THE JONAH KIT by IAN WATSON SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

THE JONAH KIT by IAN WATSON

SUMMARY
The governments of the USA and a team of Russia and Japan, have been creating submarines which look like animals and are programmed to behave using the brain of dead astronauts.  A child named Linin, who was in a US training facility, being programmed into the submarines, escaped, and began swimming across the ocean.  At the same time, a dolphin which has begun to think for itself, begins to swim off course, as well.
Richard Hammond, a lead scientist on the project, is on vacation with his wife.  The Hammonds meet an Italian tourist who is interested in the project, and Hammond's wife begins to flirt with the Italian tourist.
When the Linin child comes ashore in Japan, he is taken in by the Japanese government.  The Japanese government, who share a headquarters in Japan with Russian forces, return the child to the US.  There, the boy asks for a radio headset with which he can communicate with the submarines.  The submarines begin to swim off-course on a mass scale.
The Italian tourist and Richard Hammond's wife quickly become sexually attracted to eachother, and have sex while Richard Hammond is at the hotel resort.
The first submarine to swim off-course washes up on the Japanese shore.  Many submarines begin washing up on shores all over the world.  When submarines wash up on the shore of the island where the Hammonds and the Italian tourist are vacationing, the Italian tourist is upset at Richard Hammond's irresponsibility, and heads toward the hotel to kill Hammond.  Hammond's wife agrees to help, but when Hammond's wife and the Italian tourist reach the hotel, they find a note from Hammond explaining that he has returned to the US to quarantine the submarine problem.
Back at the base, Hammond fanatically tries to convince the other US submarine team members to try and preserve the submarines by temporarily shutting them down.  Shutting down the submarines has become impossible because the submarines have developed their own mind.

ANALYSIS
The treatment of the Linin child was cruel, because the child chose to escape rather than stay with the US government.  While he was not physically strong enough to retaliate, he had ill will against the US, because he chose to poison the submarines against the US, presumably, as the submarines began to veer off course after the child communicated with them.  The US foolishly entrusted security of the US equipment to a person who had been abused by the US.
Hammond attempts to control his wife, and she cheats on him.  This is not equivalent to the loss of control Hammond experiences over the submarines, but from the structure of the novel I gathered that the author was trying to make the point that just as Hammond cannot control his wife, he cannot control the submarines to whom he has given a semblance of a human mind.  While the submarines with a human mind could adapt to battle situations more readily, it is impossible to control a human mind which has free will.
On an interesting side note, the name Richard Hammond is in this novel, and is also in Jurassic Park, which has a similar theme about trying to control living beings.  Because The Jonah Kit predates Jurassic Park by more than 10 years, and there are many commonalities between The Jonah Kit and Jurassic Park, The Jonah Kit is a spiritual predecessor to Jurassic Park.  Watson was not a part of the Jurassic Park staff.

• submarines which look like animals are programmed using the mind of a famous astronaut's son
• the famous astronaut's son communicates with the submarines
• the submarines malfunction and wash ashore all over the world

SOURCE
Watson, Ian. The Jonah Kit. New York: Scribner, 1975. Print. Book about submarines which look like animals and use a human brain.

NIKOLA THE OUTLAW, or, NIKOLA SUHAJ LOUPEZNIK, by IVAN OLLBRACHT SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

NIKOLA THE OUTLAW, or, NIKOLA SUHAJ LOUPEZNIK by IVAN OLLBRACHT

SUMMARY
Nikola Suhaj is from a town laying in a valley which is  the only place in his world where God still exists.  In this valley, Jews and Christians live harmoniously.  A woman named Erzika and Nikola are engaged to be married.  When the war begins, the town's farmers, including Nikola, are forced to fight, leaving their families without income.
A German soldier and Nikola are in the same unit and skipping duty  under  the pretense of looking for  missing companies when they find  quarter with an old witch.  The witch puts a hex on Nikola and the German to  be enforced if the soldiers do not marry the witch's daughter when the war concludes.  After seeing that the witch has a tail, the soldiers become afraid and shoot her.  While doing target practice in the woods they discover that Nikola has supernatural control over the direction of bullets.
Eventually Nikola completely deserts the army and returns home.  He spies on Erzika before finally approaching her.  An army officer named Bela is hunting Nikola to return Nikola to service.  Guised as a woman lost in the woods, Bela takes Nikola captive.  Once back on the frontlines, Nikola deserts the army  again, and when Bela tracks him down for the 2nd time, Nikola fends them off  in a shootout and returns  home.
When soldiers are denied their rations, they pillage the countryside and Bela uses the unrest to become the new regional captain.  Poor conditions persist for soldiers.  With a larger group, Bela tracks Nikola down and kidnaps his father.  Nikola fends off the group in another shootout and  rescues his father, but is arrested when the soldiers return shortly after.
Nikola is released and resumes his relationship with Erzika against her family's wishes.  A sergeant named Vlasek arrests Nikola and Nikola has Erzika send for  Nikola's family's last money to leave as bail while Nikola escapes as Vlasek sleeps.  At this point, Nikola enlists a group of poor travelers to assist him in robbing rich people along the highway.  Soldiers hear of the robberies but cannot find Nikola so they beat  Nikola's family.   When Nikola returns home, he rescues his uncle in a shootout  with the soldiers.  Nikola shares the money from his robberies with the townspeople and helps revitalize the town's  economy.  Before long, the soldiers return to  arrest Nikola and he disappears into the forest.
While Nikola is in hiding, the soldiers shoot travelers from the town on the highways and frame Nikola.   Nikola becomes ill in the forest and sees a witch and a doctor who help him recover.   Poor marksmanship exposes Nikola's imposter and Nikola's brother Juraj finds Nikola's secret hiding place through intuition.  On their way home, the brothers attempt a robbery in which they are not  able to stop the wagon in time, yet Juraj still shoots the driver, and Juraj laughs at the sight of the horses' frantic galloping while Nikola condemns Juraj's unneccessary violence.
A man named Svozil begins pursuing Erzika, and is  refused.  A man Nikola once trusted accepts and fails a contract to capture Nikola.   Juraj convinces Nikola to burn down the would-be captor's home.  Erzika gives in to Svozil's advances.
Nikola sees Svozil with Erzika and kills Svozil as Erzika faints.  Vlasek beats Erzika as she awakes and Erzika reveals that she gave Vlasek money for Nikola's release.  Bela punishes Vlasek.
Bela puts a bounty on Nikola's head.   The soldiers hold a town meeting where they unsuccessfuly try to convince farmers Nikola has aided financially that Nikola is evil.  The man who once attempted to capture Nikola is found dead and the man's son, Adam, vows to kill Nikola.  Two other men named Danilo and Ihnat also vow to kill  Nikola.  Danilo, Ihnat,  and  Adam go  up to  see Nikola to  give  him  supplies.  Juraj is  suspicious as usually only one man comes to give Nikola supplies, but Nikola  tells  Juraj that  all will  be  well.  Adam,  Danilo, and  Ihnat  kill Nikola  and  Juraj.   The soldiers  steal  the bounty  from  Adam, Ihnat, and Danilo, and dump the bodies of Nikola and Juraj on the lawn of the army station as trophies.
Years later, a biographer comes to the valley to tell Nikola's story.  A herdsman relates Nikola's story to the biographer.  The  biographer believes that Nikola lives on in the mountains as an immortal legend.

ANALYSIS
Like all Robin Hood tales, this story questions authority's supremacy over morality.  Bela, the captain obsessed with hunting Nikola for deserting, states himself that he is only hunting Nikola so that he will not have to fight on the front lines, either.  In this case, Bela has no moral high ground, but is doing the right thing in the eyes of the law.
While it is legal for the government to take farmers away from their work and cause families to starve, the farmers do not believe they are being treated fairly.  When Nikola robs the rich who do not have to fight because they can pay their way out of it to assist those who were forced to fight he is compensating the farmers for their loss.  The farmers and Nikola believe that just as the government stole the farmers' compensation, Nikola stole the rich men's money, and that there is no difference between these two crimes.
The Jewish and Christian townspeople are torn apart by Nikola's presence, despite his financial aid to the farmers.  Vlasek, who is a Christian, blames Jews for Nikola's influence growing, and the Jewish captain blames Christians for lying to him about Nikola's whereabouts.  If Nikola had lived longer, the harmony of the valley would have been jeopardized.  Nikola's legacy for bringing the town to its feet financially would have been tainted if he had also driven apart the residents along religious lines.  It is implied that God took NIkola's life, which Nikola seemed to be willing to sacrifice by not resisting his killers, so that the religious harmony would be preserved.
Nikola is not, however, perfect.  He killed the witch who put a curse on him for falsely promising himself to the witch's daughter.  Later, his wife leaves him for an officer.  Because Nikola has paid for his crimes, his good deeds are morally pure.

• soldier deserts the army
• soldier begins robbing the rich to help returning soldiers
• the army puts a bounty on the soldier
• three men kill the soldier and he becomes a legend

SOURCE
Olbracht, Ivan. Nikola Suhaj, Robber. Trans. Roberta Finlayson-Samsour. Prague: Artia, 1954. Print. Fairy tale about a Robin Hood figure living in the early 20th century.

A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE by MORLEY CALLAGHAN SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE by MORLEY CALLAGHAN

SUMMARY
Ed Shore is an author living in a city with his wife.  The house the Shores inhabit is next to a river which separates the more affluent side of the city from the less affluent side of the city, with the Shores being fortunate enough to live on the affluent side of the city.
Alexander Delaney is known as 'Al' and Al is a taxi driver and graduate student who is working on a dissertation concerning Norman Mailer and similar modern authors, and Delaney plans to develop his dissertation into a book following his graduation.  Delaney meets a woman named Lisa Tolen one night while he is out driving his taxi and gives her a ride.  Al and Lisa both live across the river from Ed Shore.  Lisa and Al talk about literature at a bar where Al's brother Jake serves alcohol.  Lisa goes to Al's house for the night.  Al and Lisa see Shore's picture in the newspaper and, because she lives near Shore, Lisa meets Ed Shore.  Realizing that Al does not have a lot of money and cannot afford to rent his own apartment comfortably, Lisa asks Al to move in with her.
Al accepts Lisa's offer.  He repaints one room of Lisa's house and writes in the repainted room.  Lisa types all of Al's work as Al writes the work by hand.  Al procrastinates and decides to write his dissertation on Ed Shore, rather than Norman Mailer. Growing frustrated with Al's lack of progress, Lisa contacts Ed Shore again and arranges a meeting between Al Delaney and Ed Shore.
Shore and Delaney meet one night and speak as they walk.  Delaney tells Shore that Shore's work helped Delaney to understand life, and Shore tells Delaney that Shore does not know the meaning of life and the reason why Shore's work makes life seem more complicated is that life begins to seem more complicated to Shore each time he thinks about it.  Shore and Delaney go for a drive and Shore stops the car to pick up a newspaper which Shore pays for by sliding a quarter under the plastic binding holding the bundle of newspapers together.  Shortly after Shore and Delaney get back in their vehicle, a police officer named Jason pulls over Shore's car.
The police officer accuses Shore of stealing the newspaper and, after Shore successfully shows the police officer proof of payment for the newspaper, the police officer writes Shore a ticket for a broken tail light.  Shore insists that he will protest the ticket in court.  The police officer leaves and Jason goes home.
Lisa finishes typing Al's notes into a book and shows the notes to Al.  Al dislikes Lisa's arrangement of Al's notes to portray Ed Shore in a negative light, and Al tells her that he doesn't want to finish the dissertation he originally planned to do.  Lisa pressures Al to finish his dissertation and Al leaves Lisa's home.
Lisa contacts Ed Shore after she has not seen Al for several days.  Ed Shore tells her not to worry because it is natural for a writer to become upset when a writer is overworked.  Al comes back to Lisa's apartment to get his notes, and Lisa claims that all the work Al completed in Lisa's home is Lisa's property, and they fight.  Lisa destroys Al's notes.
The police officer who ticketed Ed Shore for having a broken taillight, Jason, has a mistress and a wife.  Jason becomes frustrated and beats his mistress.  Jason's wife is unstable and after a breakdown, he takes her to a sanitarium.  On Jason's first shift home from delivering his wife at the insane asylum, Jason and his partner stop a teenager named Juan Gonzalez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, in an alley.  When Juan reaches for his driver's license, Jason, mistakenly assuming Juan is reaching for a gun, shoots Juan.  Juan's younger brother witnesses the killing.
Jason goes on trial for shooting Juan and Ed Shore is called as a character witness by the prosecution.  Ed and Al meet and watch several days of the trial prior to the day on which Ed testifies.  Ed offers to interview Jason and get Jason's side of the story, but Jason refuses Ed's request.  Al becomes frustrated with Ed's sanctimonious treatment of Jason's plight and calls Ed self-righteous before leaving.  Ed Shore gives an unflattering testimony concerning Jason.
After the trial, Al and Lisa reconcile.  Ed Shore is hit by a car while he is walking home drunkenly one evening.  Al feels remorseful for departing Ed with harsh words, but Al is glad because Al feels he understands Ed's work more than Ed did.

ANALYSIS
This book deals with the intentional fallacy, which is when a reader attempts to discover what the author was trying to communicate rather than what the piece does, in fact, effectively communicate to the reader.  Ed does not intend the meaning that his pieces communicate to Al, while Al feels that because he understands Ed's personality from an outsider's perspective, he can see what environmental factors drove Ed to write in the manner that Ed did.
Sexual issues are also prevalent in this book.  While Lisa appears to be an obedient woman as she types up Al's notes, she is quietly assuming ownership of the notes.  Al is too conceited or naive to realize that Lisa expects recompense for her contribution to Al's success.
Ed is prone to keeping up appearances.  The book details that Ed keeps a manicured lawn, and projects the appearance of a good neighbor, while quietly Ed's marriage is failing.  The most revealing detail about Ed's shrouded personality is the manner in which he conceals his drunkenness after walking home from a poker game with a man who has a bad reputation each week.  Ultimately, Ed dies because he was too drunk to spot a car driving toward him, although he may not have appeared drunk to an average bystander who Ed projected the image of a perfect, orderly neighbor to.
Many of the character surnames in this book are Irish, although none of the characters' first names are Irish.  There may be a subtext about anti-Irish discrimination for lacking the appearance of conformity.  Ed Shore is an example of conformity to urban, English culture, and Shore is described as wearing a bowl hat which "looks very Irish".
The reader never learns of Jason's fate in the trial.  Other than that loose end, the book is an interesting read with a surprising ending.  Callaghan did an excellent job of making a story about authors sitting and chatting interesting.

• Man studies a local author for his dissertation
• man and local author are stopped by a police officer
• officer kills a different boy and local author is called as a character witness
• local author dies and man finishes dissertation

SOURCE
Callaghan, Morley. A Fine and Private Place: A Novel. New York: Mason/Charter, 1975. Print. Book about an author discussing his work with a graduate student.

WANTOK by WPB BOTHA SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

WANTOK by WPB BOTHA

SUMMARY
A man who is born in England moves to Africa at the age of 21 as a missionary.  He has a daughter in Africa who is named Rachel.  For the girl's birthday, her father buys her a horse named Prince Harry who she renames Ngai.  Soon, Ngai becomes sickly and is old and too expensive for the family to take care of, so the family kills Ngai without Rachel's permission.  Another man from England, also working as a missionary in Africa, has a son named Richard.  Richard and Rachel meet, marry, and travel to Polynesia together to work as English teachers.
Richard teaches a boy named Nixon who is a member of the Bolgi tribe.  Nixon is expelled from school.  After hearing that Richard is angry about the expulsion, Richard travels to meet with Nixon's brother, Nathaniel.  Nathaniel has made peace with the expulsion but the Bolgi tribe is still upset and because the educational board members are worried that the Bolgi tribe may attack the colonial establishments and citizens, Richard is sent to Nixon's home village of Gelmbolg.  The Land Rover Richard is using belongs to the colonial government and the Land Rover breaks down.  Richard is told that he will have to drive the Land Rover to the coast of the island where the island's only mechanic lives and pay for the vehicle repairs himself.  Nathaniel and Richard make the trip to the mechanic together.
After visiting the mechanic and getting the Land Rover fixed, Richard meets with the Minister of Education, who is concerned about the stability of the colony on the Polynesian island as a government vehicle was recently stolen by members of the Bolgi tribe.  Nathaniel then takes Richard to Gelmbolg, where Richard meets Nathaniel's and Nixon's mother.  Nixon's mother is furious with Richard because she spent all of her savings to send Nixon to school against the wishes of the Bolgi elders because Nixon is intelligent and she believed he could look after her and other members of the Bolgi tribe in the future if he received a good education which would enable him to have a high income.  Nixon's mother demands that Richard repay her the money she spent on Nixon's education.  While Richard is in Gelmbolg, he hears that the nearby Endai tribe are feuding with the Bolgis.
The next day, as Richard looks for Nixon's mother in order to repay her because the sum of money Nixon's mother seeks is trivial to Richard, Richard sees a group of Endai warriors rush the Gelmbolg village.  None of the Bolgi are present in the village.  The Bolgi elders meet and decide to join forces with the Endai to resist the Colonizers.
Richard meets with a member of the Educational Ministry in town, where some Endai come and smash bottles angrily as a rite of initiation for their youthful members.  A nearby village is burned to the ground and Richard drives to the nearest airport with Nathaniel and Rachel.
Nathaniel asks Richard to loan him the money for a plane ticket to England while at the airport.  Richard is initially reluctant but Rachel convinces Richard to purchase the ticket.  As the fire begun by angry native citizens of the Polynesian island spreads, Richard, Nathaniel, and Rachel, board a flight headed to England.

ANALYSIS
This book stresses the ideal that colonial cultures should not seek to change the lifestyles of the native citizens of an area.  A major theme in the book is the burden that Western influence places on the preexisting culture of Africa and Polynesia.  Nathaniel realizes that his family and friends will criticize him for pursuing Western education, and accuse him of following the ways of the white man, but he believes that obtaining a Western education will enable him to make transactions with foreigners directly, and eliminate the colonizers as middle men in the export trade of Polynesia.  Nothing in the book suggests that either culture is superior to the other, but a counter argument to the idea that Western education signals financial freedom for Polynesians is not expressed.
Much of the story is told in flashbacks and there are many metaphorical descriptions of the landscape and animals of the territory.  The novel has an unreal tinge and the generic characters give way to the metaphorical implications of the story relating to colonialism and financial independence.  Botha constructs vivid images of the scenery and incorporates psychological descriptions which convey an emotional state of each scene to the reader rather than a photorealistic image.

• A Polynesian boy is expelled from an English school
• The boy's tribe becomes angry with the English settlers and revolts
• The boy's English teacher leaves Polynesia for England with the boy's brother

SOURCE

Botha, W. P. B. Wantok: (one Talk). Oxford: Heinemann, 1995. Print. Book about the development of a revolt on a Polynesian island.

EVA THE FUGITIVE, or, EVA Y LA FUGA by ROSAMEL DEL MAR SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

EVA THE FUGITIVE, or, EVA Y LA FUGA by ROSAMEL DEL VALLE

SUMMARY
In an unnamed city man named R who narrates the book meets a woman named Eva as a child.  He falls in love but she finds him melancholic and doesn't reciprocate.  R forgets about her.
As an adult, R dreams of a woman named Eva.  The woman floats between his country and Norway on a fiery bridge.  Eva tells him in his dream of her dream in which she is kidnapped by a man who takes her to a hotel room and wants to chop her up.
R dreams he sees Eva in an arcade 2 days later where she tells him she thought of devoting the prior day, her birthday, to him, but decided not to.  R complains about Eva to his friend Ignacio who encourages R to move on.
Eva and R cross a bridge in R's next dream but Eva stops and says she saw an illegal immigrant arrested on the bridge.
A man named Estefano begins to appear in R's dreams and R recognizes Estefano as the voice of love.  Estefano speaks to a dove in one of R's dreams.  Santiago has a dream in which he meets another woman who tells him that she possesses the spirit of Eva but he doesn't believe her.  Eva appears in the dream and spreads her legs to open like a fork in the road.  R sees Eva's death down one leg and love down the other.
Eva appears to R after being absent from R's mind for a few days and he imagines her bleeding in a blue dress before she transforms to an angelic figure and tells him a story about an ill-fated relationship she was in which both members pursued despite each knowing the relationship would not last.  R and Eva meet in a crowd and walk together in the next dream and Estefano appears.  Estefano tells R that death has just passed the group.
R imagines himself in prison where Estefano appears.  After the prison dream R sees Eva in his room, and she is dressed in blue.  She reads to him and leaves.  R thinks that he will not see her again.  In italics, a letter concludes the text in which R professes that he has lost all hope besides the possibility of an exit from the pain of life.

ANALYSIS
R likely has a psychiatric disorder which is causing him to hallucinate a girl he fell in love with as a child.  The girl takes on an adult form he imagines for her in his mind.  Eva tries to tell R to let go of her by hinting that their love is not meant to be through the story she tells him about an ill-fated love.  Additionally, when Eva reminds R that she knew him as a child, she describes him as melancholic.  Later in the novella, she tells him that she is leaving the world because it is too melancholic.  Eva's stories are clearly meant to encourage R to move on.
The prison R finds himself in is a metaphor for the prison of love he has locked himself in, which is why Estefano, the voice of love to R, appears in the prison.  The reference to illegal and immigration caused Santiago to feel mournful about wasting time hallucinating while people suffer.  Eager to escape the misery R feels bound to in life, he writes what appears to be a suicide note which is the final page of the novella.  I believe Santiago killed himself.

• Adult man hallucinates his childhood sweetheart
• Man can't stop hallucinations
• She says goodbye to him and he kills himself

SOURCE

Valle, Rosamel Del.  Eva the Fugitive.  CA: University of California , 1990.  Print.  Tragic book about a delusional person.