Materiality and the Modern Cosmopolitan Novel

64 Materiality and the Modern Cosmopolitan Novel

to the fact that their lives present a number of parallels. As in The
Nature of Blood and Higher Ground , these parallels are subtly evoked
through narrative juxtaposition, a technique that also provokes the
reader to search for some of the universal themes and patterns that
underlie human experiences of suffering. But to reiterate an impor-
tant distinction between the novels, the narratives of exile juxtaposed
in A Distant Shore occur largely within the same space and time.
It should also be highlighted that the descriptions of the char-
acters’ original places of belonging are conspicuously different.
This difference is marked not only by the geographical features
that define each “home,” but also the cultural and historical tropes
that are closely bound up in, and sustain, the concept. In the case
of Solomon, such tropes involve a sense of close-knit, cross-tribal
community—one that he tragically takes part in dismantling when
he is forced into fighting in the country’s civil war. Taking place in
a sub-Saharan nation that resembles Rwanda or the Congo, the war
is sparked by ethnic divisions and soon engulfs the country, forcing
everyone to pledge allegiance to one of the two tribal groups and
partake in the violence. At this stage in the narrative, “Solomon” is
known by another name: Gabriel.
Young and impressionable, Gabriel appears to subscribe to the
parochial clan loyalties observed by the mass of the population
and enthusiastically joins the local militia fighting the government
forces. What is perhaps more significant about this moment in the
character’s development is the degree to which he observes a rigid
and myopic idea of belonging, one that is bolstered by an essentialist
view of humanity:

We were the smaller tribe. We worked hard and we did not harm any-

body. We tried to do what was best for ourselves and what was good for

our young country. We wanted only to live in peace with our brothers,

but it became clear that this was impossible. My father told me that

they were jealous of us, for our people ran many businesses; not just in

the capital city, but in our tribal land in the south. We formed the back-

bone of the economy, and therefore we had much inf luence.^90

By repeating the reductive and simplistic logic through which his
father accounted for the causes of the conflict, Gabriel’s first-person