Thursday, February 01, 2007

Under Western Eyes - post IV

Part of the key to Razumov’s behaviour is not just his dilemma about being immersed in a revolutionary circle he can’t stand but also his fear that at any moment he is going to be discovered for the liar that he has been and far from being a friend to Haladin he is not far off being his executioner. But something happens that gives him the confidence to think that he is safe. But just at that point the story goes back to the interrogation with the investigating police officer and you sense that he is not going to be as safe as he thinks he is.

Bullet points between pages 169 – 212

* Razumov meets an old revolutionary contact he came across in Zurich and at first is as sneering and boorish as he has been with everybody else but he is scared that she might see through him

* But he is relieved when she reveals that a contact in Russia has discovered that the man who was meant to help Haladin escaper, who Razumov met and beat because he was drunk, hanged himself after feeling remorse for letting his comrade down

* Nobody knows the identity of the man who beat the horse man and the victim himself said he believed it was the devil who gave him a beating which amuses Razumov who believes he killed himself over a failed love affair not over remorse for Haladin

* The story then switches back to the interrogation when Razumov had been asked where he was going to go and the interrogating officer tells him that he will return to the police and tell them everything at some point in the future of his own free will

In the last fifty pages will that prediction come true? Find out tomorrow…