Former inmate Bennett still making ‘Havoc’

It was Bennett’s third and breakthrough novel, “The Catastrophist,” published in 1997, that inspired all the comparisons with a man viewed widely as the ultimate master of the literary thriller.
Bennett’s latest work, “Havoc in its Third Year,” has again garnered widespread praise for a man who continues to explore themes and settings not
routinely associated with Irish writers.
“Havoc in its Third Year” is set in 17th century England and specifically in the troubled period immediately preceding the civil war between king and parliament. It was long-listed for the Booker Prize but in recent days was an outright winner on native soil when Bennett won the Irish Novel of the Year award for 2004 and collected his cash prize at a ceremony in Dublin’s Mansion House.
The author, who is 48, might live outside Ireland, but he is not an exile. He might write about far-flung places and times, but he is not removed from the politics of Northern Ireland, all now, of course, in a flux.
One recent newspaper profile described Bennett as a “staunch republican.” There seems to be no lesser sort. Then again, Bennett was also more than once an incarcerated republican.
In 1974, Bennett, fresh out of the Christian Brothers, was found guilty of murdering an RUC inspector. He was imprisoned in Long Kesh and spent 18 months there before his conviction was overturned on appeal.
He moved to England and was promptly arrested. He spent 20 months detained without charge. Bennett was not an IRA member, nor was he a member of any political party. But he was a marked man.
After his eventual release from Brixton prison, Bennett might easily have gone back to Ireland in disgust. But he stayed in London.
His first novel, “The Second Prison,” came out in 1991. Subsequent works included a second novel, “Overthrown by Strangers,” non-fiction works and
Screenplays, including “Rebel Heart,” a drama series that depicted the Easter Rising and subsequent War of Independence.
When it was first screened on British television, “Rebel Heart” was lambasted by UUP leader David Trimble on the grounds that it was “hopelessly one-sided.”
It turned out that Trimble had not seen the drama, but Bennett was nevertheless excoriated by others, not least some of Britain’s more right-leaning press.
Bennett could have gone on writing about purely Irish or Anglo-Irish political themes, doubtless ticking off more unionists along the way. Certainly, his long held view that Northern Ireland should be vacated by the British and the people of the island left to sort out their own affairs has not changed.
But partly aided by his doctorate in history from King’s College, London, Bennett began to reach for new literary territory, both in the geographical and historical sense.
His third novel, “The Catastrophist,” published in 1997, was set in the strife-torn Congo during the 1960s. It was short-listed for the Whitbread Award. It was also Bennett’s first release in the U.S. market, where it was well-received by critics.
“It did really well,” Bennett said recently from his home in London. “The reviews were terrific and there were lots of them.”
Bennett’s screenplay writing, meanwhile, led to the film “The Hamburg Cell,” a work that explored the mindset and beliefs of the 9/11 attackers. Anything short of outright damnation of al-Qaeda was always going to be a risky move, but Bennett won considerable acclaim for his central role in the making of the movie, which was shown to American audiences on HBO.
“Havoc in its Third Year” took Bennett’s readers back in time to an entirely different setting: 1630s England. The novel’s main character, John Brigge, is a coroner, a Catholic “recusant” whose life and family is put in grave peril by the rising tide of
Puritanism and absolutism.
“The story of John Brigge can easily be transferred to any time period, so it was not surprising that many reviewers detected clear parallels in the story with the present day,” Bennett said.
“I’m not an historian, nor do I read much historical fiction, but in the case of ‘Havoc’ I did have a doctorate dealing with the period.”
But was there a specific trigger that led to the book’s portrayal of individual freedom under mortal threat?
“I read an interview with Tony Blair in the late 1990s,” Bennett said. “He was talking about seeing aggressive beggars on the street when he was leaving his kids to school and how he found them a frightening and uncomfortable presence.
“It reminded me of what were called the ‘better sort’ would say about beggars in the 17th century. So the story in ‘Havoc’ is about social dislocation, the breaking up of family and traditional values, the view of people seen as outsiders or work shy, or threats.”
The period in which “Havoc” is set was a particularly fraught time in England.
“In many ways, said Bennett, “there are similar feelings evident today with regard to immigrants, for example, a view that social discipline is breaking down.”
Havoc’s main character, Brigge, is based in part on a real coroner at the time and of the same name. Brigge and his wife are about to have their first child. Bennett, too, was about to become a father for the first time when Sept. 11 shook the early 21st century world.
“Fundamentalism was pushed to the fore in the aftermath and it reminded me eerily of the 17th century when two fundamentalisms, Catholic and Protestant, confronted each other,” he said.
The result then, and the least desirable outcome now, according to Bennett, is fear, and the temptation to accept authoritarianism as a solution.
“Havoc is in part an attempt to write about the present by writing about the past,” he said.
“Havoc,” according to Bennett, did not catch fire with American audiences to the extent achieved by “The Catastrophist.” Nevertheless, the Irish award is timely in that it comes shortly before the novel is released in paperback in U.S. stores.
Bennett is obviously flattered to be compared to Graham Greene, a writer who famously converted to Catholicism but didn’t find all the answers he needed in the faith.
“Greene is definitely an influence,” Bennett sad. “He wrote about Catholics and struggle and posed the question, what does the good man do? And I ask that question time and time again.
“Brigge has to ask this question of himself. Should he keep his head down, or speak out and jeopardize his family.”
Bennett is quick to acknowledge that his writing confers great privilege in that he is free to comment on the world.
“I try not to sermonize, but I am interested in the world beyond the literary,” he said.
“The Hamburg Cell,” he said, showed the 9/11 plot unfolding from the perspective of the hijackers.
“I was asked to write the screenplay and I initially refused,” Bennett said. “How much easier life would be by doing something uncontroversial. But the film got rave reviews over here, partly, I think, because it was dispassionate in its telling of the story.”
Bennett is devoting much of his present time to writing screenplays, mostly for Universal Studios in Los Angeles.
But he is not deserting his post as a novelist. Why would he when he is being compared not only to Graham Greene, but also to Conrad, Malraux, Camus and Orwell.
“My new novel is about privacy,” Bennett said.
Beyond that he preferred to keep his peace. For now.