07/10/2023
OPERATION ANACONDA
a gluttonous feast of betrayal
…a riveting film
By Deborah Verazzo - Independent journalist
Joël Camera’s novel is a philosophical, complex and cleverly structured novel. A multilayered read.
https://www.thebookedition.com/fr/operation-anaconda-p-376071.html
THE STORY
Michel, the author, is an engineer at the European Space Center in Kourou, Amazonia. After the complete destruction of the rocket, in June 1996, he is involved in an incredible series of events: spies, a big snake, love affairs, and thugs.
Two days later, a giant anaconda attacks the population. For the DST, the French counter-espionage service, this is not a coincidence, and it suspects the intervention of a foreign power trying to destabilize French Guiana. Michel reluctantly becomes involved in this delicate investigation.
On a canoe trip on the Comté River, he exchanges views with Alex, an adventurous spirit, Helena, a French student fascinated by the power of shamans, and René, an anti-globalization activist.
Later, Michel meets Doyle, the director of a gold mining company, and Lorenzo Ficcioni, a brothel owner. The story alternates between scenes on the pirogue and comments on the true reality of the events. Regarding the anaconda attack, some believed it is the revenge of the forest’s great spirit, while others just continue to mind their own business.
The idea begins to circulate that the rocket's failure is due to the intervention of a hostile power. Meanwhile, in the west of French Guiana, in an isolated inn, a team of undercover agents is preparing retaliation. At the end of the story, like in the commedia dell'arte, the masks come off.
Half initiation, half spy novel, “Operation anaconda” is also an enquiry into the concept “the reality of reality”!
Analyses of the characters
The notion of betrayal is at the heart of the novel, and while the innocent narrator matures, he becomes aware both of himself and of those around him.
Most people imagine who they are, think who they should be, try to become the person they expect to be, think others expect them to be. Shadows, distorted mirror images of themselves. Wasting precious years, battling against the tide. Swimming upstream rather than going with the flow, while they waste their lives trying to be someone they are not.
One day, Alex’s wife, who really knows how to push his buttons, says something to him which jolts him face to face with the truth, that he has lost himself in his misguided perceptions of what really matters in life.
Living up to the hollow expectations of mainstream society which can never be either fully satisfied or truly satisfying. In a way, Alex also betrays Michel, he tricks him to extract information; he presents himself as a simple supermarket assistant.
Helena is a double agent. Similarly, not who she presents herself as. In turn she has been betrayed by her mother. In her case, the journey to maturity is via the spiritual route and finally finding closure to her search for her father. Meeting him, she realizes he too has been betrayed by her mother, who has deprived him of seeing his beloved daughter grow up.
As for Michel, it's realizing he has been taken in by Alex. However, he attributes this to his own naiveness rather than Alex's deception and thus is able to, and wants to, continue his relationship with Alex.
He is thus able to compartmentalize his thoughts and feelings vis-à-vis, Alex. Understanding that the latter, like others, is a complex person of many characteristics. Albeit on a very selective basis, solely seeking to connect with Alex the Guru, ignoring Alex's the other traits.
As Helena is accustomed to hiding her genuine motives, she intuits who the culprit is who has betrayed the space station; during a seemingly innocuous chat with her. Thus cementing her key role in the novel, which is structured around these three characters: Michel, Alex, and Helena.
Interesting echoes of mainstream Abrahamic religions, Adam and Eve; Eve, the sinner who in turn reveals the sinner. I.e. Helena unmasking the traitorous secretary pulling the strings at the heart of the space station’s hierarchical web.
Of the minor characters: René, not who he presents himself as. Hence betrays Michel and others.
Doyle, likewise, is a spy, a professional betrayer.
Both the two main and the secondary characters; all active participants are male. As even the secondary female characters, although not unimportant, are only seen through male eyes. I.e. Tatiana, Alex's wife, and the deceptive space agency secretary.
THE DENOUEMENT
The final chapter, the Denouement, as outlined by Alex, is a positively gluttonous feast of betrayal.
Excess upon excess. Individuals, organisations, indeed governments of all mentioned countries spying on each other. Falling over themselves to betray each other.
In effect, cancelling each other out. All as bad as each other. None evoking any sympathy from the reader.
A brief revealing insight into what really matters to Alex is when he tells Michel the anecdote of his wife's challenge to him over breakfast one morning. Although barely a paragraph, a crucial one within the novel.
The one person not taken in by the trappings of wealth and power he has accumulated during their long years of marriage. She challenges his manhood at its core and certainly hits the target.
In parallel to the two above-mentioned themes of betrayal and coming of age, there is the Boy Scout type/all-male adventure in the jungle. With the tropical rainforest taking center stage. Like a key non-human character as it was.
The novel is also a brilliant description of all plant and animal life, the light, the meteorological conditions. The author evokes all our senses, you see, hear, feel, and smell the place. Closest to being there, this reader felt, having never experienced anything like it.
https://www.thebookedition.com/fr/operation-anaconda-p-376071.html
