In the Prologue, set in Belfast, 1971, as the Troubles are coming to a boil, a Roman Catholic man working in London and home to visit his mother, is seized by the British military, held without charges, and tortured. He is subjected to sleep deprivation, bright lights, non-stop sounds of people screaming, being stripped naked and kept in cold rooms, being forced to maintain extremely uncomfortable positions for very long periods of time, and similar methods believed by the British military to cause people to break and tell all. In short, Gill anticipated the methods used by the Americans in Iraq and Guantanamo.
But what Gill says, and this is consistent with the studies of scientists on the issue, is that such torture impairs memory. Gill has his character barely able to remember who he is after a few days, let alone when he lived where. Not that the character had anything to tell them; they picked him up because he once lived on the same block, though not at the same time, as a man named Sean, whom they believed to be a terrorist.
He is eventually released. And, not surprisingly, he becomes a terrorist.
Good plot. The only thing I didn't like was the somewhat alternative reality ending.
-- Francis A. Miniter
Oscuramente libros, laminas, llaves siguen mi suerte.
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