THE READING RHEUM: RE-ENTER FU MANCHU (1957)

Once again many years pass between books in the Fu Manchu series—almost ten years between 1948’s SHADOW OF FU MANCHU and this one, in 1957. And whatever Sax Rohmer was doing during that time-period, he didn’t devote a lot of his time to the plot of the next-to-last Fu-novel. RE-ENTER wins the honor of being the least interesting book in the series, and the one with the most internal problems.

This time the viewpoint-character is American Brian Merrick, who in general is no better or worse than most of Rohmer’s earnest young men. Because he’s the son of a U.S. Senator who has the ear of the American President, the Si-Fan evolves a plan that sends Merrick to Cairo, supposedly to rendezvous with Nayland Smith—though, for good measure, the FBI also has an interest in helping Merrick on his path to adventure. Merrick’s not that much of a “junior adventurer,” but he does have a romantic allure for two sexy women, with none of Shan Greville’s protests about not enjoying it. One lady is Lola Erskine, an American who’s eventually revealed to be an agent of the FBI, while the other, Zoe Montero, is a vaguely Middle Eastern girl in the service of the Si-Fan. It won’t be any great surprise as to which girl wins Merrick’s heart, but then, neither one is all that compelling. Zoe even comes close to betraying Fu Manchu’s confidence, but, as if in compensation for her not getting the guy, the doctor allows her to perform a final service to win her freedom from the Si-Fan.

Fu’s mercy toward Zoe isn’t precisely out of character, but it’s one of a handful of irregularities that make one wonder how well Rohmer thought things through. There’s no reference to Fu getting either support or trouble from the Council of Seven, and though Fah Lo Suee’s been missing since ISLAND, her long absence persuades me that Rohmer simply didn’t know what to do with her once he’d both resurrected and brainwashed her. Though the doctor was always shown to possess a wry sense of humor, RE-ENTER breaks character by showing him actually laughing. True, it’s sardonic laughter, when one of Fu’s subordinates makes a comment on their Soviet allies, but the reaction still seems poorly thought out. At least Fu’s alliance with the Soviets is merely a prelude to his betraying them, which means that the character’s contempt for Socialism is undimmed. However, I never got a sense of what benefit Fu received from the temporary alliance-- and indeed, said alliance almost costs him his life.

Granted, even the devil-doctor is human and capable of error. But to keep his ongoing relationship with the Soviets, he allows one particular Russian agent to take a sample of Fu’s priceless elixir vitae for analysis. In his conversation with Agent Gorodin, Fu expressly says that he did so knowing that the Soviets could not analyze the elixir, and that he Fu held that conviction when he allowed Gorodin to take the sample. But it’s not clear why Fu allowed Gorodin to gain total access to the doctor’s only extant supply of the rejuvenating chemical, which results in Gorodin trying to substitute a deadly poison. Fu doesn’t fall for this, of course, but why does he fall for the first gambit at all? As a result, the master villain almost perishes of old age until he can receive a supplemental dose of youth-potion from another source. It’s one thing for Fu Manchu to make mistakes because, on some level, he might like to have willing servants who obey him of their own volition. But it’s clear that he has no special regard for Gorodin, so why would he trust the agent?

Fu’s ultimate plot is actually designed to nullify the Communist control of the East and to substitute the rule of the Si-Fan. By either suborning or stealing the research of a German scientist with the interesting name of “Hessian,” Fu plans to impersonate Hessian and to present the American President with a revolutionary anti-nuclear defense, “the sound zone.” But to gain access to the President, Fu involves the son of Senator Merrick, and also uses Brian Merrick as a means of transporting Nayland Smith from Cairo to America. However, the Smith accompanying Merrick is a surgically altered double for Smith, who remains Fu’s prisoner while the double goes to the U.S. with Merrick. Inevitably, Smith not only gets free, he manages to fix things so that Fu’s agents mistakenly slay the double. Smith then plays his own double and manages to deceive Fu Manchu in a one-on-one interview. I’m not sure Rohmer remembered that he’d often shown both Fu and his daughter as being able to glean prominent thoughts from the brains of their opponents on occasion, which makes the success of such an interview improbable. On the other hand, in one novel Fah Lo Sues tells Shan Greville that she can only read minds when the subject is relaxed, so maybe Rohmer’s earlier works can be used to justify at least one later novel’s problem.

Perhaps it’s needless to state that no one gets the use of the revolutionary anti-nuclear defense, nor does Fu achieve any of his political ends. Possibly his animus toward Communism proves a vulnerability, since his foes know he won’t give it to the Commies. Despite some false notes for the evil doctor, his scenes are still the high points of this very weak concoction.