REMEMBERING HUSAIN
In the floodwaters that have swallowed much of Oxfordshire in Philip Pullman’s new novel La Belle Sauvage, a canoe bobs. It’s carrying 11yearold Malcolm, baby Lyra, and Alice, a feisty 15yearold. Hunting them is the stunningly cruel Gerard Bonneville, a villain so chilling that he makes Mrs Coulter of Pullman’s acclaimed and wildly successful His Dark Materials trilogy seem almost benign.
La Belle Sauvage tells us how Lyra— heroine of His Dark Materials— found a home in Oxford University. Initially, the novel seems gentle enough, plotting a trail through homely pubs and tenderhearted nuns. However, with baby Lyra arrive danger and evil. Malcolm, the son of a local innkeeper, decides he is Lyra’s protector and finds a sidekick in Alice. They are up against obstacles that include a flood, enchant enchantments, Bonneville with his terrifying hyena daemon, and the League of Alexander, which encourages children to spy for the oppressive Magisterium.
Though taut and skilfully written, La Belle Sauvage doesn’t pack as much punch as His Dark Materials. It’s a pleasure to return to this enchanted universe where Agatha Christie books coexist with witches and magical instru instruments, but Pullman has crafted better characters and situa situations in past books. It’s also surprising to see him resort to unnecessary violence, that too inflicted upon disapdisap pointingly domesticated women characters.
Fortunately, Malcolm’s an endearing hero and Pullman spins a good enough yarn to
make La Belle Sauvage a pageturner.