But the Dead Are Many

by Frank J. Hardy

Mysterious circumstances surround the death of John Morel. It looks like suicide—but why? Deeply concerned, his closest friend sets out to discover the truth behind the tragedy.

From Moscow to Sydney, Jack slowly pieces together the fragments of Morel's past: an unhappy childhood torn between the overbearing love of a Catholic mother and an atheist father, conversion to communism at the height of Stalinist tyranny, a sexually frustrated marriage, an impossible love affair. A life committed to the Cause and dedicated to the Party…

Genres: Politics, Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Francis Joseph Hardy, or Frank, was an Australian left-wing novelist and writer best known for his controversial novel Power Without Glory. He also was a political activist bringing the plight of Aboriginal Australians to international attention with the publication of his book, The Unlucky Australians, in 1968. He ran unsuccessfully for the Australian parliament twice.

Reviews

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apparently you can write a post-modern novel that isn't by an American combining abhorrence of the realities of WWII and the Cold War with smart-alecky witticism (not that this is a bad thing of course), and Frank Hardy's "But The Dead Are Many" proves this.

It's a flawed masterpiece that presents us with the apparently futile search for the reasons why the author's friend committed suicide, an exploration of the reactions to the realities of Stalin's Soviet Union by Australian Communists within the structure of a musical fugue and the dogmatic language of Communism, Christianity and Freudian psychology. It's also about the moral implications of writing a novel, a character study of two Communists and a myriad of other things.

Yet even with what some would regard as mere intellectual mumbo-jumbo, you have an incredibly human novel that truly tries to address the human condition and one that truly got to me in places that I never thought it would after reading the first 50 pages.

It's enough to make me want to steal my university's copy with copious underlining.

[Velvetink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hardy's major literary achievements include But The Dead Are Many, a novel of political tragedy that partially atones for Hardy's early, naïve Stalinism. Although marred by psychological jargon and tainted by the accusation that Hardy used the suicide of a friend to construct his fiction, But The Dead Are Many succeeds in depicting the passions and disappointments of life under oppressive regimes. Hardy's novel presents the deadening atmosphere of Stalinism and the personal crises of an individual. In the book's personal focus and ideological sympathies, But The Dead Are Many evokes a more humanistic vision.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Communism noir? A dreary novel exploring human dimensions of Stalinism and its victims, and the fallout from Kruschev's not-so-secret speech. At least, it explores the psychology and life history of a couple of Australian male communists caught up in it. Female characters are two-dimensional props for the male protagonists. The accounts of chats between various party members and sympathisers are at least interesting as they are probably one of the more historically accurate elements of the narrative. But overall it reinforces why I mostly read non fiction. I didn't finish. It was too much of a chore.

[Oskar · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Something, perhaps, more elemental even than its apparent theme, of a generation betrayed by its own inner contradictions, lay behind this book. It had begun as a study of the impact of moral dilemmas on a Communist born in 1917; it became overlaid by a study of a man destroyed by neurotic impulses derived from childhood; and finished with a knock on the creaking door of the underworld where the true pornography of the twentieth century - the meaning of death - might be displayed.”

A fascinating and exceptional novel. Thematically and stylistically dense and not what I was expecting - far more psychological and philosophical than directly political, and very postmodern. A deeply, and often painfully, personal text. Hardy is an extraordinary writer and this is a moving book.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an easy read --- too morbid and psychological --- but seemingly an honest product of its times.

[Amanda Witt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would not have normally read this if not for a book club meeting.

The timeline swings between the 'now' of the 1950's and the past of the 1930's pre WWII in Russia and the main character's decision to end his life in a small Australian country hotel, and his friend who follows his trail to the same place.

[Greg Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

terrific insight into Australian life; enigmatic title leads to a sober conclusion