The Unknown Terrorist - Richard Flanagan

I was looking forward to reading The Unknown Terrorist until I came across a review on the Spleen blog that set off alarm bells. Surely, I thought, this blogger has got it all wrong...after all this is a Richard Flanagan novel we're talking about. But no, Jonathan Shaw has nailed it. The Unknown Terrorist is a disaster...and not just because of the sloppy prose and editing that Shaw points out. It's a disaster because it fails to accomplish what it sets out to do. Flanagan wants to raise the hackles of his readers. He wants us to be outraged by media and government manipulation of details and facts regarding terrorist threats. Instead, Flanagan's klutz-like manipulation of his story simply leaves the reader exasperated. It's hard to raise the ire of the populace with a novel that shows just how unlikely it is that the threat you posit will ever come to be. This novel is part of the same breathless disaster-porn nationalism that saw Australian reporters asking leaders of the Taliban if Australia was going to be attacked. Flanagan, along with most people, seems to have forgotten the dismissive laughter of the Taliban. When even the most vile of terrorists don't have any regard for you, what are you left with to write about? In Flanagan's case, you are left with a cast of cliches that you traipse about Sydney for 300 pages, making them do the most unlikely things to serve your agenda.

A much better attempt at this theme was made by Andrew McGahan with his Underground. McGahan's novel, with its over the top scenario, slightly science-fictional ideas, and dark humour achieves the outrage that The Unknown Terrorist strives for. It has a blistering last few pages that indict Australian society in a way that shames us all.

Still, I can't help feeling that no Australian author has yet captured the essence of our post-9/11 existence. Both Flanagan and McGahan have had to resort to what amounts to slapstick to cobble together their books. They shy away from authenticity. Is it because there is no story, nothing authentic about their themes? Is it because there is nothing to write about? I think so.