INDIGNATION
PHILIP ROTH
Jonathan Cape, £16.99

A departure from Roth’s recent meditations on the indignities of old age, his new novel revisits the age-old menaces of sex, death and communism. The campus-based tale, set against the backdrop of the Korean War, follows the son of a kosher butcher in 1950s Newark.

Nineteen-year-old freshman, Marcus Messner, attempts to escape his suffocating and overbearing father by leaving college in New Jersey and transfers, somewhat disastrously, to Winesberg College, Ohio. Messner is an A-grade student, while his new classmates are churchgoing, beer-swilling conservatives. Disregarding the Jewish fraternity and determined to escape the claustrophobia of his father’s oppressive love, the butcher’s shop, and the stink of blood and meat, Messner involves himself with a disturbed Gentile named Olivia Hutton.

Alienated by the Christian ethos and confused by his sexual experiences, Messner fears he is only a sexual-transgression away from ending up a doomed rifleman in Korea. His father is proved correct in his abnormal anxiety for his son’s welfare, because Messner is killed in action in Korea.
He is drafted after expulsion from Winesburg, following a series of amusing clashes with college authorities, charting Roth’s return to comic form. Roth condemns Messner to an afterlife of endless metaphysical incomprehension, doomed to revisit the events of his life. While death is a unifying preoccupation of Roth’s later work, the clumsy shift in narration from first person to third in the final chapter, spelling out Messner’s fate for anyone who hasn’t quite worked it out, is an ill-considered strategy which disrupts the otherwise propulsive and visceral narrative. But without Roth’s characteristically taught style, the novel would simply be a series of comic set-pieces which didn’t make the cut in his earlier works.

Messner’s sexual hi-jinks are not unlike that of previous Roth protagonist Mickey Sabbath, masturbating on his beloved’s grave; he is not simply another of Roth’s fictional alter-egos, but a far darker creation of sexual insecurity. The amount of sex (as in any Roth novel) is not quite enough to be gratuitous.
It is never an end in itself but a principal source of terror and neuroticism. While this may sound like well-trodden ground to anyone who has read at least one of Roth’s 29 novels on sex, conformity and religious and moral rectitude, it is anything but formulaic.

Much more satisfying than his last novel, the sorely disappointing Exit Ghost, Indignation is a combination of the poignant disenchantment of Roth’s recent works, and the righteous anger of his earlier novels.

3 Stars

While flying over the ocean, the Air Pacific magazine assures me that, despite what German scientists may say, kava will most probably not give me liver cancer. Universal respect for the local vice of choice – the very alcoholic, somewhat hallucinogenic kava – is one of the many things that unites the islands of the South Pacific region. Indeed, despite their historical, social and political variations, these islands are remarkably alike. So while I focus on New Caledonia and Fiji, a visit to any of the other islands in the South Pacific will be very similar. There will be kava, Japanese tourists and sunshine whichever island you chose to visit.

Ask anyone of their idea of the South Pacific and the answer will almost certainly be based on images from TV shows and films like ‘Lost’ and ‘Blue Lagoon’. Unlike almost any other tourist destination, the South Pacific actually lives up to this stereotype. Beautiful white sand beaches of crystal clear water, fringed by palm trees, scattered with coconuts, dotted with brightly coloured flowers, bathed in eternal sunshine – all this is surprisingly close to the truth. Fiji is home to some of the loveliest beaches in the world, not to mention the stunning tropical forests of the interior, while New Caledonia is full of natural marvels; coral reefs and lagoons, of course, but also vast mountain ranges and an island solely covered with pine trees (the imaginatively named Île des Pins). You can’t help getting the sense that the theologians must have got it wrong somewhere- if there ever was a Garden of Eden, it would have been in the South Pacific. Essentially, when it comes to this area of the world, believe the hype.

The South Pacific is not only unique in its tropical beauty, but also in its cultural experiences. As a department of France over 16000 miles away from the mainland, New Caledonia is a melting pot of indigenous Melanesian, or Kanak, heritage, French colonial influences and, thanks to more recent immigration trends, South-East Asian culture. Noumea, the self-titled “Paris of the South Pacific”, is frankly extraordinary in its resemblance to the mainland. I was able to re-live almost all my favourite, distinctively French experiences in this island capital; spending too long in Champion’s enormous wine section, reading Paris Match and having five course meals of classic French cuisine. Adding an abundance of French flags and Renaults to the mix, the result is truly bizarre. Imagine Paris, with real beaches.

Like Paris, Noumea is also a thriving centre of racial segregation. While there are many instances of French and Kanak culture complementing each other, even the most unobservant traveler cannot ignore the uncomfortable relationship between les Métros from the mainland and the Kanaks. Indeed, while this is a regrettable aspect of life in New Caledonia, I must admit that it is also one of the most fascinating. France initially used New Caledonia as an oversized jail for political prisoners and then took full advantage of the island’s wealth of natural resources. At the moment, the island’s native population are overrepresented in the all the wrong socio-economic categories. The Kanaks, for the most part, openly resent their position in society and French rule, while the French tend to take the view that New Caledonia would be worse off without European influence. It’s the classic clash between imperialist and subject, and New Caledonia is one of the few places left in the world where you can see the colonial story still unfolding.

While most of the other islands in the South Pacific are no longer under colonial rule, almost all exhibit a mix of French or British and native Islander culture. Fiji is no exception. English is an official language and beer (Fijian Bitter, of course) comes second only to kava. Like New Caledonia, the mix of cultures often has bizarre results. Suva, Fiji’s capital and largest metropolis, has its very own hip hop scene, where rappers mix Fijian with the ghetto slang of south central LA and East London. If tropical paradise isn’t your thing, then it’s worth the trip just to hear MCs claim to be “too busy pimpin’ at Suva Bus Station to be on Fiji 1 News, blud”.

Boundless tropical beauty and a kaleidoscope of culture – it seems like the South Pacific really is a traveler’s paradise. It does however have one major drawback. As the only holiday destinations within a bearable flight away from Australia and New Zealand, the islands of the South Pacific have become reliant on tourism as their principle source of income. Both are well-orientated towards presenting foreigners with a somewhat artificial view of the islands- tropical cocktails on the beach, guided tours of nominally authentic villages, dancing in grass-skirts and so on. This manufactured tourist experience is hard to stomach. The islands are poor, those working in the tourist industry are heavily underpaid, and their political institutions are precarious. There are only so many overpriced Blue Hawaiians you can order, so many fire dances you can watch, before you start to feel sorry for those who live beyond the resorts and hotels which dominate the islands. Sorrow which soon turns to a feeling of guilt, justified or not, when you are constantly faced with reminders of the region’s colonial past.

Despite the overabundance of tourists and artificial tourist experiences, the South Pacific has much to offer, especially for those who haven’t traveled to post-colonial areas or beyond Europe. I, for one, was ready to follow Marlon Brando’s example after a week in the region; marrying a local and purchasing a Tahitian island seemed like an excellent life path. Or maybe that was just the kava talking.

A Brief History

The South Pacific region is made up of a variety of islands such as Vanuatu, Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and New Caledonia. The original inhabitants of these islands, the Melanesians, are thought to be the ancestors of the present day Papuan-speaking people, who traveled to the islands from New Guinea tens of thousands of years ago. The next group of settlers were the Polynesians, who arrived in New Caledonia in the 11th Century and Fiji in 500BC. The intermarriage between Melanesians and Polynesians gave rise to the modern-day indigenous populations on the islands.

From this point onwards, the islands of the South Pacific begin to develop more distinct historical paths as they are discovered by different European explorers in the 17th Century and later colonized, predominantly by France and Britain. Fiji was explored by the Dutch and British in the 17th and 18th Centuries, with missionaries and traders arriving in the first half of the 19th Century. The unrest caused by the conflict between Europeans and the native population prompted Fijian chiefs to cede Fiji unconditionally to the British in 1874. The British commenced large-scale sugar cane cultivation in the 1880s and introduced tens of thousands of indentured Indian workers to the island. Fiji declared independence from Britain in 1970. Since then, Fiji has experienced a politically tumultuous history, with conflict between Indians and ethnic Fijians resulting in four coups since 1987.

New Caledonia was sighted by James Cook in 1774, who gave it the Latin name for Scotland (Caledonia) due to its apparent resemblance to that country. The 19th Century saw the rise of sandalwood trading in the archipelago, with Europeans introducing a variety of diseases to the native population. When sandalwood trading had diminished, it was replaced by the slave trade. Native Kanaks were taken from New Caledonia to work in sugar cane plantations in Fiji and Australia. In 1853, the islands were annexed by France. The period up till 1922 saw the arrival of 22,000 French convicts, many of whom were political prisoners, followed by European settlers and Asian workers. In 1946, the archipelago joined Guadeloupe and Martinique to become a DOM-TOM, a French overseas territory.

However, agitation by separatist groups, primarily the Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak Socialiste, began in 1985. The troubles led to an agreement on increased autonomy for the islands in 1988. Most importantly, the Noumea Accord of 1998 was granted in an effort to calm tensions. The Accord provides for local Caledonian citizenship and official Caledonian symbols, as well as stating that there will be a referendum on the issue of independence from France sometime after 2014.

I’m worried that I will not make any new friends immediately to make up for not having my good friends I have at home. I’m also worried that if I do make new friends then I will be betraying my old ones and lose touch with them.

TUGGED IN TWO

Dear Tugged in Two,

You are describing the process of transition, when you take stock of your past experiences in light of what you imagine may lie ahead. It is important to put this into perspective, rather than have absolute or ‘all or nothing’ thoughts about this process.

Understand that going through a transition to a new stage in your life close relationships will change and feel a bit
uncertain; this is part of an ending in one stage and a new beginning. Try not to get too anxious, panicky or attempt to make new friends as you say ‘immediately to make up for’ old friends. Don’t put too much pressure or expectations on yourself and others to prematurely become ‘best friends’.

This usually takes time. Impossibly high expectations would destroy the spontaneity needed to get to know new people who may go onto become friends. Most of the other new students will feel the same and will want to meet and get to know as many new and exciting people as possible. Over time those people who will become your new friends will naturally emerge. However, don’t try to ‘replace’ your old friends or compare those you are just getting to know with those who have known you for a long time and probably shared lots of experiences. That is an unfair comparison. Making new friends is not a betrayal of old ones, just an acknowledgment that you are expanding your life experience. Although, it may mean the nature and ‘rituals’ of your old friendships may change. In most cases it makes life more interesting when you meet up again with old friends to then share your new experiences and new friends together.

I am entering my 3rd and final year at Oxford and am really worried about what to do when I finish. I feel totally unprepared for the real world beyond the Oxford bubble. What’s more I fear that my worries will affect my academic performance in my Finals.

OUT IN THE REAL WORLD

Dear Out in the Real World,
The transition from formal education is a significant one. Up to now your academic career has been mapped out for you, and you have felt in control. Now, faced with the uncertainly of the future, you may well feel that things are beyond your control. Anxieties at any transition are natural, and widely held, indeed if you had no concerns, I would suspect some unhelpful denial might be around. It is important to confront these feelings, which you may have postponed up to now. If you do not they may unwittingly undermine your best efforts. For example, a way of not facing important changes is to fail in your transitional task, i.e. your Finals. As if, somehow by not succeeding we cannot progress. Of course this would be counterproductive. Fear of what comes after university lies behind a lot of students’ decisions to continue studying, and for many, this is appropriate. There may be a wish at some level to defer maturation. The important thing is to consider all of your feelings behind the choices you have to make. To this end, it is important to discuss how you feel with those you trust: friends, family, tutors etc.

Take your time to make your decisions, just because others seem to know exactly what they are doing and are beginning their careers, it does not mean you have to. It is far more important to consider what is right for you. You have over forty years of work before you. Beginning something for the sake of feeling you have to do something, would be to do it for the wrong reasons.
Your new independence will be characterised by you making your own decisions (with guidance from others if necessary), so it is important to consider what is right for you. Remember you will have had an Oxford education, which will afford you more choices, and whilst that can be more anxiety-provoking, ultimately you are favourably positioned to pursue your chosen path.

I’ve just come up to Oxford and I’m really concerned that I will not be as clever as students and that it will be reflected in my grades. Although I was at or near to the top of my class in school, everybody here seems to have been top of their class. I’m dreading feeling just average, if that.

Good Enough?

Dear Good Enough?,

This is a common fear of new Oxford undergraduates. That you have been academically exceptional may well have provided a lot of satisfaction for yourself and others. However, as you imply, not everyone can be at the top. What’s important to remember at this very significant transitional stage of your life is that often new ways of thinking and behaving have to be made to adjust to new, different circumstances.

Whatever has (allied to a natural intelligence) fuelled your academic success to this point may have to be reconsidered and new expectations of yourself put in place. For example, if you have been a perfectionist, or sought the affirmation of others (teachers, parents) and neglected other areas of personal development in your desire to be at the top, you may consider what an opportunity this is to forge more satisfactory way of being. It may be that your fears are unrealistic, and you may remain top of the class, but if they are realised, it is important to consider that this is a disappointment only if you think in terms of how you have always thought.

Achieving academic or any other kind of success is usually a gateway to another challenging level, such as moving from school to a good University. An important fact of life to come to terms with is that apart from in exceptionally rare circumstances someone else will usually be ‘above’ you in the ‘class’. That even goes for Oxford Academics and Nobel Prize winners!
Oxford will of course provide plenty of opportunity to further your academic potential, but it also provides a tremendous opportunity to develop all of your potential; personal and cultural and that striking the right balance will be the key to your success and enjoyment here. Indeed if you worry too much about your work it is paradoxically likely to undermine your academic performance.
It’s important to share your concerns, with others – friends, tutors, family, but do not compare yourself to others. This is a time for you to discover what’s important to you, not to dwell on the fantasy of catastrophe if things do not go exactly as they have before. Remember, you remain academically exceptional, which is why you are at Oxford, as you deserve to be and it was not just by luck.

With so many trends around you can wear almost anything… as long as you wear it with confidence.

Models: Drusilla Bridges,
Hana Chambers, Tara Morrison
Photographer: Guy Brain
Stylist: Anthony Robert

It’s slightly annoying that you can’t book a table at Jamie’s latest offering on George Street. Feted for weeks as a student loan-friendly gateway to decent restaurant food, the steady trickle of twenty-something media types who wish they were still at university has dwindled to almost nothing.

This, however, does not stop the Jamie-accented waiters welcoming you into a small bar area where you are invited to buy wine decanted in perfect 175ml stainless steel measures. Never has so little drink been wasted. “Can I interest you in a luvely jubbley glass of this fruity Spanish red! How about a smashing Argentinian white with a hint of pukka gaucho!”

At £5 a glass, no you can’t! After forming a patter-proof circle in the corner of the bar, my three dinner mates are grudgingly ushered to a table near the back of the place, the walls covered by about 40 dark, empty photo frames. One of the girls worries she might have an existential crisis, and I look around desperately for the menu.

Thankfully, the staff at Jamie’s are eager to help. “I think the penne’s amazing!” says one of them happily. I look through the list – a pretty safe collection of Italian favourites, including spaghetti Bolognese, lasagne and canelloni – and feel a warm glow from the smattering of Jamie phrases. “Loadsa herbs… amazing chilli jam… old school tomato salad.” Sometimes exclamation marks even happen in the middle of phrases – “Turbo! Penne Arrabiata”.

It strikes the girls that there’s quite a lot of English food in this Italian restaurant. There’s steak, burgers, ‘half a chicken’, and lamb chops. Welsh lamb chops. “They might be cooked in Italian sauce,” one of us says doubtfully, but even so we all end up sticking to the pasta section.
After a rapidly eaten selection of breads, Italianised with rosemary gremolata, I get started on a parmesan-heavy slice of lasagne. There’s a bit too much cheese in it, and I’m sensing that English influences weigh heavy in the Jamie recipe book. I lean over the table and steal a bit of sausage parpadelle. It tastes very similar to my lasagne. In fact, now that I think about it, my lasagne tastes rather porky. I wonder if they used the right seasoning. I wonder if they used the right meat.

Our other mains are truffle tagliatelle and a mushroom-heavy canelloni, which seem like much better choices, thanks to a little less salt and a little subtler flavouring. All through this meal, by the way, I’ve been drinking. And it tastes pretty good – but since I don’t know anything about wine, I won’t try to review it.

As we move inexorably towards puddings, I take a break to look around the restaurant. The interior’s pretty impressive, and certainly a cut above most affordable places to eat in Oxford. If you end up going, it might be worth paying a visit to the loos, if only to gaze appreciatively at the giant steam-punk levers that flush them.

Hopefully, though, you will far too engrossed with your puddings to bother. These are genuinely great (apart from a slightly dry ‘Amalfi’ orange tart) and I’d recommend that all aspiring fresher chefs take a bite of Jamie’s brownies before starting out on their college cake sale baking. Charity will benefit.
In fact, for all my whining about the main courses, the food at Jamie’s Italian is pretty good, if a little overpriced. So long as you’re prepared to pay for the ambience and exclamation marks, it’s an enjoyable night out. As the girls agreed, it would be a pretty perfect place for a first date. The music is relaxed, the staff are friendly, and a lot of the food is great. My only complaint? Cheap meat.

PRICE: £20 for two courses and wine

IN A WORD: Decent!