Visit at night
Visit at night (English original title The Night-Comers , first German dubbing title Uninvited Guests , US title State of siege = state of siege ) is a political thriller by Eric Ambler from 1956. It is set in the first half of the 1950s in the fictional Southeast Asian island state of Sunda, which was part of the Dutch East Indies colony until 1949 .
action
The British engineer Steve Fraser to a three-year in the remote Tangga Valley of Sunda dam project cooperated. His contract has expired and he now intends to return to London from Jakarta , Indonesia .
Shortly before the contract expired, he met a group of officers from the Republican Army who had been assigned to the project by the Sundas government as a job creation measure. The new state army emerged from a guerrilla force that fought against the Dutch in the War of Independence. Many superfluous officers serve in the army; the dam project offers the possibility of having them paid as administrative officials by the foreign financiers of the project, although they do not have any qualifications for their new job. Among these officers, Fraser Major Suparto stands out, who appears intelligent and disciplined.
The political situation on Sunda is tense. The former Army Colonel and now self-appointed General Sanusi founded the Sunda National Freedom Party and withdrew to the central highlands with 3,000 fighters. Sanusi is a devout Muslim and has declared holy war on the government of President Nasjah . At the same time, a group of conspirators had formed in the army, but it was eliminated by General Ishak, who is loyal to Nasjah.
The Nasjah government is also nervous about a rebellion in Jakarta involving former Dutch general Turko Westerling . The black market and corruption flourish on Sunda ; Foreign aid funds are not invested in means of production, but rather spent on consumer goods. Captain Emas , who had arrived with Major Suparto, immediately founds a construction workers' union with himself as chairman and treasurer . Two other officers have been shown to have committed the robbery of a Dutch resident , but cannot be prosecuted.
The government fears that Sanusi could take the capital Selampang. This is secured by a couple of old Japanese battle tanks and German 8.8 cm flak .
Given the location, Fraser is happy to leave Sunda. On the flight from the Tangga Valley to Selampang, Fraser met Australian pilot Roy Jebb. Jebb tells him that the hotel rooms in Selampang are all overcrowded and offers him his apartment in the so-called Air House. During his absence as a pilot, Jebb needs an intermediate tenant due to the risk of burglary. Fraser is ready to stay at Jebb's apartment for the three days leading up to his flight to Jakarta.
The Air House was built in 1942 shortly before the Japanese invasion and is quite modern in design. The house houses a radio station that was set up by the Japanese and is now operated by the Nasjah government. During a visit to the New Harmony Club, Fraser meets the noble prostitute Rosalie Linden, a so-called Indo and Eurasian woman . While taking a short walk with Rosalie in the club's garden, Fraser accidentally spots Major Suparto's jeep, which he saw that morning in the Tangga Valley, 200 miles away.
To get to Selampang by land, Suparto's jeep must have passed through both the insurgent area and the capital's government outposts. Fraser also recognizes Suparto's voice and someone on the call who is addressed as a general. Fraser and Rosalie decide to "forget" the incident as a precaution.
Jebb leaves, and Fraser and Rosalie spend the night together in the apartment. At the crack of dawn, noises woke Fraser to find that the Air House was being occupied by soldiers who were apparently not part of the government army. Major Suparto suddenly enters the apartment; he is just as surprised by Fraser's presence as the other way around. Suparto had assumed that the apartment would be vacant because Jebb was away.
In fact, a coup is taking place; General Sanusi's rebels have taken Selampang and occupied the Air House as their headquarters. Sanusi declares himself the new president via the radio station. For a short time, Suparto considers killing the couple as annoying troublemakers, but then decides to put Fraser and Rosalie under some kind of house arrest . When Sanusi makes his radio address, Fraser realizes that his voice is not that of the general who met with Suparto in the garden of the New Harmony Club. Fraser realizes that Major Suparto was playing a shady role in the coup.
Fraser meets Sanusi, who gives him his view of the political situation. Independence from the Netherlands was not really fought for, but mainly the result of the Japanese occupation of the colony. The Nasjah government is corrupt; Help for Sunda is not expected from either the People's Republic of China or the USA . Only belief in Islam can offer help . Sanusi uses Rosalie, whose full surname is apparently van der Linden, as leverage. Fraser has to repair an important water pipe that was destroyed in a bombing raid on the house, thereby gaining the trust of Sanusi.
In a conversation with Suparto, Fraser reveals that he realizes that another general is involved. Suparto is stunned by this admission. Fraser hopes Suparto is human enough not to kill him and Rosalie. Fraser is now clear that Suparto is not a rebel, but an agent provocateur of the Nasjah government, which set a trap for the insurgents. General Sanusi had been suggested by Suparto that large parts of the government army would defer to the rebels, which was a ruse . Large parts of the capital's garrison had also marched out for alleged maneuvers; also a ruse to lure the rebels into the city, which has now been sealed off from the outside by government troops.
The government declares the insurgents to be terrorist criminals; any cooperation with them can be punished with death. This also puts Fraser and Rosalie in an extremely uncomfortable situation. The government troops are advancing into the city, the Air House is constantly being shot at from all sides. Plus, it is time for Suparto, who alone can protect the couple, to break away. He explains to Fraser his motives for working for the government. Sanusi is right with some views, but his fellow campaigners are only brutal and greedy for power. Sunda need more time to organize. Even the communists, despite all the radical slogans, are not a serious threat. He hopes the US and UK won't interfere. He promises to inform the government troops about the couple after his "escape" so that they are not mistakenly executed.
Surprisingly, Sanusi asked Fraser to take part in the ceasefire negotiations as a neutral observer ; he doesn't want the capital to be completely destroyed by fighting. It turns out that Fraser served as an officer in the British Army.
In addition to Major Suparto, General Ishak, whom Fraser recognizes by his voice, is present at the hearing. He was the general Suparto had spoken to in the garden. Ishak demands total surrender and refuses to negotiate. Colonel Aroff, who is at the trial with Fraser, is also on a death list drawn up by Major Suparto. Fraser returns to the Air House with Aroff to protect Rosalie. When Colonel Roda Fraser asks for civil shirts in order to escape, he is shot by Sanusi. Despite the almost hopeless situation, Sanusi does not tolerate desertion . He also hopes for support from Indonesian President Sukarno .
As the government troops storm the building, Sanusi begins to pray and recites from the 86th sura of the Koran :
... But what should teach you what it is that comes in the night? It is the star whose rays penetrate. Verily, every soul has a protector over itself. So may man consider what he was made of. It was created from the germs that emerged from between the loins and the sternum. And surely, Allah is able to call him back to life on the day when all secrets are to be revealed and no other power will help him anymore ...
Ambler, Visit at Night , 1978, p. 228.
The quote as a note in the first German translation from 1957, allegedly an original from a German translation of the Koran:
And what teaches you to know what the night star is? It is the piercing star. See, every soul has a guardian over itself. So let man see what he creates from. He was created from running water that comes out between the loins and the sternum. Behold, he has the power to make him return on that day when the mysteries are tested, and then he will be without strength and without helper ...
Ambler, Uninvited Guests , p. 207.
A few seconds later, Sanusi is killed in the hail of fire from the government troops led by Major Suparto. The corpses of the rebels will be removed immediately by truck so that foreign journalists will have no doubts the next morning about the official announcement that the coup was a minor affair.
Suparto says goodbye to Fraser, emphasizing that they are both civilized and humane people. Fraser agrees. But he decides to leave Sunda and with it Rosalie, whom he now loves. Knowing about the events of the coup also poses too great a risk for the couple in the future.
Contemporary background
Ambler came across the material on Java in 1955 while researching the feature film project Nightrunners of Bengal , which was ultimately not realized. Ambler's novel Waffenschmuggel ( Passage of Arms ) from 1959, whose plot is set in Malaya in the mid-1950s, is in the same context .
criticism
With a visit at night, Ambler takes a step towards pure literature, in which tension is only an accessory to the fundamental topic. Mr. Ambler could become the 1960s Graham Maugham or Somerset Greene , a novelist whose work comments on the violent events of our time in a straightforward, sober style, with an unpredictability that I hope will not degenerate into cynicism .
According to Howald, the novel has thematic similarities to Graham Greene's novel The Silent American published in the previous year . (Howald, p. 290)
See also
literature
- Eric Ambler: Uninvited guests , Stuttgart (Günther-Verlag) 1957.
- Eric Ambler: Visit at night , Zurich (Diogenes Verlag AG) 1978. ISBN 3-257-20539-2
- Stefan Howald: Eric Ambler. Eine Biographie , Zurich (Diogenes Verlag AG) 2002, pp. 285-305. ISBN 3-257-06325-3
- Gerd Haffmans (ed.): About Eric Ambler. Testimonials from Alfred Hitchcock to Helmut Heissenbüttel , Zurich (Diogenes Verlag AG) 1989. ISBN 3-257-206070
Individual evidence
- ^ Times Literary Supplement 1956, quoted in Howald, p. 305.