Fiction, Fiction Subjects

The Silver Hearted: A Novel

Name: The Silver Hearted: A Novel
Author: David McConnell
ISBN: 9781593501402

by David McConnell

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Overview

“The Silver Hearted is our Heart of Darkness. It is just as ominous, as violent, as exotic, as darkly colonial. But it is a lot better written than Conrad’s book. Whereas Conrad is always resorting to ‘the unspeakable,’ McConnell tells us everything in glowing detail and in fresh, eloquent language. Sexy, demonic, elusive, The Silver Hearted is a perfect work of art.”—Edmund White

Set against a background of revolution and profiteering of an unnamed port town, the story’s unnamed narrator is hired to protect a vast sum of money shadowy investors have entrusted to him. Literally chests of silver coins, this fortune must be protected at all costs. He turns for assistance to a naïve sailor, beautiful and young, who helps the narrator evacuate his money from a trading emporium overrun by violent mobs. With a hopeless fondness, the boy wants acknowledgement that lives have been destroyed for the sake of money. Unfortunately the ruthless calculus of profit and loss has an eerie appeal the narrator can’t shake, and the mobs are closing in. And he again has to get his fortune out of the city he’s found uneasy shelter in.

New York-based novelist David McConnell, whose short fiction and criticism have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies, is the author of the fictional memoir The Firebrat.

Synopsis

A darkly suspenseful sea-faring novel that turns pulp fiction on its head with writing so gorgeous

Publishers Weekly

McConnell (The Firebrat) delivers an inventive if slightly flat tale of intrigue set in a volatile near future as an unnamed narrator is tasked with protecting a mysterious and valuable load of cargo. When his latest hideout gets attacked, the narrator pays teenage sailor Topher to take him on and help him transport and safeguard the cargo. The narrator's erotic attraction to Topher grows, and soon they discover the crates contain a vast load of silver that constitutes a not inconsiderable fortune in the revolutionary times. A flurry of thin secondary characters attempt to undermine the protagonist's faith in Topher, who, meanwhile, may have a number of enemies from his past tracking them, as well. The best parts of this novel are its descriptions of the pursuit and hunts, and while the port city locals are convincingly gritty, the distance McConnell leaves between character and reader makes it difficult to connect. (Feb.)

About the Author, David McConnell

David McConnell is Professor of Education in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University. He is a researcher and practitioner of networked e-learning and was one of the first people in the United Kingdom to be active in the field. His research interests include intercultural pedagogy and the development of qualitative research methodologies for the study of advanced learning technologies in higher education.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Kirkus Reviews

McConnell debuts with an enigmatic potpourri of violent intrigue and homoeroticism. Somewhere East of Suez, a shady young expatriate watches over 24 boxes of U.S. silver dollars. He hails from the city of Z (famous), but right now is in the riverfront city of B (obscure); we'll call him N (for nameless narrator). His job as a middleman is to launder this dirty money and make a profit through his trading; anything less and his brutal boss could have him murdered. To complicate matters, a civil war is raging in this backward tropical country, and there are many parties involved: the rebels, the government, foreign-owned companies and an eccentric oligarchy, the Mandarins. Don't let that last name fool you; there's no China connection. McConnell savors situations that are, to use his favorite expression, out-of-true. The bong, or warehouse, where N had stored his boxes is being shelled; there have been deaths; time is of the essence. N pays a 16-year-old sailor, Topher, to get his boxes on a vessel going downriver. Is N abandoning the bong's workers, all of whom he knew? That ethical question will linger. Meanwhile, muscular Topher is an object of fascination for both N and the obese captain, though neither man will act on his desires. N cannot open himself to love; "violence and mistrust made such pleasurable good sense to me that I luxuriated in them." McConnell skillfully evokes a shadow-world of ambiguities, but N's existential drama and his immediate quandary both languish; expect foreplay without consummation. N arrives in the capital and hides his boxes in a seedy hotel. His boss calls from Z. Is N intending to abscond with the silver and risk the consequences? Who knows? The end is amess, though N's final, delirious vision of some handsome sailors is fitting. Powerful atmospherics are not enough to sustain this ambitious study of corruption.