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This post marks the completing of the Strangler Vine sync read! (Apologies for the delay--it has been a week already.)
It's been great fun to revisit and discuss this book, and these final five chapters are especially good, with revelations about what's been afoot, who's been responsible, and some of the meatiest character development in the book. So without further ado:
Chapter 13: Welcome to Part Four. It opens with an immediate surprise: as of yet, Our Heroes are not dead. First thing: I’ve always been confused as to why they didn’t tie Avery’s hands behind his back.
Second thing: Avery’s concern for Blake just does it for me here, as does Blake’s habitual attempt to downplay the damage to himself.
Third thing: Mountstuart at last! And he is not at all what Avery, or I, for that matter, had been expecting. I love the banter between him and Blake here. Also: “Jem.” It’s telling that Blake doesn’t nicen up his speech for Mountstuart anymore.
And again, why even bother tying Avery and Blake up if you aren’t going to do it well and just throw them in a cave with Mountstuart, who apparently isn’t tied up at all.
The Mountstuart-Blake reunion is fascinating. It gives us a sense of how long it’s been since Blake’s left the company (five years), how deep Blake’s grief was (did he not remember Mountstuart tried calling?), and most importantly, how different the two men are. For all Blake is Mountstuart’s protégé, he sure doesn’t share Mountstuart’s casual superiority. Or lack of idealism—Mountstuart returned for money, not to make the Company a better entity. His frank dismissal of Avery’s praise for Leda and Rama is pretty humorous, though.
I really like the way Carter begins to parcel out exposition in this chapter so that readers can begin to piece together what’s been going on behind the scenes this entire time, and how well it’s rooted in historical fact (e.g. the tension between the Board and Calcutta).
Even after everything he’s been through, Avery finds it hard to accept that “Thuggee” is a Company sham. I’m so frustrated with him whenever I read this chapter but it makes perfect narrative sense, and I’m glad Carter didn’t take the easy way out. Mountstuart’s assessment of Sleeman is a thing of beauty, though. And his assessment of Feringhea nicely confirms what readers have probably suspected.
We finally learn what Blake was doing on his nocturnal rambles; again, if only he’d taken Avery into his confidence at the time! Mountstuart at least levels with him in the way Blake should have done all along, but now it’s a bit too late for that to be helpful.
We also finally learn the truth of what happened to Mountstuart in the prologue, and that things could have turned out very differently if his personal flaws hadn’t got the better of him. (I can’t help speculate how differently things would have turned out of Mountstuart had got his report back to Auckland, or to the Board in London.)
Avery has a lot to mull over given what he’s just learned about the attack outside Jubblepore. But he doesn’t have the time to do it now, because chances are very good he’ll be dead within the day.
Chapter 14: Already I have a grudging fellow feeling for Sleeman; Mountstuart is insufferable. Luckily Blake knows how to cut through his BS. Fascinating to see Blake mother hening over Mountstuart and Avery being disabused of his hero worship (I thought you’d be taller!)
Avery’s betrayal of Blake is doubly hard to read, both because Blake could have prevented it had he been a little more forthcoming and because Avery so obviously felt reservations—and then full-on regrets—but also felt he had no choice but to carry out his duty.
Carter makes what should be a pretty boring scene—digging a hole through a rock wall—gripping reading. Blake working through his injuries. Mountstuart’s typical insouciance. Avery and Blake in a standoff about who’s most expendable, and Avery confessing to get Blake to go instead of him. I really felt for him so much here, and for Blake, who has to suddenly confront the betrayal, grok and forgive why it happened, and then get Avery to escape, all in less than a page. Then we get our first firsthand look at Blake’s parkour skills. I love this passage so much.
The jangal escape is such a well-written passage. Just reading it is claustrophobic. But it’s also beautiful, a reprisal of much of the scenery the duo traveled through on the way to Jubblepore, as if we’re doing a quick rewind through their journey. And then we get to one of my all-time favorite scenes in the books: Blake busting out with “William” before spilling the beans to keep Avery engaged and willing to put one foot in front of the other. And then Avery opening up about his life. I just love this so much, both for the showing-not-telling, and the climax of all the character development that’s happened so far.
The opium, however, is ominous, especially in light of our growing realization of Mountstuart’s addiction, knowing what we do about what happens when he goes into withdrawal.
It must have taken a lot out of Blake to thieve from the locals. That knowledge, however, is lightened by the levity of Blake dressing Avery as a native woman. (I admit, I like this passage a lot, and not for the reasons the author intended!) Mountstuart coaching Avery on how to walk properly is hysterical; and oh, it’s interesting to see his and Blake’s disillusionment with and disappointment in each other coming out so plainly as this chapter closes. I have such mental backstory for these two, all based off these short but well done passages that pack a punch way above their word count.
Chapter 15: opens with the villains still in hot pursuit. Blake, it seems, has endlessly high persuasion rolls, and thankfully talks the sadhu into hiding them despite the obvious risk to his life. I wonder what Blake said to get not just that, but a blessing out of the man.
Blake nursing Mountstuart through his deepening withdrawal even as Mountstuart remonstrates with him is hard to read; you get a sense that this is what their entire relationship was like. We get a fascinating look into Blake’s early days in India that Carter immediately leavens with the gut-punch of Mountstuart’s reason for taking Blake in: he really was just an experiment. Poor Blake, getting this guy as his pseudoparent.
And gaaah! Avery! After everything you’re still willing to trust not just the Company, but Hogwood?! I can only imagine what Blake must have been thinking here. Carter makes this passage intolerable, because readers know the betrayal is coming (even if Avery doesn’t), just not when.
And when it comes, it’s worse than you would expect, because Mir Aziz is in on the betrayal. Technically, this is just so well done, because the real thugs (in the original and modern sense of the word) are Hogwood and his goons. There’s a little bit of Bond villain dialogue here, but overall it works in context. And then the brutal fight scene. Hogwood killing Mountstuart in cold blood. Hogwood and Mir Aziz both letting the red shirts do their dirty work for them. Avery killing Mir Aziz. Oh god, this is hard to read every time, even before we get to Blake, regretful and in shock. And Avery carrying him into Mirzapore.
Chapter 16: From a craft perspective, I love the parallels between this chapter and the arrival in Jubblepore: the particulars of their arrival, Avery’s wounds, Avery watching over Blake’s recovery… Sameer saving Avery’s books is a lovely touch.
Poor Avery, trying so hard to make sure the truth gets out and running up against a wall of well-meaning Company men as credulous and biased as he once was. Thank goodness he’s learned enough not to hand Mountstuart’s report over to a Company rando, but that said, is Macnaghten really the guy who should have it?
Poor Sameer, being kicked out of the sick rooms.
Blake giving his notes to Avery is difficult to read: Blake clearly thinks he’s going to die and the wool is finally coming completely off Avery’s eyes. It’s a skillful use of emotional stakes to make the narrative big reveal something far weightier than straight end-of-novel exposition. Avery is having a real crisis of conscience here, which is also both entirely believable and a really skillful way to continue the narrative tension through the denouement, because we aren’t sure whether he’ll be on a boat back to India or staying on as the toast of Calcutta society.
The audience with Lord Auckland is well written: this is the apex of the Company and social pyramids Avery’s set out to climb, but now that he’s seeing the top, it looks very different than it might have even a few months before. Blake forcing Auckland and Macnaghten to hear ugly truths they’ve already decided to bury is hard reading, as is Avery’s determination to back Blake up.
Watching the papers burn: holy crap. And Blake still trying to fight the good fight regardless. Even though they’ve lost the war, he still manages to extract some concessions from Macnaughten; I cheer every one. Again, not a pleasant passage, but a very well written one: you really get the sense of how thousands of little decisions like this added up to shape the course of history over the following decades, and how things might have been different if people’s attitudes weren’t so parochial and hardened. Avery asking for Macpherson’s name to be cleared instead of something to personally enrich himself, and Blake refusing, once again, the Company’s largesse out of principle, help keep this section from being utterly hopeless.
And then: Collinson, making his first full appearance to make everything worse. His shift from “Mr. Blake” to “Jem” while demanding Blake address him as “Sir Theo” is all kinds of skin-crawly. This initial impression is confirmed 100-fold when he essentially signs Buchanan’s death warrant. We very much get the sense this is because Buchanan’s bungling of things inconvenienced Collison, not because what he’s been doing is objectively horrific. Thank god Avery once again insists on Macpherson’s rehabilitation as a precondition of his silence.
Collinson is absolutely right: he is a realist and Blake an idealist. This passage subtly shows how much the world at large suffers when people at either end of the spectrum dig in to their positions: Collinson’s unadulterated realism is effing up both India and the Company’s own fortunes because it isn’t tenable in the long term, and Blake’s unbendable idealism deprives the Company of a voice that could put the breaks on Collinson and the other realists.
Oh Avery, do not let yourself be alone in a room with Collinson!
Chapter 17: Oh, what a chapter! We open on a dock, but who is departing for where? Before we find out, we have to move back in time a bit to Blake possibly dying of fever, and Avery having very strong Feels about his loyalty and debt to Blake.
Avery hanging out in Blake’s house in Blacktown because it’s the only place he feels comfortable (even as he drinks up Calcutta society’s hero worship)—oh. He learns a bit more about Blake from his many visitors, and also struggles with the desire to see more of India.
And then, the letter from Helen. Their reunion is painful for multiple reasons, not least of which that they are so clearly operating under mental images of who the other is that don’t have much basis in reality, for all they’re both enchanted by and invested in them.
Thank god Frank’s name is finally cleared. Along with Sameer’s rehabilitation it’s a small bit of brightness in an otherwise grim denouement.
Oh, Avery. You are not betraying Blake by staying, but neither are you understood by Helen… I also worry whether Avery will be able to keep as open a mind once Blake’s back in England and he’s surrounded once more by the usual Company types.
Blake is obviously taken aback by Avery’s snap engagement. Aside from Avery’s confession of his conversation with Sleeman and Blake’s realization regarding Hogwood, it’s really the only time we’ve seen him surprised. He tries to forewarn Avery, but is just vague enough that Avery can choose to disregard it, perhaps to everyone’s detriment.
As if to drive the point home, the parting scene on the ghat has far more emotional heft to it than anything we’ve seen between Helen and Avery. At least Blake rips up Collinson’s letters of introduction; perhaps with the Rao’s jewels he’ll be able to get enough of a solid footing beneath him in London to escape Collinson’s clutches.
So again, very good stuff. Thoughts on continuing on to The Infidel Stain?
これで以上です。
It's been great fun to revisit and discuss this book, and these final five chapters are especially good, with revelations about what's been afoot, who's been responsible, and some of the meatiest character development in the book. So without further ado:
Chapter 13: Welcome to Part Four. It opens with an immediate surprise: as of yet, Our Heroes are not dead. First thing: I’ve always been confused as to why they didn’t tie Avery’s hands behind his back.
Second thing: Avery’s concern for Blake just does it for me here, as does Blake’s habitual attempt to downplay the damage to himself.
Third thing: Mountstuart at last! And he is not at all what Avery, or I, for that matter, had been expecting. I love the banter between him and Blake here. Also: “Jem.” It’s telling that Blake doesn’t nicen up his speech for Mountstuart anymore.
And again, why even bother tying Avery and Blake up if you aren’t going to do it well and just throw them in a cave with Mountstuart, who apparently isn’t tied up at all.
The Mountstuart-Blake reunion is fascinating. It gives us a sense of how long it’s been since Blake’s left the company (five years), how deep Blake’s grief was (did he not remember Mountstuart tried calling?), and most importantly, how different the two men are. For all Blake is Mountstuart’s protégé, he sure doesn’t share Mountstuart’s casual superiority. Or lack of idealism—Mountstuart returned for money, not to make the Company a better entity. His frank dismissal of Avery’s praise for Leda and Rama is pretty humorous, though.
I really like the way Carter begins to parcel out exposition in this chapter so that readers can begin to piece together what’s been going on behind the scenes this entire time, and how well it’s rooted in historical fact (e.g. the tension between the Board and Calcutta).
Even after everything he’s been through, Avery finds it hard to accept that “Thuggee” is a Company sham. I’m so frustrated with him whenever I read this chapter but it makes perfect narrative sense, and I’m glad Carter didn’t take the easy way out. Mountstuart’s assessment of Sleeman is a thing of beauty, though. And his assessment of Feringhea nicely confirms what readers have probably suspected.
We finally learn what Blake was doing on his nocturnal rambles; again, if only he’d taken Avery into his confidence at the time! Mountstuart at least levels with him in the way Blake should have done all along, but now it’s a bit too late for that to be helpful.
We also finally learn the truth of what happened to Mountstuart in the prologue, and that things could have turned out very differently if his personal flaws hadn’t got the better of him. (I can’t help speculate how differently things would have turned out of Mountstuart had got his report back to Auckland, or to the Board in London.)
Avery has a lot to mull over given what he’s just learned about the attack outside Jubblepore. But he doesn’t have the time to do it now, because chances are very good he’ll be dead within the day.
Chapter 14: Already I have a grudging fellow feeling for Sleeman; Mountstuart is insufferable. Luckily Blake knows how to cut through his BS. Fascinating to see Blake mother hening over Mountstuart and Avery being disabused of his hero worship (I thought you’d be taller!)
Avery’s betrayal of Blake is doubly hard to read, both because Blake could have prevented it had he been a little more forthcoming and because Avery so obviously felt reservations—and then full-on regrets—but also felt he had no choice but to carry out his duty.
Carter makes what should be a pretty boring scene—digging a hole through a rock wall—gripping reading. Blake working through his injuries. Mountstuart’s typical insouciance. Avery and Blake in a standoff about who’s most expendable, and Avery confessing to get Blake to go instead of him. I really felt for him so much here, and for Blake, who has to suddenly confront the betrayal, grok and forgive why it happened, and then get Avery to escape, all in less than a page. Then we get our first firsthand look at Blake’s parkour skills. I love this passage so much.
The jangal escape is such a well-written passage. Just reading it is claustrophobic. But it’s also beautiful, a reprisal of much of the scenery the duo traveled through on the way to Jubblepore, as if we’re doing a quick rewind through their journey. And then we get to one of my all-time favorite scenes in the books: Blake busting out with “William” before spilling the beans to keep Avery engaged and willing to put one foot in front of the other. And then Avery opening up about his life. I just love this so much, both for the showing-not-telling, and the climax of all the character development that’s happened so far.
The opium, however, is ominous, especially in light of our growing realization of Mountstuart’s addiction, knowing what we do about what happens when he goes into withdrawal.
It must have taken a lot out of Blake to thieve from the locals. That knowledge, however, is lightened by the levity of Blake dressing Avery as a native woman. (I admit, I like this passage a lot, and not for the reasons the author intended!) Mountstuart coaching Avery on how to walk properly is hysterical; and oh, it’s interesting to see his and Blake’s disillusionment with and disappointment in each other coming out so plainly as this chapter closes. I have such mental backstory for these two, all based off these short but well done passages that pack a punch way above their word count.
Chapter 15: opens with the villains still in hot pursuit. Blake, it seems, has endlessly high persuasion rolls, and thankfully talks the sadhu into hiding them despite the obvious risk to his life. I wonder what Blake said to get not just that, but a blessing out of the man.
Blake nursing Mountstuart through his deepening withdrawal even as Mountstuart remonstrates with him is hard to read; you get a sense that this is what their entire relationship was like. We get a fascinating look into Blake’s early days in India that Carter immediately leavens with the gut-punch of Mountstuart’s reason for taking Blake in: he really was just an experiment. Poor Blake, getting this guy as his pseudoparent.
And gaaah! Avery! After everything you’re still willing to trust not just the Company, but Hogwood?! I can only imagine what Blake must have been thinking here. Carter makes this passage intolerable, because readers know the betrayal is coming (even if Avery doesn’t), just not when.
And when it comes, it’s worse than you would expect, because Mir Aziz is in on the betrayal. Technically, this is just so well done, because the real thugs (in the original and modern sense of the word) are Hogwood and his goons. There’s a little bit of Bond villain dialogue here, but overall it works in context. And then the brutal fight scene. Hogwood killing Mountstuart in cold blood. Hogwood and Mir Aziz both letting the red shirts do their dirty work for them. Avery killing Mir Aziz. Oh god, this is hard to read every time, even before we get to Blake, regretful and in shock. And Avery carrying him into Mirzapore.
Chapter 16: From a craft perspective, I love the parallels between this chapter and the arrival in Jubblepore: the particulars of their arrival, Avery’s wounds, Avery watching over Blake’s recovery… Sameer saving Avery’s books is a lovely touch.
Poor Avery, trying so hard to make sure the truth gets out and running up against a wall of well-meaning Company men as credulous and biased as he once was. Thank goodness he’s learned enough not to hand Mountstuart’s report over to a Company rando, but that said, is Macnaghten really the guy who should have it?
Poor Sameer, being kicked out of the sick rooms.
Blake giving his notes to Avery is difficult to read: Blake clearly thinks he’s going to die and the wool is finally coming completely off Avery’s eyes. It’s a skillful use of emotional stakes to make the narrative big reveal something far weightier than straight end-of-novel exposition. Avery is having a real crisis of conscience here, which is also both entirely believable and a really skillful way to continue the narrative tension through the denouement, because we aren’t sure whether he’ll be on a boat back to India or staying on as the toast of Calcutta society.
The audience with Lord Auckland is well written: this is the apex of the Company and social pyramids Avery’s set out to climb, but now that he’s seeing the top, it looks very different than it might have even a few months before. Blake forcing Auckland and Macnaghten to hear ugly truths they’ve already decided to bury is hard reading, as is Avery’s determination to back Blake up.
Watching the papers burn: holy crap. And Blake still trying to fight the good fight regardless. Even though they’ve lost the war, he still manages to extract some concessions from Macnaughten; I cheer every one. Again, not a pleasant passage, but a very well written one: you really get the sense of how thousands of little decisions like this added up to shape the course of history over the following decades, and how things might have been different if people’s attitudes weren’t so parochial and hardened. Avery asking for Macpherson’s name to be cleared instead of something to personally enrich himself, and Blake refusing, once again, the Company’s largesse out of principle, help keep this section from being utterly hopeless.
And then: Collinson, making his first full appearance to make everything worse. His shift from “Mr. Blake” to “Jem” while demanding Blake address him as “Sir Theo” is all kinds of skin-crawly. This initial impression is confirmed 100-fold when he essentially signs Buchanan’s death warrant. We very much get the sense this is because Buchanan’s bungling of things inconvenienced Collison, not because what he’s been doing is objectively horrific. Thank god Avery once again insists on Macpherson’s rehabilitation as a precondition of his silence.
Collinson is absolutely right: he is a realist and Blake an idealist. This passage subtly shows how much the world at large suffers when people at either end of the spectrum dig in to their positions: Collinson’s unadulterated realism is effing up both India and the Company’s own fortunes because it isn’t tenable in the long term, and Blake’s unbendable idealism deprives the Company of a voice that could put the breaks on Collinson and the other realists.
Oh Avery, do not let yourself be alone in a room with Collinson!
Chapter 17: Oh, what a chapter! We open on a dock, but who is departing for where? Before we find out, we have to move back in time a bit to Blake possibly dying of fever, and Avery having very strong Feels about his loyalty and debt to Blake.
Avery hanging out in Blake’s house in Blacktown because it’s the only place he feels comfortable (even as he drinks up Calcutta society’s hero worship)—oh. He learns a bit more about Blake from his many visitors, and also struggles with the desire to see more of India.
And then, the letter from Helen. Their reunion is painful for multiple reasons, not least of which that they are so clearly operating under mental images of who the other is that don’t have much basis in reality, for all they’re both enchanted by and invested in them.
Thank god Frank’s name is finally cleared. Along with Sameer’s rehabilitation it’s a small bit of brightness in an otherwise grim denouement.
Oh, Avery. You are not betraying Blake by staying, but neither are you understood by Helen… I also worry whether Avery will be able to keep as open a mind once Blake’s back in England and he’s surrounded once more by the usual Company types.
Blake is obviously taken aback by Avery’s snap engagement. Aside from Avery’s confession of his conversation with Sleeman and Blake’s realization regarding Hogwood, it’s really the only time we’ve seen him surprised. He tries to forewarn Avery, but is just vague enough that Avery can choose to disregard it, perhaps to everyone’s detriment.
As if to drive the point home, the parting scene on the ghat has far more emotional heft to it than anything we’ve seen between Helen and Avery. At least Blake rips up Collinson’s letters of introduction; perhaps with the Rao’s jewels he’ll be able to get enough of a solid footing beneath him in London to escape Collinson’s clutches.
So again, very good stuff. Thoughts on continuing on to The Infidel Stain?
これで以上です。