[REVIEW] Rob Ferguson, The Devil and the Disappearing Sea

[rfmcdonald]

One of the books that Rob Ferguson cites in the bibliography of his book The Devil and the Disappearing Sea is Graham Greene's The Quiet American, described by Ferguson as a "novel about naive optimism clashing with the cynical realities set in French-run Vietnam of the 1950s, a theme I could relate to." Far from being an account of Cold War intrigue, Ferguson's is an account of the frustrating years that he spent in Uzbekistan, trying to organize an ill-fated project aimed at galvanizing public opinion about the plight of the shrinking Aral Sea. Ferguson's selection of The Quiet American isn't entirely unjustified on the grounds of the disorientation he experienced in a post-Soviet Uzbekistan that he describes as mercenary and desperate is comparable, although his choice of that title leads me to wonder whether he identifies himself more with Pyle or with Fowler. In the end, it's that inability to adopt a narrative persona more insightful than that of "disappointed foreigner" that ends up undercutting the book, that and the fact that the only person who dies is an Uzbekistani national. It's worth reading for local colour and a taste of the expat life, but this book is surely the lite version of The Quiet American.