Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.
So we are thrown into The Secret History, a luscious and absorbing murder mystery novel - a trashy tale of youth, immorality, money, sex and drugs combined with a philosophical classical tragedy written in elegant and literary style. The surprising thing is that this unlikely combination works. The story pulls you in and doesn't let you go, while leading you into (uncomfortable) moral and cultural reflection.
It tells us the story of Richard Papen, a young man from California who goes to a small liberal-arts college in Vermont (the author brings to life with great skill the freezing winters, rich Autumn colours, vast expanses of sky, a mountain in the background; privileged, spoiled students partying and doing drugs; claustrophobic social context), where he joins an exclusive Classics program and becomes friends with his fellow students, a peculiar and very alluring group: Henry, the cold and brilliant scholar; Charles and Camilla, a pair of angelic-looking orphaned twins; Francis, a vaguely tormented homosexual; and Bunny, who stands out for being the stereotypical loud, bigoted American boy. Following the reenaction of a Bacchanal (an ancient Greek ritual of ecstasy) where they accidentally murder a farmer, they end up killing Bunny. This is not a spoiler - the Prologue tells us so straight away, lending an impending sense of Doom to every scene.
Richard, who narrates years later, in an attempt to make sense of the past - which might justify the hypnotic inevitability of the succession of events that is very close to the classic concept of Fate - is (almost) the common man, a young man who is moved by wanting to fit in, and by an adolescent love of aesthetic beauty. That these common motivations lead to betrayal and murder makes the reader notice the banality of evil and its unavoidable presence within human nature. Furthermore, the book shows a clear connection between beauty and evil ("Beauty is terror." says their tutor, Julian, at the most important intellectual digression of the story) - the reader is enthralled by the elegance of the writing, and, as Richard is, by the mysterious charm of this group of young, rich, intelligent students. However, there is no escape from the conclusion that their beauty is a shallow social construct that their actions betray, progressively revealing their deep spiritual failures.
This unwrapping of Fate is a most involving, seductive - and guilty! - reading experience. It is very similar to Special Topics in Calamity Physics (which I prefer for its narrative voice and unsolved, chaotic mystery which is opposite to the organized falling apart of The Secret History), but it definitely stands on its own as an addictive novel you will definitely want to dive into!
Richard, who narrates years later, in an attempt to make sense of the past - which might justify the hypnotic inevitability of the succession of events that is very close to the classic concept of Fate - is (almost) the common man, a young man who is moved by wanting to fit in, and by an adolescent love of aesthetic beauty. That these common motivations lead to betrayal and murder makes the reader notice the banality of evil and its unavoidable presence within human nature. Furthermore, the book shows a clear connection between beauty and evil ("Beauty is terror." says their tutor, Julian, at the most important intellectual digression of the story) - the reader is enthralled by the elegance of the writing, and, as Richard is, by the mysterious charm of this group of young, rich, intelligent students. However, there is no escape from the conclusion that their beauty is a shallow social construct that their actions betray, progressively revealing their deep spiritual failures.
This unwrapping of Fate is a most involving, seductive - and guilty! - reading experience. It is very similar to Special Topics in Calamity Physics (which I prefer for its narrative voice and unsolved, chaotic mystery which is opposite to the organized falling apart of The Secret History), but it definitely stands on its own as an addictive novel you will definitely want to dive into!
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