The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Mortals, by Norman Rush
reviewed by Jason Picone

Untitled document

Norman Rush. Mortals. Knopf, 2003. 715 pp. $26.95.

Norman Rush’s first book since Mating (1991), Mortals is a rich novel of sexual politics set in Botswana during the early days of the post-Cold War era. Rush’s protagonist, Ray Finch, is a contract agent for the CIA masquerading as an English professor in Botswana’s capitol of Gaborone. Ray and his wife, Iris, whom he obsessively adores after seventeen years of matrimony, argue over Ray’s continued involvement with the agency, with their relationship suffering the results. While a sketch of the plot resembles that of a paperback thriller, the high level of word craft, outstanding wit, and Rush’s mature intellectual probing raises Mortals to the forefront of contemporary literature. Ray’s romantic idea that one of the worthiest goals a man can pursue is to find an woman and worship her for the rest of his existence is neither a new nor liberating notion, but Rush’s insights betray an unusually keen intellect on the topic of romantic love. If the book has a flaw, it is the length, but even the most exhausting passages are oddly likeable, like a beloved mate whose faults you dote on, as Ray does Iris’s. Although Rush’s novelistic form and approach is straightforward, his ambition and genius are amply evident in the realms of sexual and political intrigue, where his careful building of ideas and complications simmers into full-fledged outbreaks in both areas. Rush’s indictments of the U.S.’s post-Cold War foreign policy charge that the U.S. is guilty of instigating otherwise dormant or harmless elements into violent actions, a serious and immediate subject that the author is nevertheless able to color with humor and levity. In a book of many investigations, the preeminent one is suggested by the title—as well as Mortals’s musings on Paradise Lost—given absolute free will, what is the best life a man can choose for himself? With great diligence and difficulty, Rush answers the question in a meditative and satisfying manner.


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The Review of Contemporary Fiction Mortals, by Norman Rush reviewed by Jason Picone Untitled document Norman Rush. Mortals. Knopf, 2003. 715 pp. $26.95. Norman Rush’s first book since Mating (1991), Mortals is a rich novel of sexual politics set in Botswana during the early days of the post-Cold War era. Rush’s protagonist, Ray Finch, is a contract agent for the CIA masquerading as an English professor in Botswana’s capitol of Gaborone. Ray and his wife, Iris, whom he obsessively adores after seventeen years of matrimony, argue over Ray’s continued involvement with the agency, with their relationship suffering the results. While a sketch of the plot resembles that of a paperback thriller, the high level of word craft, outstanding wit, and Rush’s mature intellectual probing raises Mortals to the forefront of contemporary literature. Ray’s romantic idea that one of the worthiest goals a man can pursue is to find an woman and worship her for the rest of his existence is neither a new nor liberating notion, but Rush’s insights betray an unusually keen intellect on the topic of romantic love. If the book has a flaw, it is the length, but even the most exhausting passages are oddly likeable, like a beloved mate whose faults you dote on, as Ray does Iris’s. Although Rush’s novelistic form and approach is straightforward, his ambition and genius are amply evident in the realms of sexual and political intrigue, where his careful building of ideas and complications simmers into full-fledged outbreaks in both areas. Rush’s indictments of the U.S.’s post-Cold War foreign policy charge that the U.S. is guilty of instigating otherwise dormant or harmless elements into violent actions, a serious and immediate subject that the author is nevertheless able to color with humor and levity. In a book of many investigations, the preeminent one is suggested by the title—as well as Mortals’s musings on Paradise Lost—given absolute free will, what is the best life a man can choose for himself? With great diligence and difficulty, Rush answers the question in a meditative and satisfying manner.

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