Absolute Friends

Found this 2003 novel in my bookcase, unread. Reading it in 2016-- with Europe trying to stem or at least control an unprecedented stream of asylum seekers from e.g. Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria—adds an extra dimension to this JLC novel, which back then must have been highly controversial in countries that signed up to the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ formed in response to 9/11. Do not know how the book was received in France, Germany and Russia, nations unconvinced by the arguments of George Bush Jr. and Tony Blair, whom JLC likens not as Bush’s lapdog, but as his guide dog and the true genius behind the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. The key themes of this sprawling, somewhat overwritten novel are permutations of the verb ‘to lie’. They appear time and again in many contexts.
The absolute friends are Ted Mundy (b. 1947 during the Indian Partition) and Sasha (b. 1945 in Germany). They first meet in 1969 in West Berlin where Sasha enjoys a cult-like status as a (non-violent) activist. Ten years later, they meet again, with Ted working out of London for the British Council and Sasha, having reverse-jumped the Wall, an employee of the Ministry of State Security, a Stasi. Or not, or what? Over the next decade, they meet 49 times in centers and outposts of the Evil Empire at occasions the British Council has graced to support with groups of dancers, trade unionists, what not? They exchange carefully-hidden and -doctored fake information… The fall of the Wall disrupts contact between them.
Readers must read themselves how they meet again after 9/11, now in their mid-fifties, with Ted in dire financial trouble and how JLC involves them in a totally callous joint US-UK conspiracy in Heidelberg, a cherished venue in German-American history.
Positive: JLC’s passionate and lyrical writing, awesome descriptions of major and minor characters. Many memorable sayings and observations. His courage to challenge what he hates (lies by politicians and their backers, esp. US Republicans and UK’s New Labour). Ted is another incarnation of a favorite JLC life form, the tall male past his prime intent on undoing all previous mediocrity or failure by a final coup of brilliance.
Negative: JLC is not economical with words. Overlong book and chapters (30 pp). Recorded conversations between Ted and Sasha are endless and frustrating because Sasha remains enigmatic and made out of cardboard.
Otherwise, the closing chapter explains to confused readers like me what they may have missed as a result of all the lying and lyricism on earlier pages. Deep book that I will read again.