The People's Act of Love - James Meek

A novel set in Siberia the uncertain aftermath of the Russian revolution, The People's Act of Love charts the reclusive and seemingly simple lives of a religious sect of people living in the town of Yazyk. Under the watchful and curious eyes of Czech soldiers, the town tries to live peacefully without attracting attention. But the town and the secrets of the sect are threatened when a mysterious stranger called Samarin arrives and says he is being tracked by a cannibal called The Mohican.

The novel charts 1919 Russia's political paranoia and volatility with glimpses of brutality littered throughout the novel. From dozens of allusions to women being raped by soldiers to the fate of Samarin's beloved Katya, who was taken to the White Garden prison as a plaything to the prince, to Anna Petrova's camera being removed when she takes photos of unionists being slaughtered, the novel constantly shows and develops the sense of fear and distrust experienced by people at that time. This fear seeps through to the relationships between the soldiers. Even when they are fighting for the same side, they are constantly in fear of their psychopathic leader Matula. With no sense of morality, Matula is a leader to be feared, constantly planning and plotting the downfall of anyone he wants removed. Fearing the respect Mutz has from his soldiers, Matula plots against him, setting him up as a power-hungry soldier desperate to save himself over his colleagues. These machinations act as a microcosm for Russia's political climate at the time: paranoid, brutal, and filled with distrust.

This theme of deception, distrust and lies is woven throughout the novel's plot and characters. From Anna's father, the painter who paints portraits of people as they want to appear, not as they actually appear, to the 'widow' Anna, who is actually married to the castrate Bashalov, to the mysterious Samarin, who turns out to be the monster depicted in his own stories. Upon his arrival, Samarin is given the benefit of the doubt; he is given a chance to explain his story and weaves a number of the townspeople and the soliders under his spell. He tells them he is an escaped political prisoner detained in a the White Garden, a prison in the north which descended into chaos and cannibalism when its supplies were cut off. He tells them he was only saved after being taken under the wing of a cannibal called The Mohican, who fed him and fattened him in order to eventually kill him. Samarin tells them he knew The Mohican's plans and managed to flee from him after they escaped from the prison. He tells the townspeople that The Mohican is tracking him and will arrive in their town.

After securing their trust enough to be released into the care of Anna Petrova, he sleeps with her. But the next morning, he takes her son Alyosha to a train as bait in order to steal it. It is in this time that Anna and the town realise that Samarin is The Mohican, the cannibal prisoner intent on causing a revolution. It is the most dramatic depiction of deception and storytelling in the novel. His stories created a man the town feared more than anything, a man so evil he will mercilessly murder and turn to cannibalism for his own gains, a man he fears more than anyone. In fact, he is that very man, using his ability to conceal parts of his personality, to shift and change, to work achieve his revolutionary gains.

Aside from deception, sex and sexuality is another key theme to the novel. Politically, sex becomes a weapon as the soldiers rape countless women throughout the revolution and its aftermath. That is the fate of political prisoner Katya, who is given to the prince and his friends to be used as punishment for her disloyalty to the state. In Yazyk women who want foo, clothes and to protect themselves become the sexual partners of the soldiers, using sex as self-preservation. On the other extreme, is Bashalov and his religious sect of followers. As a soldier, he had never partaken in the attacks on women and as Anna's husband he had enjoyed the pleasure of sex and even fathered Alyosha. But following his experience at war, he is so repulsed by his male sexuality and convinced of its path to evil, that he is castrated. He believes that castration will make him an angel and bring him closer to God. In the process, he becomes asexual, unable to have sex, to father more children, to physically express his sexuality. Further than this, he then brings this belief to Yazyk and becomes the castrator, spreading the belief that it will bring men closer to God. In the process, he wipes out the town's future as the men are unable to have children. After experiencing the ugliest use of sex by his comrades in war, he embraces the other extreme, wiping out the town's ability to procreate.

On the other end of the spectrum is the novel's depiction of female sexuality, which is represented solely in Anna. Anna is a wife who is sexually widowed by her husband's castration; they can no longer have sex and they can no longer have children. As part of the castration, Bashalov and Anna agree that she should live as a widow and that their marriage should be kept a secret in Yazyk. As a result, Anna lives on the outskirts of the town as a widow, a woman free to be with other men. Her sexuality is portrayed as voracious. After the castration, she literally tries to make Bashalov have sex with her until she finds the castrated gap. After that, she has an affair with Mutz. But her desire goes into overdrive when she sees Samarin and hears his story. She agrees to take him home and seduces him, a seduction which ultimately nearly leads to her son's death. Through its portrayal of Anna, the novel reinforces traditional views of female sexuality; Anna is irrational, hysterical and driven by her desire. Her desire exposes her son, the most important thing in her world, to grave danger and nearly leads to a devastating act of terrorism. This unease about female sexuality is unfortunatley never reconciled in the novel.

An unique, disturbing and graphic depiction of the lengths people go to in times of war, revolution and political unrest, The People's Act of Love is a fascinating insight into how deeply people deceive and can be deceived. Dark and grotesque in parts, it exposes how people can create fictions about their personality and even religion and the devastating results these lies can achieve.

My next read - Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters