1 Death and the Lighthouses (1 January 2001)

“I see. Haven’t settled on a title yet. Okay. Let’s just call it — provisionally
— . Snappy, huh” Trotsky is typing. “
by — your name, my friend”
“My name. Er — Binns.”
“Binns”
“Binns.”
“ ”
“Yes. Binns.”
“That’s dreadful! You can’t be a writer with a name like Binns.”
“Actually —”
“You need something sharper, more cutting — less —”
“— Ronald Binns.”
“— .” Light has dawned in Trotsky’s piercing gaze. “Ah, I see.
A fellow exile.”
“No, that’s . Ronald Biggs. And he’s in Brazil, not Mexico.”
“I beg your pardon. Please forgive me. All the same, it won’t do. With a
name like that all you’d get away with is a book about sanitation, called
something like
, or —”. Trotsky frowns across the top of his
spectacles. “I trust you don’t expect to appear in a book with a title like
”
“No. Lev Davidovich, I did not come here to write a book or a story or an
epic poem or a biography or a play.”
Trotsky sighs. “Alright! So it’s a brief libretto or a concise sonnet. I won’t
pretend I’m not disappointed. But it’s better than nothing. It’s been a lean
year so far.”
By this time you are sitting. “Lev Davidovich, I came here expecting only
to see the house. I didn’t anticipate —”
“The house Not for sale, my friend. It has too much money-spinning
potential as a museum, I suspect, to be within your price range. In any case,
I only rent it.” He leans towards you. “Are you prepared to tell me,
categorically, that you are not a writer”
You pause. Then, cautiously: “I like to think of myself as primarily a
reader.” But Trotsky notices that you cannot meet his searching gaze full
on. “I admit to a handful of literary critical essays —”
“A-ha!”
“— a slim critical volume on the works of J.G.Farrell —”
“Enough! Soooooo! You’ve just finished your stint on the Sheep’s Head
peninsula, and now you’ve jetted over here in pursuit of your next project. I
knew it! That’s good. You have the appropriate experience. It’s no secret that
Farrell didn’t just slip off those rocks into the sea. It’s open knowledge that
he was halfway through a historical reconstruction of the corruption of the
Soviet revolution. Stalin had to do something.”
You make to protest — had you the chance you would say, “Farrell
1 (1 January 2001) 30