Escaping Firgo by Jason Whittle

 

This short novel, or extended essay is a morality story, a comparison of materialism and spirituality, a critique of the way modern society is too embedded in materialism, and of how actions have consequences. Through the device of planning a bank robbery the protagonist encounters various situations where these two concepts are put into juxtaposition and compared. It culminates in him deciding that the moral, spiritual path is better to follow than the materialistic one.

Written in the first person singular, the author describes the town of Firgo as

purgatory,

a time slip,

an elaborate yet momentary hallucination.

Firgo is the place where he goes to make his comparison. Firgo is a critique of modern society. None of the roads in Firgo lead to somewhere else; they always lead back to Firgo. Everything here goes around in predictable routine in circles; nothing ever changes, nothing is questioned or improved, nothing evolves. There is a feeling of apathy.

We live life here at a different pace here. You'll soon get used to it.

We don't worry about that sort of thing most of the time.

What else is there?

Firgo is inhabited by characters who are defined by their narrow civic roles and how they go no further than that role to see a wider perspective.

...it might do them good to see the world outside , and speak to somebody whose first name isn't The.

The Inn Keeper, The Shopkeeper, The Journalist,The School Teacher,The Postman, The Housewife,The Traffic Warden, The Newsagent (same person as The Shopkeeper?), The Victim, The Little Girl Lost, The Worried Mother, The Absent Father. All these can only think within the parameters of their role and job; they cannot think independently as individuals to make their own decisions, jobsworths. I have seen this literary device of defining unnamed characters by their societal roles in the book “Milkman” by Anna Burns which won the Man Booker Prize in 2018.

Over it all hangs the question of consequence, retribution and karma.

I wouldn't worry about it Sir. Everybody settles up in the end.

You're welcome to stay as long as you like, and I trust you to take care of the bill at whatever time is convenient to you, Sir

Everybody settles up in the end

There are smaller subplots to symbolise the debates that are going on inside the protagonist's mind. A crying lost child, a man being mugged, the Inn Keeper's wife trying to seduce him. In each case he makes a decision based on spiritual morals and not materialistic gain.

The novel ends with protagonist making what he considers the right decision and moving forward into reality again.

I liked this short novel. The brevity meant it never became a burden and was easy to analyse. There were some uses of English I disagreed with: as an editor I would have questioned them with the author, but that's okay, that's his style.  The publisher  Kristell Ink,  is a subsection of Grimbold Books which deals with science fiction and fantasy. The printer was Amazon.