You Can't Always Know Who the Good Guys Are

After a tour of duty in Afghanistan, former rock star wannabe Vin Sarno returns to his Savannah homestead to figure out where he wants to spend the next chapter of his life. Shortly after returning home he decides to kill time by helping with his father’s “Ghost Tour” business. Doing midnight walking tours through Old Savannah brings back memories of Kabul, including a bad experience with some real spooks he encountered during a short prison stint in that shattered land.

You Can't Always Know Who the Good Guys Are is journalist Gerald Flanagan’s first novel and once it gets going it’s a riveting nail-biter. The pace at first feels like the angst of an existential stain squeezed from an over-sized abscess. But once Flanagan paints the setting, the story is a runaway train and though you’ve been down this track before the only thing you know for sure is that your hero will never be the same.

In the midst of everything is an unrequited love with ambiguous possibilities. Aliyah is the daughter of a Taliban chieftain who finds it impossible to believe Sarno can bring her the deliverance she so longs for from this insane life she’s endured. There are few places on earth where it is more difficult to be a woman.

Flanagan, who served as an embedded journalist in the Iraq war also lived in Karachi, Pakistan and Kabul where he reported on the hunt for Osama bin Laden for two British magazines and the Washington Post. With ease he paints the scenery which serves as backdrop for the story.

The Savannah portions of the book have just enough levity to release some of the tension readers will experience. The graveyard and ghost stories that have become entertainments today contain kernels of horror that find echoes amongst the Taliban. The manner in which the author takes the impossible and convinces readers that it is probable is quite astonishing.

Perhaps at the root of the story is Sarno's pain at knowing that his future with Aliyah can never work out, and that the entire mission of his life has been an epic struggle in futility. Nevertheless he knows no other path.

What I like most about the book is when Flanagan causes the story to intersect with real events, including when Pat Tillman was killed by "friendly fire" and the first attempt on Osama bin Laden near the caves below the Khyber Pass. The net result is to create the impression that this fictional adventure/drama may actually be a true account of events that journalists are restricted from writing about.

Ultimately, if you can't find the book at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble, the reason might be that this review is itself a fictional review of a fictional book. If you like fiction, especially the kind where you have trouble discerning the line between real and improbable, you may enjoy my own books of short stories, especially Unremembered Histories and Newmanesque.

This review was originally published in January 2012

Unless otherwise noted, all paintings and illustrative material at this site has been created by Ennyman.

Scrooge's Question for Our Times: Hope or Doom?

For my family it has been a Christmas eve tradition to watch the George C. Scott version of Charles Dickens’ timeless “A Christmas Carol” each year. Over the course of three decades we’ve probably memorized all the scenes and half the lines, yet we still enjoy it as both entertainment and soul food.

It’s a strange story about an old miserly man, Ebeneezer Scrooge, who is visited by three ghosts. The first ghost shows him key moments from his past. The second, the Ghost of Christmas Present, gives him a tour of events taking place at this very moment in time.

Then, near the climax of the film, Scrooge is led to a snow-covered grave slab by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come whereupon he cries out, “Spirit, are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of the things that May be, only?” 

At its core, this statement addresses the distinction between fate and free will. Scrooge is inquiring whether the scenes he is witnessing, depicting a bleak and desolate future, are preordained and immutable or if they represent possibilities that can be altered through choices and actions. This inquiry has profound personal and societal implications.

On a personal level, Scrooge’s question prompts us to reflect on the choices we make and the potential for change in our own lives. It reminds us that our destinies are not set in stone but are shaped by our decisions and choices. Just as Scrooge had the agency to transform from a miserly, cold-hearted figure to a generous, compassionate one, so do we ourselves possess the power to redirect our own futures through acts of kindness, empathy, and selflessness.

I thought of these things today, in part, because of my concern about the future for our country. I see the disruption, the brokenness, the polarization, the lawlessness, the cruelty, the failures of our institutions and fear that I am watching a slow motion train wreck. Are we standing on the precipice of a national collapse?

I ask myself, “Are these current events the shadows of things that Will be, or are they only shadows of the things that May be?” 

It’s a call for reflection as the answer to this question will be determined by our collective choices. Let’s not be swept away by hysteria and hate. Mercy, humility and wisdom are the values we need to embrace. 

Are we witnessing a national train wreck? The future is in our hands.