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The Rage of the Vulture

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This novelist's themes are invariably unusual and gripping, reminiscent in some ways of Joseph Conrad in their relentless - and uncomfortable - exploration of the darker recesses of the human spirit. "The Rage of the Vulture" is set in the false dawn of the Young Turk revolution that promised so much, as it swept away the tyranny of tyranny of Abdul Hamid and which offered a brief glimpse of ethnic harmony before plunging the Ottoman Empire into yet more terrible chaos and genocide. With spare but telling detail Unsworth portrays a society, and individuals, poisoned and warped by hatred, cruelty and fear and incapable of breaking the cycle of perpetuation. The main character, an English officer on secondment in Istanbul, is no less maimed spiritually - and ultimately physically - by this unending tyranny than the most depraved torturers of the dying regime. The most memorable feature of the novel is however the extent to which the malign, self-loathing and all but invisible personality of Abdul Hamid dominates the action - and the city - from his curious bourgeois villa retreat - one hesitates to say Palace - high above the Bosphorous. By a curious turn of fate I read this novel some three months before being sent, quite unexpectedly, to live and work in Turkey and to spend long periods in Istanbul. It had already made a strong impression on me - and this became even stronger as I explored many of the locales of the action. The phrase "the banality of evil" is horribly appropriate as one spends an hour at the same kiosk in Abdul Hamid's gardens where, insisting on the farce of being incognito, he would insist on paying for his own glass of tea before hurrying back to indulge in his hobby of cabinet making, order a massacre or allow the cries of his menagerie beasts to drown out the screams of wretches being interrogated close by. Mr.Unsworth melds this background very effectively into the plot of his powerful and disturbing book, which is not only absorbing to read but impossible to forget.

The Armenian massacres of 1896, in which the fiancee of the protagonist was raped and then murdered, provide the point of attack for "Rage of the Vulture." Twelve years have passed, and the protagonist, an Englishman named Robert Markham, now married and a father, is posted to Constantinople in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire.

Determined to avenge the death of his former fiancee, Markham becomes involved in Byzantine political intrigues conducted by an assortment of exotic characters. Markham is by no means a hero, and his failings of character are consistent with the decadent atmosphere of the city.

As the Ottoman Empire crumbles, Markham tries to assuage his own sense of guilt and to act. This tumultuous period at the geographical intersection of East and West is depicted in a gripping narrative which informs the reader at the same time that it excites, and anyone who has been to Istanbul will immediately recognize the key sites of the action. Of all of Unsworth's fascinating books, this is my favorite. n Mary Whipple

This book has everything -- I'm surprised it hasn't been bought up by Merchant-Ivory and made into the next "English Patient". I'm a big fan of Unsworth's now, having first read "The Hide" -- a strange and wonderfully affecting novel. "Sacred Hunger" is next on my list. "Vulture" is set in 1908 with flashbacks to an incident which happened 12 years previously. The themes include human corruption, loss of innocence (typical for Unsworth), guilt, fear, lies, avoidance, pity, political intrigue, destruction of trust, -- just about all the "big" dilemmas of just about all of us. The artistry of the author, the workmanship and tight plot construction, the depth of understanding and explication of the character's motivations, etc., couldn't be much better, in my opinion. P.S. Anybody want to collaborate on a screenplay? A daunting task and would probably take years, but it would be a sure-fire hit, and just the process of analyzing and distilling this novel would be reward unto itself.

In RAGE OF THE VULTURE, the author of the entertaining MORALITY PLAY and the magnificent slave trade tale, A SACRED HUNGER, sets his story in turn of the 20th Century Istanbul. The world is at the edge of a major transition, and Turkey is near its epicenter. The Ottoman Caliphate has stagnated, the reigning Sultan a paranoid and nearly powerless shadow of his predecessors. The British struggle to maintain the influence of their waning Empire, the militaristic Germans are gaining influence, Moslem unrest is swelling, the Balkans are typically roiling, and genocide of the Armenians is that era's Darfur or East Timor. The advent of World War I is unseen, but its distinctive scent is in the air.

Unsworth's anti-hero main character is Robert Markham, a military attaché stationed in Turkey in 1908, in the declining years of Ottoman rule. This is actually his second tour in Istanbul, the first one ending tragically when his Armenian fiancé Miriam was raped and killed right before his eyes as he was being physically restrained. Markham's self-serving behavior during that incident has irretrievably stained his soul, marking him with a shame for which he feels compelled to atone. Now married and having a young son, Markham has never revealed to his family the details of that terrible evening.

From the books opening moments when Sultan Abdul Hamid observes Markham via telescope from within his barricaded palace and Markham feels his watching presence, we know the fates of these two characters are inextricably linked. Yet despite his better intentions, both diplomatic and humane, Markham is condemned subconsciously to re-enact with those around him the evil use of power displayed by his Kurdish captors at his fiance's brutal death. While different in degree and intent, these actions are ultimately self-serving, perhaps compensation for his impotence at those fateful moments. His marital relationship is sterile and controlling, he is distant from his own son, and he destroys his marriage and another person's life through an ill-advised affair. When his wife and son return to England without him, Markham sets out to make amends for his earlier failings only to have his every move backfire in suicides, shooting deaths, even a ruined interview. Only through self-abasement and submission to his own brutalization is Markham finally able to restore a semblance of normal life and achieve a modicum of psychic resolution.

Unsworth effectively employs several structural methods to tell his story. Interwoven throughout these events, of course, is the historical backdrop provided by the Armenian genocide and creation of the conditions that will soon release two World Wars and another European genocide. In the first half of the book, several chapters open with events taking place in the royal palace, and we see them through the Abdul Hamid's eyes. The inevitable decline of Abdul Hamid's rule mirrors the decline of Markham's personal and professional life as well as his psychological health. The two men's ultimate dispositions even sustain these parallels in the novel's final pages - comfortable but ruined individuals, emotionally sterile and withdrawn from the world around them, simply living out their years until death takes them. Other events center on Markham's son Henry and are revealed through his naïve, pre-adolescent eyes. The books two major sections are also organized differently. The first half, while Markham still has his family with him in Turkey, contains multiple chapters; the second half is a single, long block of story line, continuously accelerating toward Markham's and the Sultan's interlinked falls.

In style, tone, pace, and sense of decay and despair, THE RAGE OF THE VULTURE, calls to mind several other great authors and works. Unsworth's Markham shares the desperate search for forgiveness and redemption of Graham Greene's whiskey priest in THE POWER AND THE GLORY and the sense of European otherness in a colonial setting of Henry Scobie in THE HEART OF THE MATTER. The narrative arc of this book also mirrors in many ways a multi-month version of Lowry's single day novel of personal ruin, UNDER THE VOLCANO. Unsworth's story line rolls out slowly and gains momentum under the author's steady hand, allowing his protagonist's world to crumble around him as he searches for a suitable form of personal penance for his self-perceived cowardice and powerlessness. As with Greene's and Lowry's works, Unsworth's anti-hero is forever an outsider even in his own family life. Much as in those two great writers' work, Unsworth's setting itself becomes a powerful presence, almost an unseen character exerting not so subtle influences on their main characters.

THE RAGE OF THE VULTURE demands a certain perseverance through its 250+ pages of Part I. However, the patient reader will be amply rewarded as Unsworth's set-up of his characters' lives rapidly unfolds in parallel with historical events at the temporal juncture of changing centuries, the geographical juncture of East and West, the political juncture of colonialism and nationalism, and the religious juncture of Christianity and Islam.

An odd, suspenseful and gripping story. It reminds of Conrad or Trollope. There is a plot, but the characters are to the fore, deeply drawn, and never faked. The suspense comes from watching the characters make choices, not just the plot. (It is NOT a post-modern novel about a novelist writing a novel about a novelist writing a novel about ... as so many modern novels are.) Better in all respects than his bestter known "Sacred Hunger."

A wonderfully convincing novel set in the crumbling Ottoman empire in the early part of the century. It paints a quite magical picture of a multi-ethnic Istanbul and the "hero" (of sorts) is compelling from beginning to end. I am amazed this has never been filmed.

The Rage of the Vulture breathes with a profound sense of time and place. In the dying embers of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople is probably the most successfully drawn character in this interesting but flawed novel.

The first section is the more interesting -- probably because of the multitude of characters, descriptions of the city and architectural detail and the carefully drawn mannerism of the British diplomatic bureaucracy. Henry, the son who precociously spies on his family, mirrors the Sultan on high. Abdul Hamid orchestrates an elaborate spying apparatus while living a self-imprisoned life in his Yildiz palace.

Looking for a safe person in whom to confide his cowardice, Markham fecklessly exploits Henry's innocent nanny. You're not sure whether he's looking for a father confessor or a woman to subjugate. He tries to exorcise his impotence by acting out the ravishment of his fiancee at the hands of the Kurds. Its brutality made incredulous her subsequent infatuation with Markham. In today's world, a more likely outcome would be a sexual harassment lawsuit or criminal charges. Charitably, the narrative seemed dated.

The cast of characters are not particularly well drawn. None are particularly like-able or even interesting. We have no sense of what brought Markham and Elizabeth together. We know about the horrific rape and murder of Markham's Armenian fiancee, but not what she was like while she was alive. We experience Markham's shame, but do not understand his loss.

What is interesting is the combustible mix of nationalities, religions, cultures and the pivotal arc of history. A ponderous sense of fatalism dominates the book. In attempting to expiate an older sin, Markham causes a man to commit suicide, ruins the lives of his wife and son's nanny, and sets up a publisher for assassination. There is no way to atone, no way to transcend the banal evil of the dying regime. Nothing better comes from what follows-- World War I and the genocide of the Armenians. The title of the book portends this unhappy chapter in history.

I loved Sacred Hunger. Like that book, this one is told in 2 parts, with 2 very distinct stories. Alas, both of the stories here are odd and disjointed. Neither works that well separately, and they don't work well together. Not to say that there aren't some good moments in this book. But nothing to rival what Unsworth offers in his masterpiece.

Having read this on the recommendation of a trusted friend, I found that I liked it very much --but had a few reservations re the plot. As far as the descriptions of Istanbul and surrounding areas go, Unsworth is right on the mark. I could close my eyes and know exactly where he was at any given time (Iastanbul hasn't changed much in 100 years) I found the character of Markham rather puzzling - where did he meet his Armenian fiancee,for example? For those few of us interested in Ottoman history and familiar with the polyglot population of Istanbul, this book is a treat. Don't let the rather pedestrian plot get in the way of reading yet another well-crafted historical novel.

I tried to figure out who would be interested in reading in this book. It has history (Ottoman), romanic (illict), and drama (deathly ill child). I was hoping for more story about the end of the Ottoman Empire. What you get is lenghtly sentences on describing the "feelings" or "atmosphere," and really little of a story. Everything exciting that happens in the story is told as events elsewhere. I enjoy novels with historica context and mystery; however, I found this story was a struggle to finish.