Nightpictures.(Review)

Nightpictures, by Rod Jones; Random House Australia, 1997, $24.95.

THE SETTING for Nightpictures is Venice; and there's no better backdrop for evoking such intense feelings of decay and decline than this city, with its reputation for stench, slime and creeping damp! If one views the canals of Venice as a circulatory system similar to the blood, the biological overtones and the similarities between the human body and the lifeblood of this city become even more apparent. This is further enhanced by the repetition of the line, "A girl sewn into the stomach of an ass" (from Apuleius' The Golden Ass). Rod Jones's writing appeals strongly to the senses. It is almost physical as it delivers each dense image of brutality, depravity and hopelessness.

Connections made between the intestines, Sailor's duodenal ulcer and this literary excerpt create a more sinister colonic mood, something less life-giving than blood, perhaps more relevant to the canals as the bowels transporting the city's rotting waste. So much seems to happen beneath the surface of this "city of agoraphobics". Certainly, much happens beneath the surface of these characters, as the nightpictures gradually reveal, and there is a powerful sense of things being undermined by what is hidden in the sad histories and repressed memories of Sailor and Dieppe. The nightpictures lead like a trail of crumbs to a strong, tense and well-crafted climax.

The tone and style of Jones's writing sustain the soulchilling bleakness of these people's lives as they disintegrate along with their pestilence-prone surroundings. Themes of betrayal, corruption, power, obsessive desire and the fragile innocence of childhood wend their way through this novel like both the canals and the intestines of the ass.

Briefly alluding to the characters' ages and physical appearance serves to emphasise their universal nature. Their lack of physical definition does not invite reader prejudice and there is a touch of mystery that always remains about them even as the story unfolds. Their names are unusual, yet pertinent, the connotations becoming clearer as the story progresses. The name "Sailor" speaks of dislocation, a lack of roots, or perhaps it relates more to water as the Jungian symbol of the unconscious. It is certainly a clue to the dark mystery concealed within his sexuality. Dieppe, of course, is a French port that has endured a history of violence and suffering through war, plague and religious persecution.

The story has a strong element of literary sophistication bestowed by references to Virgil's Aeneid and the works of Apuleius, Proust and Dostoyevsky. However, some may find themselves alienated by the obscurity of these references and accuse Jones of over-intellectualising. Not every reader will be as erudite as Jones obviously is, and this can become dangerous territory for the writer. If readers cannot establish connections between these references and the story without resorting to research, they may abandon the novel.

The poetic philosophy of Rilke and the psychology of Jung also have a profound influence in this work. The notion that like-minded people seem to gravitate towards one another without being aware of their common interest, and of course, the ...