But instead of a moralizing lecture, he wraps his critique in several layers of entertainment. Set in India, Farrell’s classic – it is the second book in his famed “Empire Trilogy” – takes on incredibly serious themes, specifically colonialism and imperialism. Sometimes, in fact, it can be the best way, because you find your way to the conclusion without even trying. Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur is a good reminder that humor can be an extremely effective way of delivering a lesson or making a point. Harry had been on the point of giving the order to fire but he had been plucked from Fleury’s side and was groveling somewhere in the darkness…” Suddenly, a shrapnel shell landed on the corner of the verandah, and all was chaos. Daubs of orange hopped at regular intervals from one end of the rim of darkness to the other. Hardly had Fleury spoken when the rim of darkness beneath the horizon began to sparkle like a firework and immediately the air about them began to sing and howl with flying metal and chips of masonry…then in a wave came the sound. “Now that the sky had lightened one could distinguish silhouettes against it for an instant it had seemed that a strong breeze was blowing through the melon-beds and setting them on the march, but the day’s wind had not yet risen.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |