K.R.
Dial
Unfortunately,
i was able to predict at the beginning of the book ~ maybe about five
pages in ~ what it would be about,
how the major turns of the plot and development of the characters
would go, and what the essential themes would be, and i was not
proven wrong in my predictions. That in itself is not the sign of a
bad book; it could well be that a predictable plot is worth reading
for the power of the writing (after all, i reread books which i know
intimately for their writing, among other things), but the writing
here is not that strong, being fairly basic and simple.
Dial
has a message to get across, two messages, actually, and has chosen a
novel as a means of doing so; however important the message, and i'm
not commenting on that at this point, a novel needs to be more than a
container to be a real success; The
Lotus Keeper does not
have the feeling of being anything more than the medium of the
messages. The messages are to Dial, i would have to assume, of
supreme importance; she wants to show the necessity of depending on
God ~ believing the Gospel, in other words ~ and give a picture of
the current trafficking in the world of children for sexual
exploitation, primarily by Western men. I have to agree that the
latter is of supreme importance and should be shouted from the
housetops in the attempt to prevent this horrific behaviour; the
former, for the Christian Dial is, is also essential and worth
passing on to others ~ evangelising is one of the tasks of the
Church, after all.
I
have pointed out in another review, however, that the end does not
justify the means in writing as in other areas of life. At that time
i was referring specifically to the habit some Christian books have
of making everything revolve around the Sinner's Prayer and the
acceptance of the Gospel by the character who has been chosen for
that purpose; i find that an essential dishonesty by an author, if it
does not actually flow from the action. This time i am concerned
about ends and means both for the conversion and the other purpose of
the book, the human trafficking. The conversion of the protagonist,
or one of the protagonists, is both sudden and unconvincing; the
latter is not because of the former, for it can happen that people
are quickly, almost without explanation, converted (C.S. Lewis is a
well known example), but there is always some background to it, which
simply doesn't happen here. Furthermore, once the conversion has
happened, it doesn't seem real, it creates no conflict in his life,
no difficulties, real or imagined, with his previous circle, no
struggles to work through and accept the implications of what he has
done.
This,
though, is of less concern to me than Dial's belief that her end of
exposing human trafficking justifies the means of poor writing which
is displayed here. The action is not believable at several points;
coincidences are relied on heavily (two characters fall into a tiger
pit while running from a tiger; they are only able to escape the pit
when the tiger also falls into the pit, caught and partially
strangled by a vine, so they can clamber up its body!); characters
act in a manner which seems to be contrary to their essential nature
as previously revealed; and the happy ending is not only no
surprise, but also rather unlikely and, in mine opinion, not likely
to last.
In
a way, i am disappointed to have to feel and sound so harsh about The
Lotus Keeper, as the
subjects the book raises are vital; trafficking and the sexual
exploitation of children (of anyone; why does “of children” make
it worse?) are awful, factual, and must be tackled in the world, both
by politicians and by ordinary people. It's just a shame that Dial
hasn't chosen a different way to tackle it, as this novel is not
convincing as literature, so does not carry conviction about its
subject matter.
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