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March 20
Hardback
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Harm Done
by Ruth Rendell
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Reviewed by Joe Lee
Well, that's a relief. Anyone who was wondering about Ruth Rendell's stance
regarding domestic violence (would she be pro or con?) need wonder no longer.
Harm Done, her latest (47th) book, offers proof that she's against it. The
book also indicates that she is against public rioting, pollution of the
environment, and untidy housekeeping. Unfortunately, while defining her
position on these various subjects, she has neglected to write a convincing
story.
Harm Done, which features Chief Inspector Wexford, actually involves three
interconnected story lines. The three concern (1) domestic violence, (2) the
mysterious disappearance of two young women, and (3) the return home of a
convicted pedophile and the public outcry that ensues. (Now there's someone
who really can't go home again.) The domestic violence strand, however, is
the one that counts, and it's here that Rendell most obviously sacrifices
story and credibility to other ends. Take, for example, the scene in which
Sylvia, Wexford's daughter, is presented with a few photos of a family group.
Wexford has visited the family several times and has found nothing much
amiss. After a short examination of the photos, however, Sylvia concludes
that (1) the husband is a sadist, (2) the wife is his victim, and (3) their
daughter is slow to talk because she has been traumatized by the violence she
has witnessed. (Imagine what Sylvia might have deduced from an entire photo
album.) Wexford's response, presumably accompanied by a slap of his hand to
his forehead: "I should have known... I should have seen for myself."
In previous Rendell books, Wexford is no slouch as a detective. What has
turned him into Kingsmarkham's answer to Inspector Clouseau? A reader could
easily infer that his main handicap is that he's male. The men in the book
are imperceptive and dull, often brutal. They bring to mind the old joke
Have you enjoyed Ruth Rendell's other Inspector Wexford novels?
What did you think of the television series?
Join the Discussion:
Ruth Rendell >>
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about what you call an intelligent man in name-the-town (in this case
Kingsmarkham). Answer: a tourist. Buster Meeks is probably the most
attractive adult male in the book, but he's a Great Dane. Wexford's gender is
apparently too great a handicap for him to overcome. The main scene of
violence in the book is a male enclave. It is "an abode of maleness... an
office where men's things were done, men's work and men's business." Since
the principal events taking place there are the torture and mutilation of a
woman, this is not a ringing endorsement of men's things, work, and business.
At the end of the book, thank goodness, the house where a male has
perpetrated so much horror has been transformed into "a place where people
lived in, women and children lived in." Maybe the occasional adult male
tourist too?
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