Fergus

Fergus Fadden is going through a rough stretch: an Irishman residing in the strange world of Hollywood, he is adapting a novel he wrote for the movies, but is afraid he'll have to change more of it than he wishes. He needs to pay alimony to his ex-wife, however, so can't easily abandon the assignment. Then one day he wakes up and encounters his dead father on his couch wanting to talk. This hallucination, if that's what it is, triggers a number of flashbacks into Fergus's past. He hopes to get from his father an answer to the "meaning of life" question (his father offers him no clue) and, even more, if there's an afterlife. All his father can tell him about that is to have faith and believe. Of course, no one, not even his dead father, can give Fergus any definite answers, for they all reside in Fergus himself. The least realistic of his novels, the reader sometimes has difficulty understanding what Moore is trying to get at. Some scenes, such as the one involving 20 questions and another involving being chased by a mob, are also confusing. But Moore characterizes Fergus well, especially his struggle to fight his demons brought about by the hallucinations. But I have to admit it's not among my favorite of Moore's novels.

Fergus is, in my opinion, one of Brian Moore's best novels. Apart from being a really good read, it is also very well written in the literary sense. It is about ghosts, both living and dead. It is also about coming to terms with one's past. A dialogue between past and present. There are resonances of James Joyce in parts of the book. I found it quite a moving book.

I had tired of the "hard" reading I've been tied up with of late, so I took a quick novel break, reading this brief work by Brian Moore nearly straight through. In a way, it's a work similar to John Fowles' Mantissa, although in many ways it's a more successful book. It does lack an ending, but the process of discovery in the novel is still quite pleasant.