Putting the fun in fundamentalism

Turnaround Books, the publishers of Timothy Mo’s remarkable Pure, are revealed to operate from Unit 3, Olympia Trading Estate, Coburg Road, London N22. From this we may deduce that the publishing history of the three times Booker-shortlisted Anglo-Chinese novelist continues on its maverick way. Imagine if Mo had approached a conventional publisher with a proposition: this is a novel about jihad in south-east Asia, as seen through the eyes of a Muslim ladyboy.

Mo’s perversity and boldness apply in equal measure to his hero/heroine. In the person of Snooky, né Ahmed, the katoey, or ladyboy, from the Malay south who has moved to Bhuddist Bangkok, a film critic and an autodidact who loves pop culture, Mo has written the best and most plausible account of jihadi I have ever read. All recent western novels dealing with this important subject, including even the great John Updike’s 2006 Terrorist, have failed dismally to convey the sense of what it might be like to live fully within the bubble of historical grievance, victimhood and fundamentalist belief which is jihad. It may be a step too far for western writers, but not for Mo, who returned to his native Hong Kong in high dudgeon some years ago, and has immersed himself in south-east Asian language and customs to good effect.

Snooky is perhaps a little implausible in the plethora of attributes she has been given:  multilingual lover of word-play, outrageous and fun-loving queen, telling commentator on the absurdities of her fellow jihadis, acute observer of the world about her and passionate aficionado of popular culture. For instance, she is reminded of Phil Spector when she is exhorted to read commentaries on the Holy Book. And when she sees Shaykh for the first time, the tall, impressive leader of the fundamentalist group, she thinks of a John Ford hero.