Book: Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

I almost missed the whole book.

Earlier this year I saw a Hitchcock's early film Sabotage (1936) which is said to be based on Joseph Conrad's Secret Agent. It was a thriller about a terrorist in London, a subject relevant to today's world events. I was surprised that Conrad, the writer of sea adventures, could write such a "modern" story. Then I realized that I had the book on my shelf, because it is ranked 46 on Modern Library list of 100 fictions of the 20th century. I decided to give this different Conrad a try.

Knowing the plot from the film, I expected it to be a fast read. However, it was painfully slow at first, even though I had the advantage of knowing the relationships among the main characters. I was stuck in chapter II, because suddenly there were all new characters. Each character seemed to have a first name, a last name, one or two job titles, and some other ways of identifying them, so when I was reading the dialogues, it was like working on a puzzle trying to match each person up with all his identities. It was ultimately confusing. I had to put it down.


After finishing (not reading) Heart of Darkness and Secret Sharer, I tried to continue Secret Agent. This second time was even worse. The plot never seemed to move anywhere, and I was constantly confused of the characters, the time, the location, and what everyone was saying or doing and with whom. I had never experienced a story this slow and painfully detailed. I should have known. The Heart of Darkness, though shorter, was equally slow at first, and I was confused even till the end. However, because I had already abandoned one book last week (Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse--it was unbearably boring to me all of a sudden), I wanted to finish this one. Sitting on the beach during the heat wave, I leisurely flipped through all pages, trying to catch one of two scenarios that I would recognize from the film. No, I didn't even catch the one of the bomb, or the one of the final killing. Nothing. I read the last line and disappointedly put the book away.

I went to Amazon.com to read other people's review. There are 64 reviews total, 31 five stars, 15 four stars, 7 three stars, 4 two stars (so far decreasing by factor of 2), and 7 one star. I must be very ignorant not to see the brilliance of this "greatest" masterpiece. The bad reviews all agreed with me--slow, dull, confusing, overly descriptive.... Then several 5-star reviews caught my eyes. "Don't give up on this book halfway! Admittedly, the first half (dare I say, two thirds?) of this novel seemed to me rather plodding-- until one key event occurs and the plot starts to kick into full gear." "It was tough sledding in the beginning. Quite frankly, I found myself wondering why some consider this novel to be one of Conrad's finest, but there were enough of Conrad's marvelous sentences to keep me in the book." So I should start reading from page 253*(2/3). Since I already knew the basic characters, I could not be more confused about the plot than before.

I read the last 1/3 of the book patiently, and it was rewarding. From Chapter IX to the end, the events all happened during one evening. This would give anyone an idea of how slow and descriptive this book could be. The plot had little resemblance to Hitchcock's film. It was psychologically complex and detailed, and very dark. In comparison, Hitchcock was too Hollywood (although the film was made during his early British era), full of shallow characters, silly romance, and intense suspense. The two pieces had completely different emphases, and with characters of such different temperaments. In the book, Verloc was to be sympathized rather than despised, and Winnie was more to be feared than sympathized. The book explored the darkness of madness and despair in a few hours of confrontation among three characters.

I'm very grateful that I have "stuck" to the end of the book. Joseph Conrad is truly a master. If anyone is having trouble getting into this book, I recommend watching the movie first to understand the relationships between the main characters, then start from Chapter IX and read the last 40% of the book.