When fiction substantiates history
Farida Shaikh reads a story shrouded in mystery
Not long ago, I chose Stonehenge as the background screen on my desk top computer, though I knew so little about it. Then I read the book, which came as a gift from a friend who visited the site in mid-February this year.
The book is a début novel by documentary film maker Sam Christer, dedicated to his young son of whom he is so proud. The story has a dramatic start. It is fast paced and engaging, though this quality of the narrative wanes towards the confusing end. Even so, Stonehenge is a close comparison to Dan Brown.
When Sam Christer was thinking about writing a book the publisher suggested Stonehenge. The book is sold in 33 countries and was on the best selling chart in the UK. It is a modern cult thriller, and I expect will soon be turned into a good film.
In the opinion of the writer, a compelling plot is critical to writing a good thriller. This story has dual plot that centers round the Wiltshire police investigation into the suicide of an archaeologist historian who leaves behind a journal in code language and the disappearance of a young American woman connected to society high-ups. A group of modern day Druids, known as the Sacred, take human victims and use them as blood sacrifice at Stonehenge. Devout followers are initiated into the secret society. The cult practices are in code and so are a secret, except for those inducted in the inner circle of the society. Suspense and conspiracy theories run throughout the story.
The book is a product of a fairly good amount of research, though readers learn a few things about Stonehenge, which does not justify the time required to finish the book. Some critics have raised the question: why is it a mystery story? Perhaps the clue to that question is: '…mysteries are more interesting than certainties…' Ruskin Bond. Christer's next book, forthcoming, has a mysterious plot in an iconic place.
Stonehenge is a World Heritage site located near the Wiltshire countryside. It is Britain's national icon symbolizing mystery, power and endurance. Built around 3100-1100 B.C in several distinct phases, it is a megalithic ensemble of Neolithic civilization in Britain. The building materials are irregular sandstones, blocks and sarsens found in the plains of Salisbury and bluestones found in 200km away in Pembroke, Wales.
The ritual function of the monument has cosmic references, though this is little known. The old theory, though not much accepted, has it that the site was a sanctuary for the worship of the sun.
There was also the annual Midsummer Day ceremony with a folkloric procession of bards and druids. Nearly 30 km. away north of Stonehenge is much larger circular megalithic ensemble of 180 standing stones, Avebury.
The Stonehenge Legacy is based on astronomical, archaeological and historical facts. In this work of fiction '…some of (the) facts have been used in ways to purely enhance the story… (and)… despite centuries of research there is still no indisputable answer to the big question: why was Stonehenge built?'
The story begins '… in the dead of the Wiltshire night', on 13 June, not a Friday. It is Sunday free of superstition! Following a cleansing ritual the believers seek blessings out of blood and sacrifice, afterwards disappearing into the darkness.
The Stonehenge Legacy is a bizarre pack of a love story afloat a socio-psychological undercurrent of estrangement. It is about the break-up of two childhood sweethearts who meet afterwards for a moment that lead to the birth of their love child. The henge master is the only child of his parents. He never marries. His only child is born out of that 'one moment of weakness that surprised…' him and the woman he loved so 'intensely…', the mother of his son. Much later, his new recruit is his own son, '… his own flesh and blood… (and) blood is said to be thicker than water…'
It is love between an estranged father and his son who is not his own, though the son believes that the estranged father is his real father. The father commits suicide. The letter he leaves for his son says '… I love you and your mother more than anything in my life…' The son does not know that there is no biological connection. It '… feels, impossibly, like his father is reaching out to him. The sensation is that of a prisoner and visitor divided by glass, putting their hands together to say goodbye, touching each other emotionally but not physically. Invisibly divided by life and death the letter has become a wall of glass, the way his father has chosen to say goodbye.'
It is love between two estranged, divorced parents and their kidnapped daughter. And there is the modern way of lovemaking between the rich boyfriend and daughter of a social high-up. It is also love between a woman separated from her husband, coping with the ordeal of single parenthood and working place.
And about the woman who betrays her husband. Just before her death from a terminal disease she does not disclose to him that he is only the social father to the son born in their marriage. The woman has been faithful to her childhood sweetheart and tells him that he is the biological father of their son born out of their extramarital relationship.
The mother leaves an undisclosed aberration on parenthood for the son. It is for readers to reckon whether by doing this the mother minimizes the adverse relationship between the father and the son, or the unfriendly relationship between the father and the son is a chance occurrence. It remains a mystery for the reader.
The end of the story remains shrouded in mystery. The police investigation report shows that '…Nothing out of the ordinary happened…' and that may raise eyebrows on the part of the reader. As the police report is made known on 28 June, a man is found '… embracing each and every stone…' at the henge. No one knows his name nor has he been seen since then.
Farida Shaikh is a freelance writer.
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