Looking the other way

Over the years, it’s been easy to forget how life is better in a functioning democracy.

Then the attack on Ukraine reminded us that nobody wants to live in states propped up by unprovoked violence, state propaganda, arbitrary arrest and rigged legal systems.

But before Ukraine we might well have forgotten how rare functioning democracy is around the world. Yet plenty of other countries have stories of oppression, and how we resist it (or accommodate it) in their recent history and literature.

Alzada’s career also has its roots in an even darker era for Argentina, the savage military dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s where political opponents were abducted, tortured and murdered, (‘disappeared), by the government.

In Alzada’s case, it was his own brother who the goons came for one night in 1981, cutting a wound into the family which won’t heal.

The book works on two time-tracks then, cutting back and forth between the current investigation and what happened 20 years earlier. The parallels, and the differences, in Argentinian society are held up to the light.

Repentance has difficult questions for Alzada too. He’s no apologist for the murderous, far-right dictatorship which blighted the country. But he’s had to operate within its system. He hasn’t hesitated to slap around suspects in custody when he’s sure they’re guilty and wants to intimidate them into confession. And he’s overseen the secret transfer of corpses to the mortuary when they’ve washed up on the riverbank with their hands still tied behind their back.

He’s a policeman, not a member of the military. But he has, in his own words, ‘…been in the business of looking the other way.’

So when citizens take the streets in 2001 it’s deeply uncomfortable for Alzada. Because it makes him, and his generation, question if they should have done the same:

He could have, should have, done more he decides. But he also knows that he couldn’t have saved his brother whose revolutionary passion and extrovert nature left him immune to family warnings to moderate his public behaviour.

Repentance also shows that allegiance can be visceral as well as rational. Alzada’s experience as a young riot squad policeman tells him that fear when facing an enemy binds you to your comrades. As he lectures his nephew:

In spite of this knowledge, Alzada does join the citizens protesting on the streets of 2001 Buenos Aires. And it’s a moment when he comes to appreciate his acquaintances, past and present, with a refreshed respect and understanding. Under political oppression, people tend to disguise themselves — perhaps the future could be one where people, police investigators included, can treat with each other more honestly and openly.

This isn’t a typical detective novel. We learn who’s carried out a murder (and why) but the book is less interested in capturing the moment they’re brought to justice and more in envisaging a regime where justice might meaningfully take hold.

Because outside democratic countries (for all their imperfections), justice isn’t even a possibility.

— — — — — — — -

So that’s the Argentinian novel in my Brighton and Hove Albion reading challenge.

Or is it? The author’s parents are Argentinian but she was born in Spain and she wrote this novel in English. (As I understand it, the Spanish language version is on its way).

Even so, it’s about Argentina, set in Argentina, and conjures the country’s painful recent history.

Our Argentinian midfielder Alexis MacAllister was only a couple of years old when the most recent events it describes were going on, but there can be hardly anyone in his country who doesn’t know at least some of these turbulent events and the steps the country has made since then. And even if they don’t, a thoughtful but readable novel like this one offers an introduction as good as any history documentary.

I’ve got four novels left to go, and only one week of the football season left to complete this challenge. But I’ve already finished reading two of them and the third is under way. I’ll be buried in books right up until our final match of the season on 22 May — one week from today.

Next: A jealous look…

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