How do we perceive a terrorist?
Did Mohammad Atta spend the night with his male lover as the tabloids reported,
or in a New Jersey bar with a lap dancer as the New York Times maintains?
Do we need to understand the terrorist's psyche,
his personality, his politics or his philosophy?
In stark contrast to the long-range titillation
of newspaper accounts of the boys who brought us September 11th
is David Malouf’s
Child’s Play,
a novella written in 1982 about a terrorist
operating out of a housing project in an Italian suburb.
Chillingly told in the first person,
it captures the terrorist’s sense of himself
as a cool idealist whose murderous strategies unfold
as he calmly describes himself and his motivations.
I found this little book a stylistic breath of fresh air
because the first person narration is used not to establish intimacy
but to reveal the profound alienation
of a totally antisocial young man plotting mayhem.
Every convention of coziness and connection we associate
with the first person in today’s fiction has been turned on its head.
Malouf is one of the best writers around today.
This youthful effort shows the promise we have seen blossom in
Remembering Babylon
and
An Imaginary Life.
January 2002
