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.

THE LAKE by GERHARD ROTH SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

THE LAKE, or, DER SEE by GERHARD ROTH

SUMMARY
Paul Eck is a representative for a pharmaceutical company who is travelling to various Doctors' offices and offering his drugs to them.  He takes many pills to improve his cognition, aid digestion, relieve allergies, induce drowsiness, and reduce pain, and is dependent on the drugs he takes.  Paul Eck's parents divorced 30 years prior to the start of the novel.  He has not seen his father since the divorce, although his father is wealthy from a hunting and fishing business and continued to pay for Eck's medical studies after they ceased contact.  Eck's father participated in the Hungarian resistance movement and was involved in smuggling guns from Switzerland through Hungary to Serbia.  Eck's mother committed suicide exactly one year before the novel begins, and Eck was forced to mop up his mother's blood after she'd died.
Eck takes a bus to a historic castle and accidentally wanders into a former concentration camp. The next day, he tries to sell drugs to Professor Basaglia at a medical clinic where there are many sick and hopeless people.  Eck meets two women in a cafe who pleasure him sexually and then he is robbed of his money, wallet, and passport by a group of men who were alerted by the women that Eck had money.  After he awakes, he sneaks across the border to return to his home and checks into a hotel to rest.  He decides to not accompany his father for a boating trip which Eck's father invited Eck to, and a storm breaks out on the day of the trip.
The next day, Eck reads in the newspaper that his father went missing in the storm.  Eck visits a friend of his who is a mechanic and takes Eck on a boat trip across a river where Eck sees a trailer park which rents rooms by the night, and Eck checks into the trailer park.  He then goes to see his family doctor who uses acupuncture, and spiritual healing, as well as brutal surgery and recommends his drugs.
A boy named Hermann asks Eck for a ride and Eck obliges, first stopping at a hunting store to buy a gun using a false identity and steps outside where two policemen find Eck and ask him to come to the morgue to look for Eck's father's body.  After identifying the body, Paul Eck is announced as a suspect for the murder of his own father, and told to stay in the trailer park by police.  He is approached by a strange man who knows that Eck was invited to the lake by his father and tells Eck to be careful.
Eck visits his grandfather's home in Hungary and is followed by a blue Toyota for the whole trip.  A police officer emerges from the Toyota the next day and accompanies Paul Eck and his friend named Robert on a boat ride while they look for a clue Eck's friend claimed to have seen.  While they are gone, Eck's trailer is stripped and searched.  A journalist who is interested in the story approaches Eck and offers to help piece together information on the case.  The next doctor Eck visits is named Dr. Goriupp and tells Eck of his father's involvement in the gun trade.
A gypsy who previously worked for Eck's uncle finds the car in which Eck's father was murdered before  the body was chopped up and put in the ocean.  Eck sees his stepbrother there and they plan to go fishing to discuss family matters the next morning.  On their fishing trip, Eck and his stepbrother fight and capsize their boat, resulting in a cut on Eck's forehead.
To get his wound stitched, Eck returns to Dr Goriupp.  While stitching Eck's head, the doctor begins coughing blood, and Eck hallucinates that the doctor is a cannibalistic monster, causing Eck to shoot the doctor in the eye.  A short while later, Eck awakes in the gypsy's home after experiencing drug-induced amnesia.  When Eck returns home he meets the journalist who tells him the police suspect a military man named Laposa of shooting both Dr. Goriupp and Eck's father.  Eck and the journalist go to the military base where they witness Laposa being arrested and confessing to killing Eck's father.
A gun fight breaks out in the trailer next to Eck's trailer which sparks a fire.  Eck takes some LSD he was given by a Swiss colleague.  Paul Eck and Robert fly away in Robert's plane.

ANALYSIS
There are many references to genocide in this novel.  Eck visits both a Jewish and a Serbian cemetery.  He also sees a former concentration camp, a Swastika, and a racist meeting in his journeys.  Paul Eck clearly feels guilty about the crimes of Nazis and the Bosnian Serbs.  Eck mentions that he feels like the stains of the past are haunting him presently when he discusses cleaning up his mother's blood.  I believe the purpose of the thematic inclusion of wartime material is to emphasize that the aftermath of genocide still haunts Europe.
Some silverfish infest Eck's trailer.  Although they appear to fall with gravity after the murder is resolved, Eck sees them the next day when he opens the Bible, which he falsely swore on earlier in the novel.  He leaves the trailer where the silverfish are contained.  The silverfish resemble most closely his conscience, and after the trailer park burns down, it is implied that Eck feels relieved as he hallucinates becoming one with the birds under the influence of LSD.
Throughout the novel, Eck experiences many discomforts within his body.  The reaction of his body to alcohol, and drugs, is well documented.  Every stomach ache Eck endures in The Lake is well documented and it is clear that he likes to tense his abs, and feel warm and full.  Why Roth shared these facts about Eck, I don't know.  To be honest, spending so much time as a reader swimming around inside of Eck's body as well as spotty translation made this book sort of dull for me.  Next week, I promise by book will not have anything to do with genocide, as that seems to be a recurring theme in my selections.

• pharmaceutical representative goes on trip to sell prescription drugs
• the representative's estranged father is secretly involved in the illegal gun trade
• the representative's father is murdered and the representative becomes a suspect
• the police discover that the representative's father was murdered by someone involved in the illegal gun trade

SOURCE

Roth, Gerhard. The Lake. Trans. Michael Winkler. Riverside, CA: Ariadne, 2000. Print. Book about a man suspected of killing his estranged father.

THE PRIVILEGES by JONATHAN DEE SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

THE PRIVILEGES by JONATHAN DEE


SUMMARY
A young couple, Cynthia and Adam Morey, are getting married in Pittsburgh, US.  The bride has chosen an unpopular bridesmaid.  In total, the wedding costs $38,000 American, and everything is being paid for by Cynthia's stepmother and father.  Adam's parents buy the couple a honeymoon in Mexico during which Cynthia becomes pregnant with a girl named April.
One year later Adam and Cynthia are living in New York, US, and have another child named Jonas.  Adam worked at Morgan Stanley, but quit to work at a smaller firm named 'Perrini Capital'.  The Moreys send their children to private schools which cost $60,000 each year, and Cynthia likes to buy her children expensive items.
Cynthia is a stay at home mom.  Adam's boss at Perrini capital takes Adam, Cynthia, and the children to his vacation home for the weekend.  Cynthia is offended by the boss' wife and the family leaves early.  They are jealous of the boss' luxurious home and expensive car, the boss promises Adam that one day he will be just as rich, and Cynthia encourages Adam to pursue the wealth they've seen.  Adam wants to succeed, but not become a clone of his boss.
Cynthia's mother calls her and asks her to pick up her stepsister named Deborah from the hospital.  Deborah was in the hospital because she overdosed on drugs.  Cynthia has to rush to take the children to the dentist, and briefly loses them in the New York train system.  After this event, years pass without the two speaking to eachother; this silence is a result of mutual ambivalence toward eachother.
Adam feels pressured by Cynthia to increase his earnings.  He begins using illegal insider information to profit from stock market put and call options.  The illegal network which develops involves switching prepaid phones each month for Adam and his partner, offshore bank accounts, and stock broker accounts in fake names.  After Adam is fired from his job at Perini because the boss is angry that Adam doesn't want to take over Perini Capital and suspects him of plotting to start his own firm and steal Perini's analysts, Adam confesses his insider trading to Cynthia, who applauds his bravery and diligence.
By this point, April is 15 and Jonas is 14.  One of April's friends, Robin, hides at the Moreys after being beaten by her father.  Cynthia allows April and her friends to go to parties and drink alcohol. Jonas is in a band which he wants to call, 'The Privileges'.  Robin's mother commits suicide.
Jonas goes on to attend the University of Chicago where he feels divided from the rest of the student body because of his family's wealth.  Nikki is the name of Jonas' girlfriend.  April visits Jonas and meets Nikki. Later, April goes clubbing in New York with Russians, taking drugs and drinking alcohol, and the driver of the car April is in crashes into a van.  She is not hurt in the car crash.  Jonas happens to see April by the side of the road while he is shopping the next day, and takes her home.
Adam has opened up his own hedge fund which is preparing to file for its own IPO.  The Moreys begin receiving unwanted media attention and commit to getting April out of the clubbing scene.  Cynthia's father falls ill in Florida, US, and a stranger calls on his behalf asking Cynthia for money, which she denies, but agrees to go to Florida and assist her father emotionally and financially.  April and Adam return from a business trip in China to Florida.  Cynthia's father's cardiac problems progress in unison with dementia.
Jonas is working on a Master's thesis in art and goes to the apartment of an artist he likes.  The artist, named Joseph Novak, beats Jonas with a pipe and drags Jonas into the apartment.  Cynthia is calling Jonas but Novak throws away Jonas' cell phone and Jonas is afraid, so he stays in Novak's apartment.  As Novak finishes an elaborate drawing, Jonas gets up and leaves the apartment.

ANALYSIS
This book offers a unique insight into the lives of the richest people.  Through Jonas' wrestling with stereotypes, Dee depicts rich people as complex human beings, rather than contemptuous, carbon-copy moneybags on two feet.
There is a persistent theme of the Christian religion throughout the novel.  Cynthia repeats to herself, 'God gives you nothing you can't handle'.  Her father prepares for battle in a war flashback in his hospital bed as he is about to die, preparing him for his last fight.  Jonas discovers his strength as he is pushed to the limit by an attacker.  April, who felt as though she was shortening her useless and boring life with drugs and partying, receives a speech about keeping faith from her father.
In the beginning of the book, April asks her father where they come from, and the father says his family is from England, and the mother's from Russia.  April meets up with Russian drug dealers and her father buys an expensive flat in London, GBR.  I doubt Dee was implying that Russians are inferior to Englishmen, but if that's not what he was implying, I'm not sure what his purpose in including those details was.
A suspiciously coincidental sequence of events in the Moreys' lives wrap themselves up in an equally suspicious neat little bow about staying positive.  Unrealistic and corny, but positive.  The book kept me entertained and left me feeling better than when I started reading it.

• Man with family is pressured into making more money
• Through illegal means, he builds a legal Hedge Fund empire
• The man's wife's father becomes ill in the hospital
• While the man's son is kidnapped, the son's grandfather is on the verge of death
• The son escapes his kidnapper

SOURCE

Dee, Jonathan. The Privileges: A Novel. New York: Random House, 2010. Print.Book about a family keeping their faith amidst struggles in their climb up the social ladder.