The Figure In The Distance
Otto De Kat
- Cambridge,
- Budapest,
- New
- York,
- Zurich,
- The
- Hague,
- Tel
- Aviv,
- the
- South
- Downs
- of
- England:
- the
- narrator
- has
- travelled
- everywhere.
- He
- has
- observed
- some
- of
- the
- major
- upheavals
- of
- the
- century
- -
- the
- Six
- Day
- War,
- the
- Prague
- Spring
- -
- and
- collected
- friends,
- lovers,
- and
- passions
- every
- step
- of
- the
- way.
- As
- he
- ages,
- the
- memories
- of
- his
- past
- grow
- sharper,
- the
- events
- of
- his
- childhood
- more
- vivid
- -
- so
- vivid,
- in
- fact,
- that
- his
- present
- life
- recedes
- into
- oblivion.
- He
- inhabits
- a
- world
- of
- ghosts
- and
- shadows
- and
- absence.
- Throughout
- his
- perambulations
- of
- time
- and
- space,
- one
- absence
- always
- looms
- largest:
- that
- of
- his
- father.
- The
- figure
- of
- his
- dead
- father
- materializes
- again
- and
- again,
- drawing
- the
- narrator
- back
- into
- the
- past,
- reviving
- the
- people
- and
- places
- of
- long
- ago.
- The
- Figure
- in
- the
- Distance
- is
- a
- hypnotic
- novel,
- told
- with
- a
- cinematic
- cross-cutting
- that
- suspends
- the
- reader
- in
- the
- cobwebs
- of
- memory
- and
- longing
- that
- haunt
- the narrator.
