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5.0 out of 5 stars Thrice in Europa 1 Oct 2012
By Mynydd du.
Flirting at the Funeral (Cillian Press, 2012)
Format:Paperback
“Flirting at the Funeral” is the third in a sequence of novels by Chris Keil. Like Keil himself, whose mother was a native Welsh speaker, his inspiration springs from rural Wales where he lives & works but from which he roams restlessly across Europe interrogating issues of identity & culture in an exploration of the condition of the 21st century European.
Like his previous novels, Flirting may be read as a thriller – there’s always something of the noir in Keil’s style – but his real interest is in what lies beneath. His natural habitat is the liminal (the title of his second work) & while he answers no questions (& who expects art to answer?) he leads us into a debatable land where there is no truth, no certainty. The plot of Flirting involves the making of a film set in the Portuguese revolution of 1973. Keil employs all the tropes of film noir – a beautiful but spoilt leading lady, a “down on his luck” hero, stark monochrome settings of bleached concrete & deep shade, deserted swimming pools seen reflected in mirror sunglasses, red sports cars & luxury yachts – in a playful but chilling subversion of the narrative. We even have a “Hitchcockian” cameo by the author himself pounding his way through the novel &, with a postmodern gesture, at his every appearance causing “counterfactual” occurrences.
Attaching himself to no single protagonist Keil takes a hawk’s eye view of his cast. He makes no overt judgements and takes no sides but like Camus & Sartre, writers who have obviously had an influence, leaves his readers to feel that a powerful message has been received even if they are unable to articulate its content precisely. The characters of Flirting are multilingual and literate yet we are shown how communication between them is invariably tangential. They inhabit a Tower of Babel not of unintelligibility but of insincerity where love & desire are sacrificed for security & comfort. Keil holds a mirror to modern Europe & the image reflected in the glass is not a pleasant one.
Perhaps, above all, what makes Keil worth reading is his use of imagery. Pristine pieces of poetry are scattered throughout the narrative. He has the vision of a poet with the impulse of a story teller. Readers are recommended to approach his work as a whole. Like Berger’s “Into their Labours” trilogy, with which Keil’s work has some relationship, that whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Like his previous novels, Flirting may be read as a thriller – there’s always something of the noir in Keil’s style – but his real interest is in what lies beneath. His natural habitat is the liminal (the title of his second work) & while he answers no questions (& who expects art to answer?) he leads us into a debatable land where there is no truth, no certainty. The plot of Flirting involves the making of a film set in the Portuguese revolution of 1973. Keil employs all the tropes of film noir – a beautiful but spoilt leading lady, a “down on his luck” hero, stark monochrome settings of bleached concrete & deep shade, deserted swimming pools seen reflected in mirror sunglasses, red sports cars & luxury yachts – in a playful but chilling subversion of the narrative. We even have a “Hitchcockian” cameo by the author himself pounding his way through the novel &, with a postmodern gesture, at his every appearance causing “counterfactual” occurrences.
Attaching himself to no single protagonist Keil takes a hawk’s eye view of his cast. He makes no overt judgements and takes no sides but like Camus & Sartre, writers who have obviously had an influence, leaves his readers to feel that a powerful message has been received even if they are unable to articulate its content precisely. The characters of Flirting are multilingual and literate yet we are shown how communication between them is invariably tangential. They inhabit a Tower of Babel not of unintelligibility but of insincerity where love & desire are sacrificed for security & comfort. Keil holds a mirror to modern Europe & the image reflected in the glass is not a pleasant one.
Perhaps, above all, what makes Keil worth reading is his use of imagery. Pristine pieces of poetry are scattered throughout the narrative. He has the vision of a poet with the impulse of a story teller. Readers are recommended to approach his work as a whole. Like Berger’s “Into their Labours” trilogy, with which Keil’s work has some relationship, that whole is greater than the sum of its parts.