Skip to main content

The Visiting Professor by Robert Little: book review




The Visiting Professor (1994) is set in New York post-Cold War between America and Russia. The protagonist, Lemuel Falk, is a Russian theoretical chaoticist – the world’s pre-eminent randomnist.

The last thing Lemuel expected when he applied for an exit visa from Russia was to get one. He had been applying for 23 years. On his 24th attempt he was on his way to the Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Chaos-Related Studies in New York. Almost the entire faculty welcomed his first step on American soil, including the director J. Alfred Goodacre, Ms. D.J. Starbuck who teaches Russian literature, Sebastian Skarr the astro-physicist researching cosmic arrhythmias, Charlie Atwater the surface tension expert, Matilda Birtwhistle who is cultivating chaos-related snow flakes, and Rebbe Asher ben Nachman – just called The Rebbe – the Gnostic chaoticist.

Lemuel hadn’t told his ex-wife, nor his daughter, that he was leaving for a semester. He only told his part-time lover, Axinya Petrovana. With limited English and only his father’s Royal Canadian Air Force Exercise Manual to study the language, he is a stranger in a strange land.

In the E-Z supermarket he meets a young girl shoplifting a tin of sardines. She is a 23-year-old hairdresser and student of Russian literature, half his age. Her name is Occasional Rain Morgan – otherwise known as Rain. They become lovers and he moves into her apartment.

Lemuel’s obsession with chaos and randomness results in a new order for the E-Z supermarket. He also causes the faculty to appear in court on a trespass charge when he lies down to stop bulldozers from working in a nuclear-garbage dump. His Russian lover Axinya, a journalist, arrives in New York to interview ‘the crazy Russian’ who was almost arrested for protesting against nuclear waste dumping. Axinya meets Rain. Axinya just wants Lemuel to go back home.

Fast Freddie and Frank hold him up, with pistols, demanding his knowledge so that they can get rich. And the authorities seek Lemuel’s help to solve a serial killer case. Are the killings really chaos related, as Lemuel suspects? Will the elusive threads of the killer’s random clues lead Lemuel to the chaotic origin of the crime?

Written in the third person, there are also passages in the first person – by Lemuel and by Rain. These asides aim to add depth of understanding to the characters – their inner feelings, especially about each other – but they often only serve to fragment the text.


Witty and funny, The Visiting Professor is also off-beat, entertaining, and strange – and a bit chaotic.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing
1 comment
Read more