Thou Shouldst Not Have Been Old Till Thou Hadst Been Wise (King Lear)

Hello. We are in the middle of examining the final, untitled story in David Szalay’s collection All That Man Is. Last time, we noted how things begin with the protagonist, a seventy-three-year-old man named Tony, pre-occupied with thoughts of death and the end of his individual existence which seems to make his life lack meaning. As we continue, Tony talks to the cleaning lady and has breakfast. He checks email and reads one from his daughter Cordelia (King Lear fans take note!). We learn that his grandson is Simon, the protagonist of the first story in the collection. It is a year after the time of that story, and Simon is in his first year at Oxford and has had a poem published in “some magazine.”

Here we may note again how poetry is a part of Szalay’s prose. This poem is presented in full. It describes the Turkish (Ottoman) ruler Mehmet II holding a rose, a somewhat incongruous act for a man who was a fierce warrior and ruthless monarch. But the poem talks about how Mehmet is smelling the rose and experiencing:

Just a moment’s immersion in the texture

of existence

Tony likes the poem. “The words made him think of the way he spent a minute or two, earlier that morning, staring at the wardrobe upstairs. The sense he had then of losing himself in the act of perception.”

This picks out the theme of the story, that someone who’s spent their life dealing with power and commerce relationships can learn to “smell the roses.” It’s a nice feature of Mr. Szalay’s prose to present it this way—using a poem written by the protagonist’s grandson. Alternatives might be to present it in dialogue with another character, perhaps combined with inner reactions, or less successfully, in narrative summary, explaining something that can be shown. Mr. Szalay finds a creative option.

Then, a crisis. Tony is restless and journeys out to see some nearby historic sites. He has lunch in a café and observes a little girl who is singing a song to herself. It is a song probably designed to teach the young singer the months of the year and consists of their names and a brief description of what occurs during their time. Thus, “In January it snows, February is masked…November, an extra jumper. December, Jesus.” Tony praises the child’s singing. This certainly continues the theme in the story of the passage of time.

Leaving, he has a serious car accident, caused by his misjudgment.

Perhaps, this brush with death is transformative. Brushes with death often are, best B.

Immediately after the accident, we have a new chapter, very short, presenting a Latin phrase: Amemus eterna e non peritura. Let us love that which is eternal and not what is transient. This is an inscription Tony saw on the ruins he visited. It certainly resonates with the story’s theme.

Tony is seriously injured in the crash but recovers. His condition and limited awareness after being in a coma forces him to “lose himself” in the act of perception. Here, he’s lying in the hospital bed. “The door had a panel of frosted glass in it, and figures slide across it sometimes, dark smudges, animating the facets of the panel for a moment.”

His wife Joanna visits him, and we learn that the couple is estranged. More on this to come.

Tony sees his injured face in the hospital mirror and muses:

“So what is eternal? (thinking of the Latin inscription)

Nothing, that’s the problem. Nothing on earth. Not the earth itself. Not the sun. Not the stars in the night sky.

Everything has an end.

Everything.

We know that now.”

Please note here the structure of the lines, separated as they are, and the repetition (noted last time) of the phrases beginning with “Not.” These poetic devices certainly draw attention to Tony’s inner feelings, a sort of bleakness in which he seems to accept his own mortality amid the persistence of the sensory world. But he tries to find the eternal and isn't done.

Is this the transformation? Part of it, I think but there will be more. Thus far, we see Tony feeling he doesn't know what's eternal, that perhaps his death will be the death of everything. A lack of transcendence, as it were. Let’s stop there and plan to tackle the end next time.

Till then.

#AllThatManIs #DavidSzalay #AlanBray