by James Meek
AL: As a reader, what are the elements that draw you to a novel? To put it another way, what kind of novels do you enjoy the most?
JM: I like a wise author. One who is neither cynical nor idealistic, but has an observation about the world which is true. I loathe authors who use clichés as if they were words, authors for whom the texture of the sentence, its rhythm and structure, doesn’t matter. The sentences can be terse or elaborate; I don’t mind so long as I know the writer wants to and can fashion them well. There is nothing sweeter than a description which flies to the thing it describes and fits it, like a key hurled from ten feet slotting into its lock. I love to be surprised not so much by a twist of plot as a twist of characterisation. As soon as I read, in the very early pages of Michel Houellebecq’s Atomised, the sentence ‘It was rumoured the director was homosexual, but in reality he was simply a drunk’, I knew I would read the book to the end. All that matters, all that great novelists have in common, is truth, and narrative. What it is that makes you believe, and what makes you keep turning the page. Finally, I don’t believe I’ve ever read a great book which didn’t make me laugh, or at least force a wry smile, at least once. And that includes such sombre works as If This is a Man.
AL: Irish novelist Dermot Bolger, talking about his latest novel The Family on Paradise Pier, said ‘if you really want to understand the past, it means you do not have heroes and villains; you remember the complexities of a decade and try not to be wise after the event’. Is there a challenge for a novelist dealing with the weight of history, in dealing with his/her characters? Should literature be non-judgemental? Is The People’s Act of Love non-judgemental? It’s interesting that while Mutz may be the most sympathetic character, he’s far from the most charismatic (Anna, after all, loves and hates both Balashov and Samarin, not the reasonable and heroic Mutz).
JM: Yes. Sad, isn’t it? And true, I think. Not ‘I think’: I know. You don’t have to be in a war for it to happen, either. When writing about the past, you have to avoid the temptation to irony or the application of retrospective morals. In my book that means no ‘I bumped into a funny little man in the western trenches, corporal by the name of Hitler’ and no concealing the pervasive racism and anti-semitism of 1919, even among relatively sympathetic characters. What is important is that you, the writer, sympathise with each expression of each character at the moment they are making it. A novel free of any moral framework runs the risk of dullness. But there is a difference between making a sharp observation about your characters’ behaviour, or about the behaviour of people in general, and making a judgement about it. The observation is the writer’s; the judgement is the reader’s. Yet by making the observation, you are inviting the judgement.
Copyright © Andrew Lawless 2005
This interview originally appeared in the excellent online magazine Three Monkeys. For more articles like this see www.threemonkeysonline.com.
Praise
THE PEOPLE’S ACT OF LOVE
“James Meek’s visceral murder mystery has been the recipient of extravagant critical praise, and deservedly so. Vivid, brutal and exhilarating, it renders the mass of historical fiction pallid by comparison.” Daily Mail
“Great book. Rich and illuminating and impossibly imaginative.” John Harris, BBC Newsnight Review
“It is hard to think of anything more worthy of this year’s British Booker … It is a huge achievement … Excellent.” New Statesman
“A quite extraordinary novel. The language is so fresh and crisp and sparkling – and yet never for the sake of showing off. And what a narrative! What a story! There’s a majestic disdain for littleness in this book – for littleness of ambition, for narrowness of sympathy, for pettiness of imaginative scope. I admire it enormously.” Philip Pullman
“A powerfully realised novel … supremely well plotted.” Observer
“Recalls … Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. Combines the epic sweep of a Russian classic with the psychological precision of the keenest suspense thriller … Meek has written a novel of ideas that offers thrills and chills aplenty for the many, and more than enough brain food for the hungry few.” Literary Review
“A treasure-house of stories. Meek shows a splendid confidence … and an equally remarkable skill as gradually he weaves his stories together until at last the figure in the carpet is revealed, clear and coherent … There is intellectual control here, as well as a tumultuous imagination.” Allan Massie, Scotsman
“A big, bold, thrillingly different story told with uncanny authority. Meek understands the horrific power of evil, but he never loses his sense of humour or his affection for those odd moments of grace that keep the human heart alive.” Michel Faber
“Left me breathless with admiration and envy.” Bookseller
“It’s by the quality of the writing, never less than convincing and often extraordinarily vivid, that he deserves to be judged.” Independent on Sunday
“For its fine set pieces, its sense of history and its persuasive, passionate love of Russia, this is a book to read.” Helen Dunmore, The Times
“This novel is very, very good … the real excitement lies in Meek’s skill in creating people, not puppets, and in weaving them into a masterful narrative that starts out slowly and then swiftly picks up steam, driving on like a locomotive to a powerful finish.” Globe and Mail
“One has to admire a British writer who can write convincingly as a Russian … An ambitious work, authentically Russian-flavoured, and unusual both by virtue of its subject and its author.” Independent
“Combines scenes of heart-pounding action and jaw-dropping revelations with moments of quiet tension and sly humour. This original, literary page-turner succeeds both with its credible psychological details and its grandeur and sweep.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Stimulates thought but not at the price of sacrificing a simple, satisfying enjoyment. It is also redolent of a wonderful atmosphere, where the Siberian cold mixes like highly combustible explosive with human passion.” Herald
Copyright
First published in Great Britain in 2005
by Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TE
This digital edition first published in 2008
by Canongate Books Ltd
Copyright © James Meek, 2005
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on
request from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 84767 375 6
www.meetatthegate.com
Table of Contents
The People’s Act of Love
Title Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Samarin
The Barber And The Berry Gatherer
Mutz
Balashov
The Convict
Anna Petrovna
The Widow
The Husband
Matula
The Tribunal
The River
The White Garden
The Fields
The Legion
In
Out
Causes
The Avakhi
Songs
The Reds
Cannibals
In Dark Heaven
At Mutz’s Execution
The Locomotive
The Nature Of The Burden
Declarations
Samarin’s Request
Tripping The Demons
The Gift Horse
Among The Worlds
Acknowledgements And Notes
About the Author
Praise
Copyright