"Cast Not The Day" by Paul Waters.
Posted: Fri May 8th, 2009, 11:16 pm
Paul Waters has chosen another neglected historical period for the follow-up to his début novel, “Of Merchants & Heroes”, which so impressed me last year. The setting is Britain, mid-fourth century, a generation before it is abandoned by the Roman Empire. The death of Emperor Constantine I has led to conflict between his three sons. Troops are pulled out of Britain to support the imperial claim of Constans, based in Gaul, against his brother Constantius in the East, and Saxon raiders are taking advantage of the unrest.
Don’t expect a historical adventure along the lines of Simon Scarrow’s books. This is a novel about the conflict of philosophies and ways of life as rabid Christianity, now the official Imperial religion, fights to subdue a still active paganism at a time of civil war and disarray.
This conflict is seen through the eyes of Drusus, whom we follow from childhood to manhood. At the cusp of adolescence his life is torn apart when his father, a loyal administrator for Constantine, falls foul of his successor, Constans. Drusus is sent to stay with his mother’s family in London, where for the first time he comes into contact with the Christian community. There’s no doubt about who the villains are here. The Christians are portrayed as the destroyers of all that is good, beautiful, tolerant and rational, and seen in caricature, from Drusus’ carping, joyless and jealous aunt, to the odious and ironically named Bishop Pulcher of London, a gross, cowardly and venal opportunist.
Drusus is brought up to behave correctly, fairly and with dignity, in accordance with the ideals of the classical philosophers, but he and like-minded others are fighting a rear-guard action. At one stage Drusus debates with the Bishop:
“Why did God give man reason, if not to discover the truth and own it for himself?”
The Bishop replies, “Words! The time for such questioning is past. The people have no care for your reason and complicated truths. They want certainty—simple, easy certainty—and I give it to them. That is why I shall triumph in the end”.
Waters paints a vivid picture of life in London and its rural surroundings at the time, his knowledge is impressive and his writing stylish, so why did this story leave me feeling curiously dissatisfied?
Firstly, Drusus, our “eyes” through this tale, is strangely elusive as a character, and so fails to carry the reader with him. His role as a vehicle for the exploration of moral issues renders him a less than genuine, engaging personality, and his affair with his friend Marcellus seems oddly passionless. I appreciate that Waters prefers a discreet touch when it comes to homosexual relationships and agree that less can be more when it comes to sex scenes, but here a little more physicality would have added conviction to the affair. Finally, the ending was a shocking case of going out with a whimper rather than a bang. I know that Drusus is acting in a way consistent with rational thought, a triumph of will as opposed to the unthinking violence displayed by the Christian faction, but to me, blood-thirsty little soul that I am, this story demanded more drama as a finale, with retribution involving sacrificial blood-letting. Given that Drusus is a soldier, his PC response seems downright feeble. The rather inconclusive finish leaves me wondering if this book might be the first in a series.
Sophomore novels are always difficult, and I certainly wouldn’t be put off reading any other books written by Paul Waters, but hope that future stories have just a little more fire in the belly.