Our dark side
When people migrate, it isn’t uncommon for them to rewrite their past, whether they are ashamed or seeking a new identity, they make it seem better than it was. When their past is revealed, they are hard pressed to explain it away.
Irvine Welsh, the famed author of Trainspotting, has written about such a man in The Blade Artist. In the first chapter, we learn Jim Francis is a successful painter and sculptor in California who has a loving wife and two daughters.
Two occurrences threaten to change his life. Strolling on the beach, the family encounters two menacing Latinos. Jim stares them down. Safe at home, Melanie is determined to notify police. No need, says Jim. He blew up their car.
Then there’s his sister’s phone call from Scotland. Sean, one of his two sons with his first wife, was found dead in his home city of Edinburgh. Jim flies over for the funeral. Not that he misses the country.
Among the other things we learn is that Jim’s real name is Frank Begbie. Welsh now has local characters speaking with a Scottish burr with a multitude of expletives. From those who knew Frank in his younger days, we learn he disliked school, a feeling mutually exchanged with his classmates.
Bullied at school, humiliation and anger ate at Begbie. At times he exploded. The local cops had a prison cell ready for him. Still, he had one talent — drawing.
The news that one of the Latinos had been strangled confirmed his wife’s suspicions. She flies to Scotland to confront her husband. Meanwhile, Begbie makes the man behind his son’s death a prisoner. What he does to him will put you off your feed.
Irvine Welsh is one of those scribes who enjoys vividly detailing torture. He allows the main character to use a blade to mutilate his subject, followed by a lighter to burn his art collection.
Alas, men like Frank exist. How long can they keep their true nature a secret, I wonder!