The Thing About Thugs.

"What we are, what we appear to be, what we pretend to be and what we are said to be are four very different things.", hmmm, talk about your unreliable narration. But then that is one of "the Things" referred to in the title of this slyly subversive take on the notion of the Victorian Penny Dreadful. Tabish Khair comes up with a very compelling read, one that hints at the power of fiction, suggesting how a fictional version of ones past can become very real, not only to those exposed to it, but to the teller also. After all, is a personality is constructed on the foundations of past experiences, how are we to calculate the power of fictional experiences.  When a person is robbed at gunpoint, by a person using a pretend weapon, is the effect of that experience any less painful and distressing because the victim is unaware that the weapon threatening them is not real...(I was once held up by two masked men using a pistol and a sledge hammer. It never occurred to me for a moment that it might be a water pistol and a rubber hammer.)

                In order to engage and exploit the interest of a rich englishman, a penniless resident of a remote Indian village, invents a past as a member of a murderous Indian Death Cult; The Thugee. He relocates with his gullible patron the the streets of London, exchanging one life of poverty for another. An emigrant in a land where such people are treated with suspicion and derision from a huge segment of the resident population. things worsen when a series of brutal beheadings take place in London and his invented past practically screams "Its me! I am the one you are looking for!" Not that it would have taken much for the authorities to try scapegoating some one of his ethic background as in Victorian England such behaviour was deemed beyond the reasoning capabilities of any red blooded English individual. 

                If I had to sound bite this enthralling novel I would probably suggest it reads like an episode of Penny Dreadful as written by Wilkie Collins. It is rife with what would in a lesser writer's hands feel like Victorianna tropes, a tale told over brandies in the gas lit study of a Sax Rohmer. It is so much more than that.it would sit quite comfortably on anyone's bookshop, in between an Iain Sinclair and a Peter Ackroyd. It would certainly not be out of place.

                 I was also reminded of a Torchwood story I heard a year or two ago, a big Finish story called Fortitude. One that dealt with similar themes, showing how the weight of Empire just crushes the indigenous populations it supposedly throws its "protective" arms about. Well worth a listen.  Actually, all the Torchwood stories are worth listening to. A jewel in Big Finish's Crown.

                The Thing About Thugs is a book that would make a fantastic addition to the collection of someone trying to unravel the mysteries at the heart of any great life story of a major city. If you ever wonder how a city truly remains standing you should examine very closely the foundations upon which it is built. 

                You may not like what you see but it is best appreciated when you know the glue that binds it together is mostly made of blood,sweat and tears.