Assiduously researched, Paulo Coelho's profile of femme fatale Mata Hari reveals a chameleonic, complex character.
THE SPY
Paulo Coelho
Hamish Hamilton/Penguin Random House
By FEBY IDRUS
Mata Hari was the great femme fatale of her time. This Dutch woman, born Margaretha Zelle, passed herself off as an Indonesian dancer, gained notoriety and fame through her provocative exotic dance (thus arguably becoming the mother of modern striptease), then was accused in World War 1 of espionage and executed by firing squad, despite a total lack of evidence against her.
If there was no evidence, why then was she executed? For Coelho, it was because she refused to bow to society's edicts about what a woman should be. Coelho forgoes dwelling on sordid plot details in favour of painting a picture of who this so-called independent woman was.
Mata Hari is both victim and exploiter; both used and a user; a brazen, canny show-woman but insecure and too overly confident in her powers of manipulation to see that she is about to be trapped and strung up as a spy.
It's juicy material, and all based on assiduous research, using primary resources like the British government's dossier on her, compiled by British intelligence.
However, Coelho's portrait of Mata Hari feels somehow less engaging than it could have been. His tendency to write in pithy aphorisms aims for depth but usually only achieves a surface-level, clunky meaning.
Likewise, several times symbolic details are dropped in (a bag of seeds, a quote from the Song of Solomon) but are left to dangle in mid-air, unresolved.
Coelho's characterisation of Mata Hari is enough to tantalise but never enough to satisfy-appropriate, perhaps, given her character and occupation, but frustrating for a reader who wants only to engage and dig deeper into this mercurial, chameleonic woman.
We often see her thinking and hear her talking, but never are we given the chance to truly live inside her. As such, it is hard to feel for her plight, despite the inherent drama of Mata Hari's real-life story.
The Spy proves to be a quick, easy, but not deep read.
Feby Idrus is a writer, musician, and arts administrator in Wellington.
