"I know the value of the data. But those people have a right to try and live, at least, they --"
"A right?" she said, incredulous. "Christ, that's the most American thing I've heard anyone say in years. Rights are not biological law, you of all people should know that. They are a luxury, granted in times of peace and plenty." [loc. 1905]
It's 1963, and Valery Kolkhanov, formerly an esteemed physicist, has been a prisoner in a Siberian gulag for six years. Abruptly, he's told that he's being moved: he'll be working out the rest of his sentence as a prisoner-scientist at the Lighthouse, seventeen hundred kilometres from Moscow, where his old university lecturer Elena Resovskaya is leading research into the effect of radiation on the local ecology. It's all quite safe, Moscow -- in the person of KGB operative Shenkov -- assures Valery. But Valery is not convinced.
The Half-Life of Valery K is quite a departure from Pulley's earlier novels, in that there is nothing of the supernatural or mystical here. Instead, Pulley's latest novel is based on historical events in the USSR in the 1950s and 1960s. There are some familiar themes: people turned monstrous by circumstance; queer romance; a delightful octopus (this one is named Albert); the importance of kindness; the contrast between appearance and actuality.
Valery, whose narrative forms most of the novel, is an intriguing protagonist, a brilliant scientist with a stoic acceptance of life's unpredictability. He loves children and animals (in the gulag he has a pet rat named Boris) but is convinced he'll never have children of his own, that family life is 'not for him'. He cultivates a sunny disposition and a boyish appearance, both of which reduce the likelihood of confrontation. And, very early in the novel, it's revealed that he has prison tattoos which alarm new inmates.
Shenkov, the KGB Head of Security, is glacially smooth, softly spoken, handsome and well-groomed. Valery is initially terrified of Shenkov, expecting brutality and trickery: but Shenkov, it turns out, is a good man trying to make the best of an appalling career. He tries to keep orphaned children together, arranges adoptions, offers chocolate. He is also in charge of ensuring that no news about the Lighthouse gets out into the wider world, and his techniques are just about what you would expect for the Cold War USSR.
Shenkov, incidentally, is a family man: he's married to a redoubtable physicist, Anna, who I think might be Pulley's most sympathetic female character to date. There's a trio of extraordinary women at the heart of this novel: Anna, Elena Resovskaya with her sparkly red shoes, and Nanya the retired engineer. And behind those women are the ghosts of others, their appalling story only gradually revealed.
The focus of the plot is Valery's investigation of the irradiated landscape, and his growing conviction that he hasn't been told the whole truth about the 'radiation ecology' study. Valery, as a student, worked with Josef Mengele in Berlin in the 1930s: he knows about human trials, and he understands the importance of scientific data and the necessity of research. Despite that background, he isn't comfortable with what he discovers about the projects running at the Lighthouse: and his ethics aren't quite like anyone else's.
On the whole, I found this an incredibly engaging read. I didn't feel that the epilogue (with its musings on gender roles, a theme throughout the novel but never quite as prominent as in the last chapter) was wholly necessary: it felt as though a lot of issues were being glossed over. I would have liked some closure, something more than 'he never found out', on one significant strand of the story. And there are a couple of minor errors with historical detail: cassette recorders, BBC broadcasts from Parliament...
This is definitely a novel that gained depth on the second reading, simply because of how the story is paced, and how the characters and their relationships evolved. And it's full of the observed minutae that characterises Pulley's work: a glance, a gesture, a teacup, a scarf. Also very educational, not only about Soviet physics in the 1950s and 1960s but also about forest glass, bananas, gulag economics. Highly recommended.
Review copy provided by Netgalley. UK Publication Date 23rd June 2022.
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