Kirkus
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Imagine Superman in Grand Fenwick and youll have some idea of Harkaways (Angelmaker, 2012, etc.) brilliantly imagined latest romp.Its amazing being a superhero, says Lester Ferris as the action winds down at the end of Harkaways latest. Its totally mad. Ferris, aka the Sergeant, hasnt been on Mancreu for long, but hes lived 10 lifetimes there. Posted to a supposedly quiet patch of earth after long, soul-shattering duty in Afghanistan (the Americans called it a Total Goatfuck) and Iraq, hes found himself on a spit of land out in the Arabian Sea that, thanks to climate change, is in danger of receding under the wavesbut until that time is a convenient entrept for drug dealers, arms smugglers, pirates, spies, defectors, flimflam artists, multinational corporatists and all the usual suspects, not least of them numerous powers NATO and otherwise: [V]arious interests, writes Harkaway, were making use of the lawless nature of the Mancreu waters for things they might not otherwise be able to do. Mancreus hub is a cafe owned by a fine fellow named Shola, whos mowed down by gunmen for no apparent reason. The Sergeant, aidedor perhaps notby shadowy figures flying the stars and stripes and the tricolor, is at a loss until, visited of a night by a tiger, he takes on the superhero guise of the title, suggested to him by a comic-bookloving, lonely teenager helpfully named Robin. The ensuing showdown is full of in-jokes, knowing nods to the headlines and miscreant Belgians, which will please fans of Monty Python if not necessarily the good burghers of Antwerp. The cast of characters is straight out of a Milton Caniff cartoon, with names like Bad Jack, White Raoul and the Witch, but the burdens poor Mancreu has to bear, from land rape and gang war to toxic dumping and international intrigue, are thoroughly modern millstones.A hoot and a half, and then some: hands down, the best island farce since Vonneguts Cats Cradle half a century ago. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.