Syriacide,
a book written by Michael Mulvihill
Book edited By: Timi O. Ajamobe
Syracide is a book that
focuses more on building tension than on prose, and drags the reader on a ride
that doesn't ease up until the very end. We start with the immolation of a holy
man and the violence only escalates from there. Written in a very real and
journalistic style, Mulvihill takes us on a trip through a hell that feels all
the more real for the direct and simple style that he writes in. The prose
reminds me of Crane or Thomas Harris, straightforward and without frills. Yet
it is this home brewed style that makes the horror palpable, and gives life to
scenes of almost utter depravity.
The story functions as
the blogged notes of an unnamed writer who is living in Syria and watching the
deterioration of Aleppo into religious anarchy and politically motivated
violence. We see everything from the writer's perspective, which alternates
between journalistic aloofness and existential ponderings about the nature of
suffering and evil. Our narrator documents the demolishing of Aleppo, all while
dodging insurgents and burying the bodies of loved ones in a futile attempt to
inject some dignity into the chaos. The plot is very bare, and focuses on our
narrator's attempts to record how the lives of his friends and family are
affected by the disintegration of order in the Middle East. Interviews and
slice-of-life meanderings give way to extremely intense scenes of violence and
horror as everything descends into madness, eventually forcing the narrator to
leave the middle east altogether.
I dock this a star only
because this is simply not a book for everyone. The narrative is fast and
tense, the descriptions gritty and raw, and the ending pessimistic to say the
least. Yet Mulvihill has captured something very real here, something that is
both human and exceedingly horrific. This book is less of a story in the
traditional sense, and more a wake-up call to the west about what its
imperialistic tendencies and interference in foreign affairs have wrought. None
of us is as civilized as we think we are, and the reality of social decay is
always just around the corner. Overall, I think those who can stomach the
violence and engage with the book's break-neck pace will find some real gems in
the narrative.