Reading a book in a pub might seem an inoffensive activity but when drinkers
saw the title of a book being read by Michael Chalk, they complained to
bouncers and he was ejected.
Mr Chalk was reading The Unknown Terrorist, the latest novel by the
Australian author, Richard Flanagan. The book has received critical acclaim,
but patrons in Shenanigans, an Irish pub in the Queensland city of Cairns,
clearly had not heard of it.
Mr Chalk, a teacher who was in town for an education conference, had not
even ordered a drink when a security officer asked him to leave. %26quot;He said
several customers had complained about the literature I was reading and I’d
have to move on,%26quot; Mr Chalk told the Cairns Post.
Mr Chalk said he believed his appearance %26ndash; he is olive skinned, with dark
hair %26ndash; played a part in the incident.
The Unknown Terrorist is about a Sydney pole dancer who finds herself
Australia’s most wanted terrorist after spending a night with a man called
Tariq. The novel is a critique of post-11 September paranoia, whipped up by
politicians, the media and security services.
In Cairns, the title of the novel was enough to make Mr Chalk the object of
suspicion. He said: %26quot;It was my last night in Cairns so, after dinner, I
walked into Shenanigans and decided to have a bit of a dance. I put the book
face up on a ledge near the dance floor. Shortly after, a security guard
came over to me and said %26quot;move to the front, please’.
%26quot;I hadn’t even bought a drink yet, so I asked why, and he said he’d explain
outside.%26quot; Once on the pavement, the bouncer told the 40-year-old from
Melbourne that other patrons had expressed unease about his choice of
reading material. %26quot;I was absolutely flabbergasted,%26quot; he said.
%26quot;I found it quite distressing. I was wondering whether I’m in a place where
everyone is in the grip of fear, where they see danger everywhere, or the
sort of place where a vigilante group might hunt me down for reading a book.%26quot;
Flanagan, whose previous novels include Gould’s Book of Fish and The Sound
of One Hand Clapping, said in an interview last night: %26quot;If it wasn’t so
disturbing, it would be deeply comical. The criticism that was made of my
book when it came out was that it was implausible. But I guess it goes to
show that it wasn’t implausible enough to match the bizarre reality of
contemporary Australia.%26quot;
Mr Flanagan said recent cases such as that of Mohammed Haneef, the
Indian-born doctor wrongly detained in Australia as a suspected terrorist,
reinforced his message. Charges against Dr Haneef, who is now back in India,
were withdrawn for lack of evidence.
Earlier this week, prosecutors were forced to drop charges against Izahar
Ul-Haque, a Pakistan-born medical student accused of training with a
terrorist organisation. A Sydney judge voiced scathing criticism of security
officers, saying they had kidnapped and unlawfully detained Mr Ul-Haque.
Flanagan said: %26quot;Far from being far-fetched, my novel correctly predicted the
future of Australia.%26quot;
Related Articles
No user responded in this post
Leave A Reply
Please Note: Comment moderation maybe active so there is no need to resubmit your comments