J Greg Deane

Zadig the cartwright, Fatima the washerwoman and Arcad the euergetist in Babylon J Greg Deane

Mr. Deane's ingenious work could be described as an extended litotes, a hilarious river of paradoxes. While reading this witty work of cynical compassion, there are few who would fail to recall the speech pivotal speech from Voltaire's Zadig, the maladroit, innocent anti-hero who said, "The bad ones are always unhappy: they serve to test a few fair ones scattered on earth; and there is no evil which does not result a good." If François-Marie Arouet had known his wise pseudo-misanthropy would be complemented with a similarly sensitive work some three hundred years later he would have given up the ghost with even greater equanimity than he did. But there is one important point of difference between Voltaire's work and Mr. Deane's masterpiece. Whereas the original Zadig is a sympathetic character, if innocent and gullible, the latter Zadig is as flawed as any of the euergetists and Utopian Optimists who populate the pages of Zadig the cartwright, Fatima the washerwoman and Arcad the euergetist in Babylon . One could argue that Mr. Deane is a braver cynic than Voltaire because he does not offer redemption through a single likeable character. His priests, viziers, warriors, vegetable farmers, butchers, homosexual prostitutes and arms dealers are all self-serving scoundrels. Despite there attempts at success which drives them incessantly and relentlessly, all their efforts are in vain, though they lack Voltaire's insight to confess, "The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing." One might have a tentative sympathy with two the novel's swarthy eunuchs, but even that fades. Mr. Deane is not the type of timid author who needs heroic protagonists, even if the sum of his characters provide a corporate sense of community so that in combination they are less despicable than they are individually. Anyone of them could echo Voltaire's Zadig who says "The opportunity to do evil appears hundred times a day and to do good, once a year, says Zoroaster," but not one of them would take advantage of that opportunity even once a year. Voltaire's Zadig does observe, "Love itself is a wind filled balloon, which leaves storms when it receives a pinprick." But Mr. Deane's characters go even further, taking his misanthropy to the ultimate, regarding love, friendship and loyalty as diseases of the mind and signs of self-destructive weakness. This hilarious and insightful sequel to Voltaire is without compromise. It has a powerfully honest book, though the author values truth as much more precious than do either his euergetists or Utopian Optimists. It is not a work for the faint-hearted, but it is a treasure chest of sage delight for those who are brave enough to delve into it.