From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Rondo (novel)
Rondo (novel)
Rondo is a dystopian novel by John Maher, published in stealing days from him, here and there, for many years.
2010 by Pilgrim Press. Josef is left in Rondo, as nothing more than the catamite
of the great Adnan, leader of the first crossing to Rondo.
Setting He has a much coveted dragonfly in a glass case by his
bed. But he has nothing. There is no home now. He will
Rondo is set sometime after The Sudden War, between a wear out his days in the realisation that to embrace the
crumbling chateau on the outskirts of 2me Lyon and Ron- Stanislavsky method, in Rondo, is his only salvation.
do, located on the Dead Delta of the Danube, somewhere
beyond the New Desert. It is the cautionary tale of one
Josef Divonne who travels, at the beginning of High Ther-
Main characters
midor, from 2me Lyon, to join up with a bunch of fellow- In 2me Lyon
dissidents in Rondo. It is an account of Josef’s disenchant- • Josef Divonne
ment with his perfect adopted country and his eventu- • Uwe, his father
al incarceration there. Although written in English, there • Nono, his grandfather
are occasional quotations from Lower European (such • Gaston, his grandfather’s lover
as the melancholy, ’S’gibt rien aqui!’) and Rondan (mar- • The Facilitator
itime). • Veteran Foucarde
• Veteran Du Bois
Plot summary In Rondo
• The Jolly Restaurateur
The story opens with Josef Divonne arriving in Rondo, on • Adnan, Josef’s mentor
the shores of the Dead Delta of the Danube, having flown • Madame Helono
in from Lower Europe. Josef believes he is driven by ide- • Mr Ephraim, the little philologist
ology but, in fact, it is the mystery of his mother egg (he • Dennis, the revivalist
was a free born child) and his hero father’s (Uwe) record • Nor-Nor, the Asian
in the Purifications of Africa and the Italies which is re- • Dore, the illegal watercolourist
ally behind his uncertainty. Leaving the chateau outside • Illana, of 2me Mannheim
2me Lyon at the start of High Thermidor, he joins up with • Roderick, hero of the children’s novel ’Asky in a
a bunch of dissidents - the Lovers of Rondo - in the ’free Piccard’
state’ of Rondo. Overwhelmed by all he sees, Josef goes
native. After a short while, he decides to become a citi-
zen of Rondo, embracing his personal god, Zinze, follow-
Critical reception
ing the Sublime Path and obeying all the instructions of Rondo was almost universally ignored, both in Lower and
his mentor, Adnan. He divorces his wife by electric mail. Upper Europe. Nevertheless, the Booker-shortlisted
Despite melancholy flashbacks to his childhood, during writer, Pat McCabe (novelist), gave it a warm welcome.
the Second Sida Cycle, he decides his future lies in Rondo. “Daringly prescient to the point of prophecy, wicked-
But all is not as it seems. After an illegal visit to the Circus ly insightful and most impressively crafted, this searing
with Nor Nor, an Asian he despises, he is confronted, in yet hugely enjoyable novel is in the grand tradition of De
his cups, by a restaurant owner who whispers to him in Quincey, Jonathan Swift and, latterly, Chris Morris. In an
Lower European ’S’gibt rien aqui!’. Slowly, Josef comes to age of worthy but predictable writing, Maher’s book is sui
realise that he is not in a ’free state’ but in a prison colony generis. It simply demands to be read."{Blurb from Ron-
for dissidents. Waking on the night he is due to fly out of do (Pilgrim Press, 2010)}
Rondo, he finds he has been left behind and that Nor Nor, www.johnpatrickmaher.com/rondo. Available for
his only true confidante, has been killed in a mysterious complimentary download:http://www.scribd.com/doc/
fall from a balcony. He also finds that someone has been 73679265/Rondo-John-Maher
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rondo_(novel)&oldid=462384737"
Categories:
• 2010 novels
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Rondo (novel)
This page was last modified on 25 November 2011 at 09:23. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of
the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Contact us
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
2