Orpheus Lost

Only a year after Richard Flanagan's The Unknown Terrorist, came Orpheus Lost by Janet Turner Hospital, and though JTH's is an infinitely better novel, it's no coincidence that these two authors were writing about issues arising from Western governments' responses to 9/11. By the middle of that decade there was deep disquiet around the world about the human rights of those suspected of terrorism. The legitimate fear of mass casualties from Al Qaeda's attacks had led to practices previously abhorred by the West: torture, detention without trial, the abrogation of habeas corpus; imprisonment under inhumane conditions; an excess of covert surveillance; and the suspension of legal representation for suspects on the grounds of national show more security. Public panic was exploited by politicians, effectively silencing all objections. Authors who spoke out against all this were rare.

This was a gripping novel. Leela, from 'Paradise Land' in the US Bible Belt meets Jewish-Lebanese Mishka Bartok from the Daintree Rainforest, and they fall in love. They are both students in Boston: she's doing the maths of music and he's doing the music of the Middle East. They make a lot of passionate love.

But Mishka goes to a mosque (to hear their music) and meets a man who says he recognises him as the son of a radical Islamist. This is the catalyst for Mishka, who has never known his father, and whose grandparents are Holocaust survivors, to set off for Baghdad with a false passport. This is because his identity is fragile and he thinks that finding his missing father will help him to resolve who he really is. He realises that he may not like his father or what he stands for (especially because as a fundamentalist, his father would abhor music), but Mishka feels that he needs to know.

Into this messy situation comes Cobb Slaughter, a childhood 'friend' of Leela, the son of a veteran of the Iraq war, and a private security consultant. He's a gung-ho military man with a penchant for summary justice and torture. Slaughter becomes suspicious of these visits to the mosque and Mishka's association with suspected terrorists. When Mishka disappears, he gets Leela arrested and has Mishka 'renditioned', a practice by which the Americans send their suspects to friendly nations who are less squeamish about torture, to do their dirty work for them.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/01/16/orpheus-lost-by-janet-turner-hospital/ show less

When I started this book, I was thinking maybe an 8 but as the story progressed, I became more and more captivated by it.
Leela a gifted mathematician is studying in Boston. While waiting in the subway to catch a train she and others are enchanted by the sound of a violin playing classical music. When she finds the source, an attractive young man, she is drawn to him. She follows him and their friendship evolves into a passionate love story. They immerse themselves in each other and their love of their work until a terrorist attack disrupts the tenor of their life. Mishka, a young Australian musician of Jewish descent, is also the son of an international terrorist, something he is unaware of. Leela is picked up and taken in for show more questioning, because of her association with Mishka. Leela, too, had been unaware that they were being spied on by none other than a friend and maths rival from her small home town. Cobb Slaughter is filled with both fascination and obsession over Leela and enjoys the chance to intimidate her. However, events soon spiral out of control and the reader is exposed to the underworld of terror and torture. show less

This is a literate thriller which truly will keep you reading until the wee hours of the night. Leela meets and falls in love with Mishka, both students in Boston. Mishka has a mysterious past but Leela's own past in a small southern town arrives to haunt her. Admidst a terrorist attack and post 9/11 paranoia the story is a whirlwind of passion and betrayal which matches the brilliance of her previous novel, 'Due Preparations for the Plague'.

Hospital is an Australian writer who now teaches at the University of South Carolina. She received the Patrick White Award for lifetime literary achievement. I met her at the American Library Association's annual summer convention in Anaheim, California.

Orpheus Lost is one of several “Post 9/11” fictional accounts surrounding or influenced by those events. Hospital has done an excellent job of capturing the mystery and the fear engendered by our government’s reaction to the attacks. The clandestine operations, kidnapping, torture, murder, and other horrific acts our country has perpetrated following 9/11 are all described in chilling detail.

The novel begins innocently enough with the meeting of two scholars in Boston who both show more study music. Leela from South Carolina, and Mishka Bartok from Sidney, Australia hit it off immediately. They seem destined for each other. The first section of the book detailing their meeting and growing relationship is musical, calm, and beautiful.

However, both have dark secrets, and the story quickly descends into a maelstrom of horror. The novel ends with a crescendo, but if the story has any flaws, the end happens too quickly. At 353 pages, another hundred pages could have easily detailed the resolutions. I wanted more of the story in the last 80 pages or so.

Hospital’s prose is absorbing and deceptively simple. She draws readers into the story with interesting, likeable characters. What happens to them has happened to way too many people over the last eight years. We can only hope change is coming.

--Jim, 11/30/08 show less

Loved it. A clever relatively contemporary story, that was easy to read and a great buildup of the characters. I'll definitely read more of her stories.

I really loved this book. I know the storyline seemed a bit far-fetched at times, but I loved the quirkiness of the characters, from the mysterious uncle playing in the upstairs room in the Daintree, to the father with all of his hangups. I introduced it to my book club and it really divided the members, some enjoying the read and others not coping with the gaps in the storyline and the fracturing of the story as you move from one character to another. I found it rich and rewarding.

This is a story about how people deal with desperation. Leela and Mishka fall in love during a time when Boston is undergoing some suicide bombing incidents. Mishka finds out the father he thought had died before he was born is in fact alive in Lebanon and is an admired figure among right-wing Islamic extremists. During a trip to Beirut he and his father are "picked up" for interrogation by a private out-sourced military contractor, who just happens to have grown up with Leela back in South Carolina. It's hard to describe and parts of this book are hard to read, but its really a compelling story.