BAXTER’S “THE SOUL THIEF”, OR FREE FOUAD

Here is a book I would like to recommend to the prosecutor who indicted Fouad Mourtada on charges of identity theft because he created a fake Facebook profile of HRH Prince Moulay Rachid and the Kafkaesque judge who sentenced him to three years of prison. It is Charles Baxter’s latest and by far his best novel since he started publishing in 1987. The title is “THE SOUL THIEF.” The story tackles the issue of identity and its ownership as the life of a tepid protagonist, graduate student Nathaniel Mason, collides with fellow student Jerome Coolberg’s. The latter is described as a psychopathic attention-seeking and disconcerting individual who becomes obsessed by the persona of Nathaniel. He insidiously, yet cunningly, starts incorporating details of Nathaniel’s life into his own life history; with the complicity of a friend named Theresa, he even hired a thief to break into his room and steal his clothes; he would later put them on and strut in front of Nathaniel mimicking his mannerisms not in a comedic way, but rather seriously. Nathaniel finally succumbs to a breakdown. It takes him thirty years to recover his soul which he feels it was “mortgaged.” In those thirty years, he becomes a family man, married with two sons. One day, out of the blue, he receives a call from Coolberg who is now a famous radio personality.

What I liked about this novel is the fact that Baxter crafted the character of Coolberg in such a way that he is the essence of the story. Nathaniel, the identity theft victim, is a pale and unimpressive shadow of a character that blends into the background. Why would Coolberg be interested in such an apathetic man is a mystery. Why would Fouad Mourtada be sentenced to three years is not such a big mystery; I just think the judge and the prosecutor do not know the definition of “identity theft.” I understand they might get queasy just thinking about reading a book that is not in their official reading list which I doubt they ever stray away from without an approval from the temerarious voice in the telephone, but I think it would do them good. It’ll take their minds off the sepulchral gloom pervading their lives … if they have any. The true victim here is Fouad; he is literally robbed of his life.

Ahmed T. B. Copyright © 2008