Review - Losing Nelson by Barry Unsworth
An Homage or The Deconstruction of a National Icon
Tomorrow Britain celebrates two of most important military victories in
its history. 1805 Lord Nelson defeated the French and Spanish naval forces in
the Battle of Cape Trafalgar. Even more than two centuries later the Sea Cadet
Corps commemorates this decisive battle with a parade from Trafalgar Square in
London.
Granted, most tourists may be
impressed by the sheer size of the column, some may stretch their necks to get
a glimpse at Britain’s most patriotic hero. But how many do actually know the
venerated role model for all things British, who still keeps a weathering eye
on the horizon from the lofty heights of his perch in central London. The
highly decorated military hero was the epitome of duty and patriotism, who
understood sacrifice not necessarily for Queen and Country but rather his
personal gain – monies, property and knighthood. He was the brilliant
strategist, the disobedient victor and saviour, defeater of Napoleon whose many
lost body parts were spread on battlefields all across the globe. Giving his
last orders on deck, a French marksmen wounded him fatally. He died a hero and
Trafalgar immortalized him.
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| Admiral Horatio Nelson |
If you ask Barry
Unsworth’s protagonist in Losing Nelson, Charles Cleasby, Nelson’s life
has all the markings of a heroic myth, battles, intrigue, love and
individualism, disobedience and military brilliance. Early on in his life
Charles, Nelson’s biggest fan, has learned only men of action are eternalized
as larger than life heroes. As a little boy with a talent for chess
internalized his father’s lesson. The motherless takes over Nelson’s biography.
Horatio becomes his alter ego. In his basement, when Charles compulsively
reenacts the Nelson’s great victories down to the last minute detail, the
Nelson biographer slides into character. The contemporary Londoner protagonist
becomes a ‘we’ and find himself torn between raging jealous resentment and
quasi-religious admiration and love, an internal conflict that tears him and
the dramatized parallel narration apart.
Does Unsworth
historiography put the last nail in the coffin of the mythical hero Nelson? Or
is his controversial engagement with Britain’s greatest popularized hero yet
another homage? As the plot thickens, the, by definition, unreliable narrator Charles more and more drifts off into the darkness of his obsession, world of
his basement reenactments. When his secretary Miss Lily offers a feminist and
radically different perspective on the subject of his obsession, the mythical
halo darkens and the seed of doubt is planted. Lily’s vivacious voice
penetrates the darkness of her employer’s Nelson-mania with arguments that are
fashionably light and brilliant. When she leaves the imbalance of reality and
imagination brings the narrative structure come tumbling down. Lily meant hope,
but as Charles visits the sight of Nelsons most debated victory in Naples
1799, the sometimes comic sometimes creepy hero worship gains a new grotesque
dimension. The Nelson fan submits to his obsession, becomes a slave to his
hero. The reader follows Charles on his quest to exonerate the hero, that
became part of the cultural memory, but while the protagonist loses himself in
Nelson, the reader is confronted with the beautifully crafted but dubious homage
to the Hero of Trafalgar.
Review New York Times:
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