Fiction and Conviction

The Wall Street Journal stated, “Robert Harris is incapable of writing an unenjoyable book,” and that’s true in the present tense. Harris is in line to hit 70 in 2027 and at some point his skills will diminish, but now… wow, this former journalist with a love of history knows how to write, as his two most recent novels (both published by Harper) abundantly demonstrate.

Act of Oblivion (2022) shows how two British Puritans instrumental in the execution of King Charles I in 1649 escaped to New England once Charles II took over in 1660 with a license to take vengeance. To make accurate history a page-turner, Harris invents a character determined for two decades to kill the Puritan army killers of his wife and the king. Nayler, the hunter, is as persistent as Victor Hugo’s Javert, but without the French inspector’s confusion when he realizes that both the law and his own judgment are flawed. Another underlying question: Are political executions ever justified?

Precipice (2024) centers on the romantic obsession of 60-something British prime minister H. H. Asquith that led him to mail military secrets to his 20-something girlfriend, as Europe in 1914 blundered into war. Harris quotes abundantly from Asquith’s actual, amazingly reckless letters, and creates a page-turner by once again inventing a detective-like character, this time one with mixed feelings about his pursuit.

Harris is great at showing rather than telling. Here’s an example from his Conspirata: A Novel of Ancient Rome, published 15 years ago by Simon & Schuster yet relevant to current US politics. Roman leader Cicero, without consulting his wife Terentia, has just taken a brave political stand that will be financially costly to the family. At a social gathering one leader asks Terentia what she thinks:

“She did not say anything but continued to stare at her husband, who stared back at her impassively. Slowly… without taking her eyes from Cicero’s face, she removed the necklace from her throat, unclipped the emerald brooch from her breast, and slid the gold bracelets from each of her wrists. Finally, grimacing with the effort, she pulled the rings off her fingers. When she had finished, she cupped all this newly purchased jewelry in her two hands and let it fall. The glittering gems and precious metal scattered noisily across the mosaic floor. Then she turned and walked out of the room.”

That’s fiction. Hilary Mantel, James Michener, and Herman Wouk also wrote fine historical novels. If you’re particularly interested in ancient Rome and prefer non-fiction, historians Tom Holland and Rodney Stark are worth reading—and both know how to alternate the “sugar” of human interest with the “medicine” of factual detail.

Or, if you like spy or honest-detective-in-1930s-Berlin novels and will put up with occasional violence or sexual bantering, try vivid early 21^st century fiction by David Downing, Alan Furst, Philip Kerr, Jason Matthews, or Daniel Silva. An early 20^th century master of hard-boiled detective fiction, Raymond Chandler, described a central theme: “Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid, [who is] a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it.” 

I fondly remember reading to my children the fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. I did not read to them the writing of Cornelius Van Til (1895-1987), which has no sugar, but this is the 50^th anniversary of his An Introduction to Systematic Theology (1974; P&R, 2007). Van Til showed the importance of presuppositions—what we believe when entering a discussion. He also gave a theological basis for what became the Intelligent Design movement, noting how we “ought to reason that the order of nature is due to the providence of God.”

Van Til noted that many atheists “deep down in their hearts know that the world is created by God… that by all their attempts at explanation of nature they are suppressing within themselves the testimony of the real Creator of the Universe. [All things] would be at loose ends if it were not for God and his purpose with respect to them.” Merry Christmas.