Mark Lawson

Written before the events of earlier this year relating to the "Me Too" movement, this novel explores the issue of harassment, sexual and otherwise, this time from the point of view of the accused. Like Lawson's earlier novel The Deaths which also features somewhat flawed upper-middle class protagonists facing a crisis, I liked The Allegations very much.

Here the two accused are male university professors of history. Ned Marriot is also a television presenter of popular histories, and is therefore moderately well-known and somewhat more financially secure than his friend and colleague Tom Pimm. Both men almost simultaneously are struck with certain accusations which reverberate through their lives, personal and professional.

In the case of Ned, a former girlfriend has come forward to accuse him of rape. The charges stem from a sexual encounter they had almost 40 years ago, which he had assumed was consensual. Tom is accused by the university board of harassing and bullying his colleagues and his "clients," as the board insists on calling the university students. The charges and accusers are vague, but seem to stem from Tom's acerbic wit, his inability to suffer fools, and his disdain for bureaucratic faculty meetings.

In this day and age, when women are finally overcoming their fear to come forward, and are starting to be believed, I feel almost guilty to find both Ned and Tom to be sympathetic characters. Lawson is careful over the course of the book to present the incidents leading to the allegations against Ned--a second woman comes forward with another incident as well--from the point of view of the women as well as Ned's. All this does is make it difficult to decide whether Ned's actions are such that they should be punishable by the law.

It's clear, however, that in regard to the accusations against Tom, the politically correct university board and his unnamed accusers are simply overly sensitive. Nevertheless, the result is that Tom, who annually is voted by the students as their favorite professor, is fired from his job. Lawson's descriptions of the hearings against Tom are worthy of Kafka.

Another interesting thing in this book is that as Ned ponders his plight he reviews, over the course of the book, some of the literature of false accusation, so we are treated to some interesting thoughts on books such as Coetzee's Disgrace, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll, The Human Stain by Philip Roth, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and other works.

Recommended.

3 1/2 stars… (mais)

Although written nearly fifteen years ago, Mark Lawson’s novel about the perils and insecurities of life as a television and radio presenter retains a vivid currency. Richard Fleming presents a weekday radio talk show during the prestigious ‘drive time’ slot, as well as a weekly arts-based television chat show. Drawing from his own experience in both media Lawson gives a hilarious insight into the tribulations of the presenter, required to cope with guests who are either overly garrulous or virtually struck dumb. Ratings and audience share figures are paramount, and each presenter is ferociously jealous, not just of their rivals from other programmes, but also of co-presenters, or more peripheral colleagues such as the news reader or weather forecaster, while there is the additional risk that the travel or sports correspondent might upstage them in the readers’ affections. On top of all this, the presenter has to cope with a constant stream of commentary through his earpiece from colleagues in the production team.

Lawson clearly knows his stuff, having been a successful and longstanding presenter in both media. At the start of the novel Fleming is in the ascendant, confident that he has both his roles under control. He is, however, less confident and self-assured than his public persona might suggest. It gradually emerges that he has certain idiosyncrasies, including a dislike of confronting his own appearance (to the extent that he covers any mirrors in his dressing room or studio with brown paper, and prefers to shave ‘blind’, without the guidance of his reflection. He also appears to have certain secrets in his personal life. No-one seems to know anything about his first marriage, and he has recently been receiving some very unwholesome mail.

The novel is by turns chilling and hilarious (even both simultaneously at times). Fleming’s narrative, in the form of a private memoir, is interspersed with transcripts from a series of interviews with other characters that represent contributions to a documentary designed to recount the events leading up to a gruesome climax. Part of the attraction of the novel is the constant misdirection into which the reader is suckered. Lawson also used the novel as a platform from which to satirise the whole world of the promotional interview and the cult of celebrity itself. Caustic, yet also self-deprecating, one wonders whether Fleming can take the poison as well as dish it out. I rather imagine I would have enjoyed Richard Fleming’s radio shows – I certainly enjoyed this novel.… (mais)