A BOOK WITH A VIEW
Mike Nicol and Neil Gaiman tell some tight stories
Agents of the State ★★★★★ Mike Nicol (Umuzi, R230)
IKE Nicol’s latest book is a clever, complex thriller in which the improbable hero “Fish” Pescado (equal parts P.I., pothead and surfer) finds himself caught in a web of intelligence agency intrigues, corrupt dealings, political machinations and assassinations, all rushing headlong towards the ultimate power-play.
Nicol shows a nation in moral flux, at war with itself and its history. Secrets from the past ripple through to the present. The personal becomes political, and with despots at the helm, lives are extinguished, deals made, and the politically connected are rewarded — seemingly at the whim of those in power.
But in a country where anything goes (as long as it’s profitable), there are always king-makers and king-killers.
The style is crisp, colloquial, gritty — as refreshing as one of Pescado’s favourite craft beers. Nicol perfectly captures the South African idiom and vernacular, especially the Cape’s unique patois.
The female characters are magnificent — unique, strong, flawed, vicious, real characters in their own right, rather than, as so often happens in this genre, merely serving as one-dimensional victims or sidekicks for the male characters. There’s the gambler Vicki Khan with her double life of secrets; The Voice — enigmatic and anonymous, pulling the strings from above; and young, sexy Nandi with her velvet skin and the grey muti powder she sprinkles on the crown jewels . . .
Cynicism vies with wry humour in the story, where perhaps only the slightly naïve Pescado is entirely wellintentioned. Asked if South Africa has turned him cynical, Nicol says, “I was once described as a cynical romantic, and I’ll stick with that. I like the combination of boundless optimism and profound disillusionment. And yes, in this country — in any country — I can’t see how you can be anything other than cynical. But cynicism gives rise to that lovely sense of humour we call irony. And without irony, life is impossible.”
Agents of the State depicts an almost schizophrenic juxtaposition of the surface beauty of this miracle rainbow nation, against its corrupt, debauched and decadent underbelly. Elegant gangsters negotiate revolution, murder and child-trafficking in Cape Town’s luxurious hotels and restaurants. Old perverts sit in dark rooms beneath glass swimming pools, spying on the nubile young things cavorting above.
I asked Nicol about these incompatible yet co-existing worlds. “It comes back to that notion of the cynical romantic. The romantic celebrates the extraordinary world in which we live, and in which people do wonderful things, while the cynic sees the skull beneath the skin. This contrast exists everywhere in our country, but nowhere in sharper contrast than in the MuthaFuka City, and I just cannot resist it. When I started writing crime fiction I realised this place of opposites was a place where I felt most at home.”
Does Nicol host crazy dinner parties and braais, with old soldiers and current comrades and spooks aplenty telling juicy stories after a couple of klippies and Coke? I asked Nicol how much of the book is pure fiction, and how much is based on fact. His answer? “This information is classified Top Secret.”
Agents of the State is an intelligent, indigenous espionage story with a strong international flavour. From rebel attacks at mines in the Central African Republic, to cloak-and-dagger spy games on the streets of Berlin, to lavish celebrations at the president’s palatial homestead in Zululand, Nicol pulls the reader through to a breathtaking climax.