For
the first hundred pages or so, ISLAND OF FU MANCHU reads much like
its predecessor, in that it seems a throwback to the early episodic
novels. Many thirties Fu novels give the readers strong intimations
of the doctor’s newest dastardly scheme, but all one gets from
Nayland Smith this time out is a mention of “strange incidents in
the Caribbean.” Not coincidentally, Smith’s dubious ally Lionel
Barton also happens to have involved himself in the affairs of a
particular Caribbean dominion, the storied island of Haiti. This may
seem rather unlikely terrain for an archaeologist to be investigating,
but then again, a late chapter calls Haiti “an African island in
the Caribbean,” and so in a sense Haiti, with its legends of voodoo
and zombies, suggests the ways in which primitive beliefs still
survive in the technological twentieth century (even though Rohmer
favors a quasi-scientific explanation for zombies, who are merely
victims of chemical catalepsy). On the thematic level, this may have
provided contemporaneous readers with an escape from the realities of
armed conflict—for though ISLAND must have been written after
England’s declaration of war with Germany, references to the
real-life armed conflict are sporadic at best.
Once
again Rohmer’s viewpoint character is the bluff reporter Bart
Kerrigan, and for most of the novel, he’s by turns irate and mopey,
since his beloved Ardatha has been summoned back into the service of
Fu Manchu. For the first time, it’s mentioned that Ardatha belongs
to an “almost extinct white race” that dwelled in Abyssinia,
which makes her sound a bit like an escapee from an Edgar Rice
Burroughs novel. This minor theme becomes consequential in that one
of Rohmer’s few positive “colored” characters, a Negro named
Hassan, comes to the aid of both Ardatha and Kerrigan because of
unspecified ties between his people and Ardatha’s. Because of
Ardatha’s divided loyalties, Fu subjects Ardatha to the same
memory-alterations he once used on Karameneh. This stratagem proves
just as unsuccessful her as it did in RETURN OF DR. FU MANCHU, in
that the young woman’s loss of memory doesn’t prevent her from
falling in love with her young man all over again.
While
the reader awaits some hint as to the devil-doctor’s specific
project, he may notice a peculiar emphasis on characters whose
skin-color has been altered. As a side effect of Fu’s current
researches, Hassan has been bleached white, and another of the
doctor’s aides, who is apparently not Asian despite his
“Eastern”-sounding name of Oster, is said to be “as yellow as a
lemon.” Perhaps this was Rohmer extending the metaphor of mixed
heritage that appears in most of his female characrers, who are
usually some mixture of Europe and the Middle East. That said, the
subject of race does not seem as consequential here as it did in
PRESIDENT FU MANCHU.
Smith
and Kerrigan jaunt around from England to Panama and New York before
they make their way to Haiti. They’re menaced by a ghostly “green
hand” whose nature is not revealed until the later chapters, and
for a time Ardatha is abducted by a sleazy fellow named Cabot, thus
making Kerrigan even more distracted. Since Cabot is said to be
allied to a faction in the Si-Fan opposed to Fu Manchu’s rule, this
allows Rohmer to pick up the “Si-Fan schism” plot-thread he
mentioned in DRUMS. For once Fu himself does not exterminate one of
his opponents; Cabot’s reputation for sleaze leads his former
mistress to kill him before he has his way with Ardatha.
Fah
Lo Suee is similarly employed to illustrate the Si-Fan schism.
Despite the fact that she remains in her newly brainwashed identity
of Koreani, Fu tells Kerrigan that once again his daughter has allied
herself with Fu’s enemies. This suggests that the brainwashing
technique has no more power over deep animosity than it does over
love.
To
be sure, Fah Lo Suee plays only a small role here. She has no lines
and does not interact with Smith as seen in DRUMS, but instead once
again plays the role of “goddess on Earth.” In Haiti Smith and
Kerrigan witness her assume the persona of the voodoo queen Mamaloi,
while Fu himself uses a sort of “invisibility cloak” to
impersonate the serpent-god Damballah.
These
attempts by the Chinese doctor and his Eurasian daughter to
manipulate the natives of Haiti may sound like another use of the
“disaffected races” plot-thread, last seen to strong effect in
MASK OF FU MANCHU. But though “Damballah” speaks at one point of
“the glory of the African races” to a horde of
voodoo-worshippers, there’s really no suggestion of a race-war in
the offing. (Amusingly, during the voodoo ceremony Rohmer uses the
effect of maddening drums far more than he did in the book with
“drums” in its title.) Indeed, while the heroes are trying to
dope out Fu’s interest in Barton’s researches, Rohmer becomes
positively panegyrical about Haiti’s first king, that “Negro
genius” Henri Christophe. In contrast to the dismal portrait of
Haiti’s independence painted by Rohmer’s contemporary Dennis
Wheatley, Rohmer shows no real animus toward the self-rule of Negroes
in the New World. Indeed, the real-world figure of Christophe may be
something of a model for the attempt of the fictional devil-doctor to
gain a foothold in the midst of all the warring nations.
In
the last eighty pages Fu’s project is finally clear. Instead of
seeking to decimate mankind as he did in BRIDE, or to control the
fate of nations through assassinations as in DRUMS, this time Fu
wants recognition as a sovereign power, and he’s using Haiti for
the base of his operations. I won’t detail how Fu’s ambitions
tie in with Barton’s revelations about Henri Christophe—though
Rohmer gives the archaeological mystery a few twists worthy of Edgar
Allan Poe—but for the first time since BRIDE, Fu Manchu is back in
“full supervillain mode.” Thanks to the James Bond movies, it’s
become commonplace to imagine villains who set up shop inside dormant
volcanoes, but Rohmer may have originated that particular trope. Once
again, with Kerrigan playing unwilling witness, Rohmer shows the
brilliance and magnanimity of his master schemer, showing how the
volcano-base has been used to construct a small fleet of airplanes
that fly via a Wellsian anti-gravity mineral—just more wonders to
add alongside Fu’s arsenal of invisibility cloaks and disintegrator
force-fields.
Though
Kerrigan is too dull a character to be impressed by the doctor’s
sagacity, Rohmer comes very close to making the reader want to see Fu
succeed. Though Smith once more heads off the doctor’s plans, the
final triumph seems to be in the hands of Heaven, in a manner not
dissimilar to the conclusion of HAND OF FU MANCHU. The official
explanation is that Fu’s diabolical energy-devices attract bolts of
lightning that destroy his hidden base. But even if the thunderstorm
doesn’t come from Heaven, it certainly works out to the benefit of
Smith and Kerrigan, who seem outmatched from the get-go. Once again,
dull leading man and dull leading lady are united, and the master
villain seems to have met his demise—though his rationale remains
unassailable:
“I
am no more a criminal than Napoleon, no more a criminal than Caesar.”
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