Throwing Sparks
By Abdo Khal, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, 368 pages, $27.45
After reading a few pages of Abdo Khal’s novel “Throwing Sparks”, it is amply clear why the book has been banned in his native country, Saudi Arabia. (It is also banned in Kuwait and Jordan). Khal delves into the darkest recesses of human nature and portrays a dystopian world — the world of the Palace and the “Firepit”. One is a gilded cage, supremely desirable from the outside but a living hell once you are inside it. The other, a bottomless pit of despondency, some of whose denizens salivate at the sight of the magnificent palace that has come up in their midst and will stop at nothing to enter its confines. Khal’s is an account of how destructive unimaginable wealth and unchecked power can be for those unfortunate enough to be caught up in their path.
“Throwing Sparks” won Khal the $60,000 (Dh220,200) International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the “Arabic Booker”) in 2010.
Even when he is at his most self-critical, it is difficult to feel any sympathy for Tariq Fadel, the protagonist and narrator. Growing up in a deprived waterfront neighbourhood in Jeddah — the “Firepit” — Tariq and his friends lead lives of unspeakable depravity: sex with men, women and even animals, and drug and alcohol abuse. As Tariq describes it, “… Osama learnt all the secret ways to crush a man’s virility in the alleyways of the neighbourhood and decided early on to join the ranks of the predators rather than the prey. The three of us — Osama, Issa and I — broke all the rules and violated all the taboos in the crevices of that islet. It was the launching pad to the slippery paths that all three of us followed in lives dedicated to the single-minded pursuit of pleasure and sensual gratification.” No, this book is certainly not for the faint of heart.
One after the other, all three manage to leave the Firepit and enter the palace. The owner of the palace — the Master — is a powerful figure in the city. And his power is only matched by his perversion and wickedness. As soon as he is brought into service at the palace aged 19, Tariq’s heart sinks as he realises why he has been chosen. From that moment on, he has one main task: meting out savage punishments to the Master’s enemies, and even some friends who have fallen out of favour. He sodomises men as the Master watches and his minions record everything on a video camera, to be used, if necessary, against the unfortunate souls.
The narrative moves between the present and the past. Tariq wants to leave the past behind — the Firepit, a pious, decent half-brother, a half-sister he has never seen, a mother who has married another man immediately after the death of his father, and a cruel aunt. Meanwhile, Tariq is deeply in love with Maram, the Master’s beautiful and seductive mistress. A secret affair ensues, despite the inherent risks.
As life in the palace becomes unbearable, Tariq rents a villa outside and secures permission to move in with his hated aunt, using her to get the Master’s permission. But the Master continues to monitor all that Tariq does. When the nagging and taunts of his aunt become unbearable, Tariq decides to end the matter once and for all — slicing off her tongue with a razor blade.
Aged 50, Khal reflects on his three decades of captive depravity. Things hit the abyss when Tariq is brought face to face with Issa in the punishment chamber. With the Master watching and the cameras rolling, he realises that he now has to do the same things to his childhood friend. “I was completely shattered. It had never crossed my mind that one day Issa and I would confront one another here. We looked each other in the eye, taking in our defeat and our torment … our long years together brimmed in our eyes.”
Khal’s description is vivid and poetic, and the quality of the translation — as with all books brought out by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation — is top-notch.
The revelation in the end is shocking even by the standards of this dark novel.