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The Corsair

عبد العزيز آل محمود,

Abdulaziz Al-Mahmoud

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Jul 19, 2021 Nina ( picturetalk321 ) rated it it was ok

Shelves: z-read-gelesen-2021, genre-fiction, a-reviewed, author-man, transl-arabic, theme-pirates, world-qatar, zchallenge-2021-popsugar

There is a potentially moving and exciting story wrapped up in this not very moving nor very exciting novel. The back cover boasts this line from Aljazeera: "The author has brilliantly established a dramatic structure." I respectfully beg to disagree. The structure is not dramatic. It is a to-and-fro between different places and characters. Each chapter title refers to a location on the Arab peninsula and the Persian coast: Dammam, Bushehr, Muscat and others. The locations all appear on the map, There is a potentially moving and exciting story wrapped up in this not very moving nor very exciting novel. The back cover boasts this line from Aljazeera: "The author has brilliantly established a dramatic structure." I respectfully beg to disagree. The structure is not dramatic. It is a to-and-fro between different places and characters. Each chapter title refers to a location on the Arab peninsula and the Persian coast: Dammam, Bushehr, Muscat and others. The locations all appear on the map, and, I should add, this map is unusually useful as every mentioned location actually appears on it (which is frustratingly rare in book maps). The tying of plot to location is not a bad idea as such but in this novel, it results in an aimless hopping about among places and people. That is to say, there is an aim; I can see that the author has intended an aim but it gets lost in a tangle of side-tracks, plot cul-de-sacs, innumerable characters (many of whom are introduced abruptly, half-way or two-thirds of the way through, and frequently dropped unceremoniously without contributing anything to what could have been a plot). The characters themselves are mostly flat stereotypes -- the stiff-upper-lip Briton, the filthy lay-about, the decadent and debauched local leader. Worst of all, the women are next to non-existent. Or rather, they do make an appearance as plot McGuffins (one character is coerced into action by having his love for a sweetheart threatened but the relationship is simply wheeled out; we get no sense whatsoever of the sweetheart's character or the nature of their love and he then ends up leaving her for over a year, anyway) or as background 'women and children'. The background extras generally get killed, drowned or otherwise moved about in wretched non-agency.

The prose style is stiff and suited more to a history book than to a novel that, after all, features pirates and a fair bit of swashbuckling and desert battle. It reminds me very strongly of a novel I once started to co-write with a male historian who was very enthusiastic about plotting endless intricacies down to the last detail but totally hopeless at emotion or dialogue, and who thought the epitome of characterisation lay in giving someone a cold blue eye or similar and thereafter never mentioning the attribute again. Remembering this collaboration made me understand where the author of The Corsair is coming from a bit more: it's ultimately a Boy's Own Book of Adventure and I am not its target audience.

Here is a flavour of the prose style and mode of characterisation:

"Sadek was a thin man and wore a flamboyant Persian outfit that harked back to a grander past. His narrow eyes darted around constantly and he had a long, sharply aquiline nose and thick eyebrows that met in the middle forming a coal-black line. He wore gold rings studded with the turquoise stones beloved by Persians, and around his neck hung a collection of charms tied randomly to protect him from evil spirits.

Loch had had to deal with all sorts of people in the course of his career, but he had never before met anyone quite so obviously sly." (pp.178-9)

This particular character, Sadek, is introduced half-way through and killed a few chapters later but do we care? Not a jot because he is such a cardboard cut-out. As is, by the way, the British naval officer Loch as well, plus I only realised that Loch is meant to be a villain about a quarter from the end.

There is a confusion of ethical focus in the book. I was never sure: is this now a critique of British imperialism? Or are we on the side of the British with only some British being bad apples? Are we celebrating Arab rebellion and struggle to remain independent? Or are we condemning Wahhabi ruthlessness and tyranny?

The only people who are imbued with some character nuance are Bashir, the titular corsair's son, and Sadleir, the British officer. The two become friends and share a disgust at the Arab brutal violence and British betrayals they witness. There is even some slashy undertone there albeit very muted.

How to describe a battle and make it boring (this is also an example of the zero-focalised, omniscient pov employed throughout):

"The two sides shot their first salvos of cannonfire and the gates of hell opened wide. Dense, acrid smoke filled the air as parts of the hulls and decks exploded in a blaze of pyrotechnics and mayhem, and human bodies were torn limb from limb." (p.302)

The translation by Amira Nowaira is excellent. The formatting by Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press in Doha, Qatar, is also excellent: pleasant floppy pages, a nice papery smell, a delightful cover (the designer is uncredited).

I read this for my personal travel-the-world challenge. I can now colour in Qatar on my map of the Middle East. I chose this book because I couldn't find many translated books from Qatar, and this is a best-seller in Arabic. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 07, 2015 Jen marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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