Inheritance Lost

Inheritance Lost is a book by Julian Ruck. Ruck has an unusually strong feel for language, place, history and character. His training as a lawyer really shows through in the precision of his language. Ruck has thoughtfully provided the first Chapter of each of his books at his website http://www.julianruck.co.uk/index.html and I'm going to look at the first chapter of "Inheritance Lost" and hopefully give you an idea of the depth and power of his writing.

Go read it here:
http://www.julianruck.co.uk/books/inheritance-lost-chapter.html

"Two hundred metres from the landing point the engines of the two Geminis were cut and the propeller shafts lifted."

The first sentence sets the scene. The choice of the passive voice sets up a distance between the author and his subjects. It has an almost forensic air which is carried over to the end of the chapter, but there is playfulness too with the zodiacal allusion of the Geminis acting as a clever set up for the later appearance of the moon. The mechanical act of the first sentence is continued in the next, but immediately it is contrasted with the oozing biological reality of the Kelp.

"This was done to prevent any entanglement of the propeller with the steaming slicks of green kelp that stuck to the shore and oozed on to the shingle in order to confound any hostile footsteps."

Here the combatants are introduced and their individual characters set up. The mechanistic inhuman forces of the boats, which are identified with the hostile footsteps are in danger of being confounded by the Kelp. The Kelp is obviously meant to represent the Falkland islanders who are sometimes known as Kelpers. Although not present in person, the foreboding image of the entangling, oozing Kelp clinging to the shingle means they are a felt presence.

"The engines were also cut in order to keep noise to a minimum. From this point on, oars alone were relied on for propulsion. This was the most dangerous position for the men to be in; they were exposed and vulnerable."

Julian's clever use of the passive now comes to the fore - "From this point on, oars alone were relied on" - manages to have a poetic and historic grandeur. In "oars" we hear the echoes of  Viking raids which the consonance of the "point" and "propulsion" and "cut" and "keep" reinforces. The same internal rhyme scheme is  as old as story telling in English, conciously evoking the cadences of Beowulf. We are aware that these men - anonymous for now - are meant to represent the heroic breed. So strong is this evocation that we are unprepared for their intense vulnerability.

"One of the Geminis drifted into the stand-off position to cover the other going in to deposit the men. This would act as a firm fire base should any trouble arise."

"The four man team beached without incident."

Here we reach a particularly difficult passage. The men have been introduced, but the Geminis continue to act as if they were autonomous, as if they were characters in their own right. Sailors often talk of a ship as if she was a personality with a character and will of her own. Julian's writing features many strong female characters and I think this is the key to this passage. These men are far from their wives and girlfriends but at the same time in a complex interdependence with the feminine. The Geminis carry them into trouble and at the same time are a firm fire base, a haven from trouble.

"A Gemini engine started up."

In a less able writer's hands this "women, eh?" humour would fall flat, but here it is apt. It marks the moment at which the men are on their own. They have left the social world of male and female and entered a more primal state, where they can assert their masculinity, brilliantly brought to life by the next paragraph.

"The bloody fool! Get down!" Treharne ordered. The team dissolved into the shingle and carried on cursing where Treharne had left off. The cox would be dealt with later; he could have blown the whole mission. Anger soon waned however as the fading Gemini engine reminded the team that they were now alone. Isolated."

The men do not duck or throw themselves to the ground, they "dissolve into the shingle". They become part of nature, the countlessness of the stones on the beach once again reinforcing their anonymity, their interchangeable, archetypal nature. The repition at the end of the stanza is a device frequently used by Julian. It asks us to reflect on the two shades of meaning provided by "alone" and "isolated".

"As they prepared to set off an inconsiderate moon decided to make an unannounced appearance. This was not supposed to happen. Another balls up. The military was full of them. Treharne stuck two fingers up at the white face that sneered its treachery and allegiance to the enemy within."

Critics could argue for years over the exact interpretation of this. There seem to be several layers of meaning that one might spend a lifetime unpacking. Here they set off again, marking a quest within a quest. The personification of the moon is coupled with the indefinite article implying a multiplicity of moons. Based on the earlier mythological word play - Gemini, Beowulf - I think it is fair to look for wider mythological meanings, but the moon does more tasks still. The knowing use of the "white face" has colonial connotations, but the ambivalence of this symbol is beautifully brought out by the counterpoint of "treachery and allegiance to the enemy within". By balancing the sentence just so we are not sure at whom the treachery is directed, nor whether the "enemy within" signifies each man's internal struggle with his own conscience or the island's own struggle for identity or the cox who gunned the engine or the actual enemy within the island. What are we to make of the two fingered salute? Is this victory or the teasing two fingered gesture of the French to the English longbowmen. Is the failure of the mission being admitted in the very act of defiance?

A lesser writer might have allowed his characters to muse wryly on the oxymoronic status of "military intelligence" but Julian anticipates the reader and instead undercuts the obvious and hackneyed joke by making us reflect on the objective nature of military intelligence. It might be prepared for a full moon, but it cannot fathom the symbolism of the moon, or tell us what this moon means to these men on this particular night. Or to the reader.

"When they were one hour away from the target they stopped. Weapons and kit were checked. With Treharne leading, the team set off again. They were confident, strong. They were about to reach their target when the ground erupted as an explosion ripped and tore, bringing the secret mission to an abrupt end."

The chapter is drawing to a close and in another densely structure paragraph we see Julian's holographic ability. Each part contains the whole. For the third time the team set off, but they seem no closer to their goal. The filmic shorthand "Weapons and kit were checked" stirs up images from a hundred different films. We see that they are confident and strong, but this does no avail them. Arrayed against a baffling and nebulous enemy within they can only be undone. The explosion rips and tears them taking their secrets with it.

Only now do these nameless soldiers solidify into a terrifying firework flash of personality. The tragic irony of the brief frail lives of men is heightened by the juxtaposition with the eternal and mythical themes. We are born and die neither knowing what we fight against or why and though our heroes are the measure of our actions, we can never be their equals.

"Captain Kristian Treharne, Special Boat Service, formerly of 42nd Commando Royal Marines, flew through the cold night air unaware of the firework display that had sent him on his wingless flight. The bloody debris of an arrogant Argentinian anti-personnel mine had defied the puny efforts of the four man team to wreak havoc upon its sovereign territory."

And so the chapter ends. The final sentence in its challenging syntax and complex anthropomorphisation of an arrogant mine shows us how meaning cannot survive our extinction, that without man words mean nothing.