Rating: 
Summary: Another Monstrously Twisted Tale
Review: Another Monstrously Twisted Tale of Sexual Longing, Artistry and British Ways, Gone Awry. A Review of Port Mongo by Patrick McGrath, CD audio read by Jennifer Van Dyck.
Patrick McGrath, son of a psychiatrist, master of the twisted, gnarliness of the human psyche, purveyor the consequences of the subtrafusion of desire brings us on further journeys into compulsion, he brings us to new latitudes.
The painter, Jack Rathbone, very young, very wild, artistic, wealthy meets the coarse, but brilliant older woman painter, Vera. The love tryst blossoms in England. Before they run off to New York to lead artists' lives. The heavy drinking, café/bar philosophizing and sexual habits of the untamed, wear their love thin. Jealousy rears its magnificent head.
They depart for cheaper, sunnier digs south. First they whisk off to Havana, circa 1957-1958. In the pre-Castro environment, they continue to crash and burn. An escape further south lands them in Port Mongo. More isolated from New York, Port Mongo becomes the birthplace of Jack's art, his two daughters and the full-fledged alcoholism of Vera. We make the acquaintance of the oldest daughter, Peg, post-mortem, through the tale's narrator, Gin Rathbone. Gin is the want-to-be artist, the loving sister and the observer. She remains very modern and British even after her transplant to New York. She possesses a very matronly kind of sexuality. She's wise in the ways of the world, and desiring but lacking artistic talent. This contributes to her complete devotion to her ar talented brother, Jack. She's always there for Jack.
She visited Jack in Port Mongo. She described the sun-washed Caribbean lifestyle. The sunny life provided a fantastic light in which Jack could paint. The dark, unfathomable turmoil in Vera, Vera's drinking and carousing with various men, and Jack's brooding jealousy juxtapose this. Following Peg's death, Jack abandons Vera, the other daughter is whisked off to another brother's family in England and Jack loses his talent. Time passes, parties are attended, sexual partners are met and left, and the daughter grows up, returns, and seeks out her family. She's a tall, thin, chain smoking 20 year old. She's a gorgeous version of Peg, her deceased sister, but with "very bad English teeth". She stirs upheaval into the pot of Jack and Gin's artistic, rich life, through her muted passions. Once she arrives the story gets even more interesting. This is where I don't want to give away more of the knotted, scummy plugged kitchen sink filth story.
I can say, the main thing I like about Patrick McGrath's writing is how captures the gnarled twisted debris as his characters toss it up from their unconscious, through their moods, their action. The psychological setting and the aftermath serve as a reminder that too much suppression will only rear up and bit you (and your love ones) in the ass.
I was disappointment with the ending, Mr. McGrath took a turn from his ability to write.... save him. The venture into territory better left unvisited resulted in a hackneyed story twist.
Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to his past novels of sexual journeys through the twisted knots that English people can get themselves into. Fortunately Jennifer Van Dyck is a great reader, and Gin's final reaction was enough of a break in timing that she almost salvaged the story.
If you are going to dive into Patrick McGrath's world of Port Mongo best not to go it alone, I highly recommend the CD version. Jennifer Van Dyck keeps this monster from sinking.
Rating:
Summary: McGrath spinning his wheels
Review: Ever since his debut, British novelist Patrick McGrath has set for himself an unnervingly narrow limitation to follow. Each of his Gothic novels makes use of the old convention of the unreliable narrator: the person telling the story either is not acquainted with all the facts of the tale, or is, for his own reasons, deliberately falsifying them.There is an obvious danger here. McGrath could very easily be a predictable writer. We all know, starting a new novel of his, what to expect. The narrator can't be trusted, so the solution to the mystery must be the opposite of what we're told. Until now, McGrath has managed quite well to surprise his readers. Even in his last book, Martha Peake, he was able to pull a rabbit out of his hat at the very last minute. Unfortunately, he has now failed for the first time in Port Mungo. I won't go into detail about the plot--you can read a synopsis elsewhere. Suffice it to say that readers already familiar with McGrath's modus operandi will know very early on in Port Mungo what is really happening. It makes the rest of the book quite dull, following the characters to a foregone conclusion. And that isn't all. The characters themselves are not very well fleshed out. We spend the entire novel in Gin's brain, as it were, but never learn much of anything about her. Another vastly important character, Gin and Jack's responsible elder brother, is basicaly ignored. And so on. I could add other points. The main setting, Port Mungo itself, is never resolved into a real place, but remains an impressionistic smudge. Worse, McGrath's sense of dark humor is almost entirely absent, giving the novel an absurdly self-serious air. These are not very nice people we meet in the book; a little humor would have gone a long way to improving it. I don't want to give the impression that Port Mungo is awful. McGrath is too talented a writer to fail entirely, and I don't grudge the time I spent reading the book. Nevertheless, it is too, too familiar, the work of an excellent artist repeating earlier ideas. Those new to McGrath, of course, may very well get more out of the book than I did. But established fans will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: A Departure for McGrath and Definitely Not HIs Best Work
Review: I usually love the novels of Patrick McGrath. SPIDER, DR. HAGGARD'S DISEASE, THE GROTESQUE, and ASYLUM were all five star reads for me. The first half of MARTHA PEAKE was a five star read as well, but I thought it fell apart during the second half when it moved from England to the United States. The same thing, at least for me, has happened in PORT MUNGO. PORT MUNGO is set in Honduras and New York City during the 1980s and the 1990s. The parts set in Honduras worked well, I think, but the parts set in New York City don't show us McGrath's distinct talent for the Gothic. PORT MUNGO is the story of Jack Rathbone, a seventeen-year-old boy who enters into a relationship with a thirty-year-old artist, Vera Savage. Much to the dismay of Gin Rathbone, an artist, herself, and Jack's older sister, Vera convinces Jack to leave school and travel with her to New York where they immerse themselves in the world of bohemian art. They soon tire of New York, however, and move to Port Mungo, Honduras, instead, where Jack begins work on a series of brilliantly colored paintings he describes as "malarial." Two daughters are born of Jack and Vera's strange union, Peg and Anna. Even in remote Honduras, Vera manages to be unfaithful to Jack, but it's the death of Peg, at sixteen, that proves to be the breaking point in the relationship of Jack and Vera. Taking Anna with him, Jack returns to New York and gives custody of Anna to Gin and Gerald, Jack's older brother. PORT MUNGO is told from Gin's point of view, so the facts are colored by her feelings and her limited knowledge, something that actually works to the book's advantage. PORT MUNGO is also a book that's told in flashbacks since the catalyst for the story is Anna, but it's Anna twenty years after her arrival in New York from Port Mungo. It's Anna who wants to learn the truth about her parents and Anna who wants to know all the circumstances about the mysterious death of her sister many years before. Anna's arrival, however, after an absence of twenty years, sets off a chain of events that we know can only end in tragedy. I think, with PORT MUNGO, McGrath is attempting to explore the dark recesses that lurk in the minds of most highly creative persons. And, as far as this is concerned, I think he did a pretty good job. There can be no doubt that McGrath is a masterful writer, but I don't think he's at his best when describing events that take place in the "new world." Britain is his forte and claustrophobic novels are his strength. McGrath's previous book, MARTHA PEAKE, was at its best in the first half, when the story took place in England; when it moved to the American colonies in the second half, it lost much of its power. Another thing PORT MUNGO shares with MARTHA PEAKE is melodrama. I like a bit of melodrama, especially in works as dark and Gothic as McGrath's, but melodrama must be restrained and harnessed or it loses its effect. I think, in PORT MUNGO, McGrath needed to put the brakes on some of his more melodramatic events. The above is not meant to say that PORT MUNGO is a bad book. It isn't, but it's certainly not McGrath's best. I think you need SPIDER or ASYLUM for that. PORT MUNGO might disappoint fans of McGrath who, like me, were looking forward to something more along the lines of SPIDER or THE GROTESQUE. If you've never read Patrick McGrath before, you might find PORT MUNGO compelling. Just don't come away from it thinking this is typical McGrath or that this is his best work. It definitely is not.
Rating:
Summary: McGrath spinning his wheels
Review: In his five previous novels (most notably "Asylum") Patrick McGrath has proven to be an author who writes with compelling intensity, fashioning a love story that haunts and surprises. He's a master at painting tragedy where one least expects to find it. This, for many, may be the fascination of "Port Mungo." Told largely in flashbacks this is the saga of the Rathbones. Jack, a young painter is adored and cosseted by his older sister, Gin. Theirs is a privileged existence. While attending art school in London 17-year-old Jack is besotted by Vera Savage, an older avant garde painter. The pair leave what they consider to be the suffocating confines of London for New York City. Once there, Jack "could see no earthly reason why, with Vera beside him, he should not achieve all he knew he had it in him to achieve." But New York doesn't prove to be the haven or inspiration he had imagined, and the pair flee to the South, very far South, Honduras, to a fictional town, Port Mungo, "a once prosperous river town now gone to seed, wilting and steaming among the mangrove swamps of the Gulf of Honduras." Gin visits there only once for a period of ten days. She has come to see the couple's first child, a daughter, Peg. Once there, she learns that Vera is an alcoholic given to countless affairs. Motherhood did not agree with Vera nor did it cause her to settle down. Nonetheless, a second daughter is born, Anna. At the age of 16 Peg dies mysteriously, her body found in swamp water. This is a tragedy that seemingly Jack cannot endure, thus he returns to New York City and Gin. But now his painting, when he can work is dark and foreboding. Gone are the brilliant colors of the tropics, the light that had once been captured by his brush. Much later Anna also comes to the City, asking questions about her sister's death, wanting to know more about her parents. Anna's appearance sparks a series of heartbreaking events. Read "Port Mungo" for the pleasure of Patrick McGrath's flawless prose, to enjoy his evocative descriptive text. Read it to learn the secrets of another's heart. - Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: A spellbinding narrative
Review: In his novel, Mr McGrath tells the story of painter Jack Rathbone, a figure similar to the latter-day Paul Gauguin. The narrative is performed in an emotional manner by his sister Gin. Jack's life as an artist starts in London where he attends St Martin's School of Art with his sister. But one day, at the age of seventeen, Jack falls under the spell of Vera Savage, a thirty year old artist from Glasgow. He is immediately attracted by her petulant manner, her flamboyant character although it quickly appears that this woman is neither very clean nor often sober. Gin deeply resents this "painted creature" but she can do nothing to prevent his brother from following Vera to New York. There, Jack is profoundly unhappy, sensing that Vera belongs to a world which offers no place for him, which even rejects him and Jack finds himself tramping the streets with a feeling of anger and misery.
Finally Jack and Vera decide to take a passage to Cuba but due to some political unrest, they are forced to leave the island and end up in Port Mungo in Honduras. There, in spite of being engaged in a torrid and complicated love affair with his wife, Jack can finally devote himself entirely to his painting. Their two daughters Peg and Ann are brought up in their parents' chaos. It is mainly Jack who raises them because Vera succumbs to infidelity and alcoholism and her chronic restlessness makes her an impossible mother. After their return to New York 20 years later, the sequels of the time they spent in Port Mungo are still there, notably Peg's death which is surrounded by a halo of mysterious circumstances.
In Mr McGrath's novel, human beings are held in a thrall by love, hatred, secrecy, art and complicity and despite their efforts they are unable to escape their fate.
Rating: 
Summary: Port Bungle
Review: McGrath's overbaked novel is long on intense psychological scrutiny and short on artistic authenticity, or character development. This is surprising, considering the author's reputation for fleshing out fictional figures. But much of this novel is plain fatuous, unsure and uninformed about the true lives of painters and the art they make. McGrath is unable to at all communicate much about the paintings that his various characters supposedly live through--a large error in such a work in which the comprehension of the players is insistently said to exist in their art. This gambit falls flat. For a book with such alluring locations as post-war London, Abstract Expressionist New York in the 1950s and 60s, and a far-flung tropical port, there is a disappointing and ultimately lazy lack of local color, atmosphere, and description, in favor of endless musings about characters, and their self-importance, characters who grow less likable and compelling page after page. Forget the plot. The ending is an attempt at the dramatic macabre but is plain ridiculous and unbelievable--it inspires giggles not chills. Worse--in one of the few actual artistic references the author cites Manet instead of Monet--a freshman art history error. Enough. Leave Port Mungo and its simmering simplicities alone. I took it to Bermuda on the recommendation of esteemed critics in London's Observer on Sunday, and ended up throwing it out the window. Should have stuck with Iris Murdoch...
Jason Rosenfeld
Rating:
Summary: Port Bungle
Review: McGrath's overbaked novel is long on intense psychological scrutiny and short on artistic authenticity, or character development. This is surprising, considering the author's reputation for fleshing out fictional figures. But much of this novel is plain fatuous, unsure and uninformed about the true lives of painters and the art they make. McGrath is unable to at all communicate much about the paintings that his various characters supposedly live through--a large error in such a work in which the comprehension of the players is insistently said to exist in their art. This gambit falls flat. For a book with such alluring locations as post-war London, Abstract Expressionist New York in the 1950s and 60s, and a far-flung tropical port, there is a disappointing and ultimately lazy lack of local color, atmosphere, and description, in favor of endless musings about characters, and their self-importance, characters who grow less likable and compelling page after page. Forget the plot. The ending is an attempt at the dramatic macabre but is plain ridiculous and unbelievable--it inspires giggles not chills. Worse--in one of the few actual artistic references the author cites Manet instead of Monet--a freshman art history error. Enough. Leave Port Mungo and its simmering simplicities alone. I took it to Bermuda on the recommendation of esteemed critics in London's Observer on Sunday, and ended up throwing it out the window. Should have stuck with Iris Murdoch...
Rating: 
Summary: Art with a Darker Palette
Review: Patrick McGrath finds genetic seeds for characters who border on the edge of maladaptation or evil or amorality. PORT MUNGO follows the line of his successful THE ASYLUM, DR. HAGGARD'S DISEASE, MARTHA PEAKE, and SPIDER, and despite the fact that he can be considered the progenitor for unlikable characters, he explores the psyches of these odd creatures with such skill that their darker sides often mesmerize us.
Jack Rathbone is a 17-year-old youth in the UK who aspires to be an artist and lives with his sister Gin (the narrator of the story) who is devoted to her younger brother in a near pathologic manner. Jack encounters Vera Savage, an exotic bohemian painter from Scotland who is well shown in the UK, and falls under the spell of his older chanteuse/alcoholic/free love personage. The two become entwined as sexual partners and Jack encourages Vera to move to New York where they will open an 'American Studio' in the wildness of a new country and Jack will learn painting (and other lessons) from Vera.
Once in Manhattan their painting is delayed by Vera's insatiable need to be the center of attention among new artsy acquaintances and her alcoholism triggers periods of absence. Feeling confined by New York the two decide to seek other locations to pursue their art, and after a brief stay in Havana, Cuba they find the perfect isolation in Port Mungo - a seedy, smarmy, decadent Maughamesque spot in the Gulf of Honduras. There they paint, drink, carouse, and while Jack develops a painting style of 'tropicalism', Vera begins to follow her sexual needs in adventures away from Port Mungo. Always reuniting after these trysts and fights, they eventually have a daughter Peg and some years later another daughter Anna. Vera soon deserts her family, leaving Jack (and on occasion his sister Gin) to raise the girls. Peg is more in the mold of her mother and is worshipped by Jack, but Peg dies in a quasi-mysterious fashion plunging Jack into a deep depression.
Jack returns to New York to live with his sister Gin, and scathing rumors result in daughter Anna being adopted by her uncle who sees Jack as an inadequate parent. Time passes until Anna returns as a young woman to re-enter Jack's life - older, wiser, and needy. From this point on the story passes rapidly, enriched by characters who all deftly interplay with the strange history of what really happened in Port Mungo. Vera's absence is explained, Peg's death is clarified, and the true nature of each of these fascinating characters is painted before our eyes.
McGrath leaves no one free of fault, of the ability to have a dark side, or to demonstrate that their chameleon lives can shed a dermis to reveal the core animal beneath. He writes so well that once the story is started it is difficult to put aside, so wary are we of the tension always mounting. He understands art and the artistic mind and has depicted the artist/model relationship as well as anyone writing today. You may not like the characters in this book, but they will remain indelibly stamped on your mind. Here is another fine work by one of our better novelists writing today.
Rating:
Summary: A Creepy Gothic
Review: Patrick McGrath is a master of the gothic novel. One of the main characters in this novel is that of Vera who is an adultress and a drunkard as well. She is married to Jack, a virtuous artist. Port Mungo is a novel about child abuse, drunkeness, adultery, incest and drug addiction. As with any great gothic novel, Port Mungo revels in its sheer creepiness and may well be the best new gothic of the year.
Rating:
Summary: A Creepy Gothic
Review: Patrick McGrath is a master of the gothic novel. One of the main characters in this novel is that of Vera who is an adultress and a drunkard as well. She is married to Jack, a virtuous artist. Port Mungo is a novel about child abuse, drunkeness, adultery, incest and drug addiction. As with any great gothic novel, Port Mungo revels in its sheer creepiness and may well be the best new gothic of the year.
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