The Pursuit of William Abbey

William Abbey is a doctor who is exiled to South Africa before the Boer War because of a failed romance. While there, he witnesses a lynching. Because he did nothing to help, the victim's mother curses him with the “True Speaker's Curse,” which involves being able to see the truth of other people and the inability not to share that truth with others, sort of like a supernatural Tourette's Syndrome. The real downside of this curse is that the truth compulsion gets stronger when the spirit of the lynched boy (“Langa”) gets closer to him. Langa pursues Abbey, hence the title of the book. When Langa touches Abbey, someone who Abbey loves dies.

The story follows thirty years of Abbey's relentless travels to stay ahead of Langa. During that time, Abbey becomes a British intelligence asset. Since he is an upper-class white man, he can enter European polite society and get the truth on all manner of diplomatic dealings.

Abbey becomes a pawn and counter pawn of other intelligence services. He meets other people suffering from the same curse. He is frustrated in his efforts to find a cure. He falls in love with another cursed Truth Speaker working for a Socialist/Democratic revolutionary movement.

Ultimately, he ends up in a hospital near the front-line during World War I. It is here that we understand that he intends to close out his account with the person he believes has betrayed him. It is from this final situation that the story is told in a series of flashbacks to a Nightingale Nurse.

I was not impressed by this book. The characters were not sympathetic. North goes out of her way to impress on us Abbey's own view that he is a loser and craven. It is not clear that he is since he seems to roll with the punches. Also, it wasn't clear why Abbey was singled out for the curse. It seems that it would have been more appropriate for the mother to have cursed one of the actual murderers. North obviously wanted Abbey to be unsympathetic but not too unsympathetic – which he would have been if he had participated in the lynching.

But why not? And this raises the second problem which is the absence of a story arc. It would have been far more interesting to see Abbey as a lyncher who worked to redeem himself, than what we do see, which is Abbey as a kind of zero who never moves off zero. Abbey finds himself trapped in precarious positions on two occasions, and on both occasions, a female character mysteriously rescues him. One was paid off, certainly, but the motivation for the second seems to have been an insulted professional pride. These are perhaps plausible from a plot standpoint, but the overall effect is to make Abbey a passive and annoying figure.

The element of conflict was also muted. There was initially the issue of Abbey versus Langa, but that was quickly dealt with by Abbey staying ahead of Langa. Then, there was a brief episode of Abbey v Ritte – another intelligence asset – but that was taken care of. Ultimately, the story ends with Abbey versus someone who morphed into the enemy about 80% of the way through the story. It was almost as if North needed some reason to end the story.

The ending was not really a conclusion. It was more of an image of two men stumbling through the bullets and bombs of a World War I front line. It seemed that North had this image of an ending and wrote the final chapters to get there.

The book is well-written and readable. Somebody in a better state of mind will probably get much more out of it.

I'm in awe of Claire North. She seems to have a knack for thinking up a wonderfully simple, but original concept - and then thinking through a logical progression of that idea, taking it to places I'd never have dreamed of.

The idea in this case - William Abbey has been cursed, and his curse takes the form of a ghost - which will chase him down - at walking pace - wherever he goes. When it is close, he sees the truth in men's hearts. If it touches him, the person he loves the most will die - and the pursuit will begin again. So far so “It Follows” - but true to form, Claire North dwells moves quickly away from the horror of that pursuit, instead choosing a wider scope for the story.

Set in Victorian times, and taking us on a prolonged tour of the British Empire of the time, the book very deliberately shows us some of the worst and most heart-breaking aspects and consequences of British colonialism - while progressing that idea in a very cynical direction: when such a curse or gift comes to the attention of the powers that be (and William is far from the only person in the book with this affliction)... they'll work out how to weaponise it.

It's a great book - if not a very optimistic one - William is a deeply flawed protagonist, makes serious mistakes and is rarely brave or heroic - so he's hard to really care for (although, perhaps - if I'm honest - easy to identify with) - but I found the story captivating. If the picture it paints of the “golden age” of the British Empire is a tarnished one (to say the least) - that is no bad thing either.

In short - a thought provoking book, and a great read. Highly recommended.