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Not Honour More

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Not Honour More is part of a trilogy that includes the flawless Prisoner of Grace and the dull, annoying Except the Lord. NHM falls in between the two for interest--essential reading for anyone who fell in love with Nina Latter, the first person voice of Prisoner. The teller of this version of the trilogy's events is Jim Latter--passionately but selfishly in love with his cousin Nina (married to another man) and a trial to his family who ships him off to the foreign service in Africa. Self-absorbed and self-deceived, yet in a way selflessly devoted to the Africans he is "in charge of" (coming to rebel against his own government), selflessly (or not?) devoted to his ideals, his "honour," Jim is rather charmless, undeniably exasperating, yet a masterfully delineated and realistic, fully-rounded character. His view of events will come as a shock to those who have read Nina's perceptions, yet one can understand his "reality." Reading about the politics and putting up with him may be heavy weather, but for the reader who persists (probably for Nina's sake), the reward will be ample.

The is the last volume in Joyce Cary's political trilogy, a trilogy that revolves around a trilogy of closely related characters, Nina and the two men in her life, Chester Nimmo and Jim Latter. The second volume was Chester's story; this volume tells Jim's. He is a spoiled, domineering man who refuses to marry Nina after getting her pregnant because he thinks it will ruin his chances for advancement in his army regiment; when Chester steps in and asks her to marry him, she accepts - to Jim's bitter regret. Much of his story is filled with anger toward Chester, who is a politician; he comes to view Chester as a political monster set on destroying the world, but that only disguises his real anger at Chester, which has everything to do with his relationship with Nina. Jim even tries to shoot Chester at one point.

The novel is set during the General Strike in England in 1926, when laborers throughout Britain went on strike in sympathy with striking coal miners. It's this strike that gives Jim the excuse to rationalize much of his behavior, especially his eventual murder of Nina, which he claims he did to "save England." Jim is totally delusional by this time, wallowing in the juices of his own anger and frustrations. But Cary is careful not to make Jim a monster, and the reader is able to feel sympathy for his behavior.

The story is told by Jim and it is clear in the voice that Cary gives him how angry and cynical he is. His voice is often clipped and fragmented, as if spitting out his vindictiveness for all the world to see. (He tells it as a prisoner making a statement, waiting to be hanged.) His voice is strong and speaks directly to the reader. The book is compelling though pessimistic, with the political avenue toward better living potholed and rocky. Cary believed that political compromise between left and right, liberal and conservative, was the only way for politics to have any meaning. The fact that it's a compromise is a downer for him, and that tone is reflected in the book. The whole trilogy is powerful and an interesting read.