DEVIL OF A STATE

This, as did its predecessor The Right to an Answer (published at the beginning of this year) has a sardonic approach to its story — that of Lydgate, a much married Passport Officer in the little African caliphate of Dunia, who suffers much and often when his past catches up with him. His current mistress is pregnant and away on a visit, his most recent wife arrives on the scene and, at the end, his attempts to run away are thwarted by his only legal mate who has found him after a long search. The affairs of others broll around him — the power push of the nationalist leader, the plans of the Caliph, the harassments of the U.N. adviser, the underhanded methods of the Senior Establishment. Officer, the violent conflict between an Italian father and son who have been imported for the marble work on the new mosque, the friction created by the Australian road builders, and assorted unpleasantnesses from other European influence. His eventual subjugation coincides with the unfortunate incidents that accompany the ceremonies at the opening of the mosque. Life in the colonies in a jaundiced light, this lacks the direct focus of the earlier book.