Night Boat to Tangier

In Night Boat to Tangier, we have two aging Irishmen waiting at the Algeciras ferry terminal in Spain. Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond have a long history together – over the last few decades they have been friends, business partners, rivals, and roommates in a mental institution. The drug smuggling business that they started when they were young had been lucrative for awhile. But after a series of bad investments in real estate money laundering schemes, and due to their drug habits, they had lost their ill-earned fortune. Since then, the time has not been kind to this duo. Charlie has acquired a limp, and Maurice is missing an eye. But now they are here together, searching through crowds for Dilly, the estranged daughter of Maurice, who they have on good authority will come to the terminal either traveling to or returning from Tangier.

While they wait at the terminal, casually threatening violence on passers-by in their attempt to gain any information on Dilly, we get snippets from Maurice and Charlie’s past. They’ve both been callous in the affairs and left broken hearts along their trail. So they hope finding Dilly, the daughter of Cynthia, who they both loved will bring them redemption. (Cynthia was Maurice’s wife. However, she carried on an affair with Charlie, so Dilly could be either one’s daughter).

Night Boat to Tangier was a compelling read for me because the focus here is on the damage Maurice and Charlie’s actions caused their loved ones – the people we wouldn’t automatically think of as their victims, in juxtaposition to their murder victims and so forth. Yet the pain they had caused Cynthia and Dilly is real. Dilly is especially worried she will one day take after her father, which is why she had disappeared and become a New Age traveler soon after her mother’s passing.

Something else that she had learned – you need to watch yourself at every minute of the day. If you don’t watch yourself, the badness might slide in, or the evil. Watch your words most of all. Watch for the glamorous sentence that appears from nowhere – it might have plans for you. Watch out for the clauses that are elegantly strung, for the string of words bejewelled. Watch out for ripe language – it means your words may be about to go off.

Night Boat to Tangier is short and lyrical. However, it is also one of the most underwhelming among the Booker Prize long-listed novels I read in recent history. While I believed Maurice and Charlie both loved Dilly in their flawed ways, I just didn’t feel it. Hence, 2 stars only.

Note: Many thanks to Anchor Books for sending me a review copy of Night Boat to Tangier.