Chinese. His fifth novel, Drift, was published in July 1994. His sixth novel Stepper won the 1997 National Book Council 'Banjo' Prize for fiction. In 1999 he published a collection of essays, Looking For Estrellita (University of Queensland Press). In 2003 Giramondo published his 'fictional autobiography', Shanghai Dancing, which won the Vance Palmer Prize at the 2003 Victorian Premier's Awards, the Christina Stead Prize at the 2004 NSW Premier’s Awards and was named the NSW Premier’s Book of the Year. His most recent novel, The Garden Book, published by Giramondo in 2005, was shortlisted for the 2006 Miles Franklin Literary Award and won the Queensland Premier's Prize for Fiction.

Brian Castro has worked in Australia, France and Hong Kong as a teacher and writer, and for several years was a literary reviewer for Asiaweek magazine. He wrote the text for The Lingerie Catalogue, a collaborative project with photomonteur Peter Lyssiotis. Castro also contributed the text Stones for Al-Kitab for a limited edition work by Peter Lyssiotis entitled A Gardener At Midnight, produced in 2004.

Brian Castro currently divides his time between Adelaide and Melbourne.

Two of his novels, Pomeroy and Stepper (Stepper, oder Die Kunst der Spionage) have been published in German by Klett Cotta. His novel After China (L’Architecte Chinois), was published by Editions de L’Aube in France in 2003.

(from http://www.lythrumpress.com.au/castro...)

Reviews

[Ruby Blacka · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a worthwhile read and I really enjoyed the factual historical aspect and the learning from it. It was a bit of a heavy read and was hard to read for a long time but I am glad I read it.

[Rohan Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating novelisation of the life and work of Richard Sorge, his relationship with Hanako Ishii and the shadowy world of the Comintern in East Asia.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Victor Stepper – an enigmatic, Germanic casanova – is Moscow’s main man in Japan. His skill as a seemingly pro-Axis journalist, and his talent for winning friends and lovers, helps him procure a steady stream of intelligence for the Comintern before and during World War II; in this he is assisted by three other Tokyo spies. But Stepper’s careful attention is the glue holding the Tokyo mission together, and, when he falls in love, and into alcoholism, things start to come undone.

The above synopsis sounds like fairly conventional spy novel fare, but Castro’s book is not what one might expect from the genre. It has its erotic encounters and some moments of frisson, but Castro eschews the typical propulsive, carefully-calibrated plot in favour of an epic rise-and-fall arc. Excluding its contemporary frame, the book spreads itself over 30 years, from 1914 to 1944. We appreciate the devilish charm, skill and drive of our hero on the rise, and feel the sadness and sense of lost possibility that attends his fall.

Castro also employs a more meditative and impressionistic style than his generic counterparts. Action is interspersed with introspection and lyrical description. We flit through time, and from character to character, catching glimpses of their souls but never entirely understanding them.

While Castro does meet with some success in this style, and it is certainly an intellectually appealing conceit (a cast of spies that hide themselves even from the reader), it is eventually a source of considerable frustration. Ironically, the characters with which the book most often dwells – Stepper and Japanese-prince-cum-communist-agent, Isaku Ishigu – are the most inscrutable of all.

Stepper’s lapse into alcoholism and rash risk-taking is difficult to make sense of and seems contrived to help bring about a fall that the author had already decided upon. Ishigu’s behaviour is even more baffling. It is not the bafflement of a carefully-constructed mystery – Ishigu, more than any other character, attempts to explain himself – it is, rather, the bafflement of inconsistent characterisation on Castro’s part.

Stepper has its virtues. It occupies a time and place not usually visited by the genre, and we are rewarded with vivid pictures of a Tokyo torn between tradition and modernity. The atmosphere of Tokyo’s bars and embassy soirées is as deftly evoked as that of its temples and tea houses. The under-stated eroticism of Stepper’s love affair is appealing, and we come to feel a real sense of sorrow for his lover. Castro’s description of the bombing of Tokyo is a flash of particular brilliance.

However, in the final assessment, Stepper is a little too elliptical, self-consciously writerly, and vaguely plotted, to grip the reader. If the elements mentioned elsewhere have piqued your interest, and if you’re looking for something literary, it’s worth the read, but don’t expect an unputdownable thriller.

[Pepita · Rating 2 out of 5]

My enjoyment of this book was probably compromised by the fact that it was done by audio. I struggled to differentiate between the characters, although I am not sure if this would have been easier if I had been reading the myself rather than listening to someone else's idea of the voice to use. The writing seemed to be a bit staccato...maybe I will get hold of the book and see if I can make the early chapters hold together a bit better.