Book review: An Atheist Christian Gunslinger by Jerry Hunter

Jon Gower

In his novel Ebargofiant, published in 2014, the super-prolific Welsh language novelist and academic Jerry Hunter imagines a future world broken by social fracture and environmental disaster. Language is part of the collateral damage, so the story is told by Ed, an illiterate man, in a sort of future pidgin, one which is hard to read until you acclimatize, which is part of what made the book a revolutionary one in the first place. It’s a bit like Anthony Burgess’ attempt to create a language for primitive man in Quest for Fire, or indeed for A Clockwork Orange, although Hunter’s English is sufficiently akin to what we read today to make it readable after a few passes at the opening sentences. That said the unfamiliar language is coupled to unorthodox orthography, with some letters running backwards, creating a sort of code to crack. In this An Atheist Christian Gunslinger a is puzzle book with a language to solve.

Order overturned

In Ohio-born Hunter’s latest work he again mints such a language, this time to tell an American tale and one where, once again, the old order has been entirely overturned. Even The End of Elections is a past event and society is now run by The Company and The State. Set in the southern borderlands – one imagines Texas or Arizona – its narrator is Seth Hibard. He is a Mexibilly – like a southern version of the Appallachian hillbilly – who spreads human waste by way of fertilizer on his farm in the barren Hill Country. As you might imagine it sure don’t smell good: Evree so often and egom sombodee komz thru heer and sayz he haint nevr smelt nothin leyk that beefor, sayz it smelz leyk a god dam toylet…’ Given the travails of such a life, it’s little wonder that Seth knows that life is hard and full of trouble for most people one way or another.’ What he doesn’t know is there’s a whole heap more trouble barreling down towards him.

Grim decision

Despite the hardscrabble nature of maintaining his ninety-four acres of bottom land, much as his father and grandfather did in the past, his hard life is relatively stable until some of Seth’s neighbours such as Orn Harper and Don Ros start to turn ornery, directing their ire and resentment at the HiSbansh migrant workers who don’t speak good Merekan like they do. Harassment soons turns to violence and one of Seth’s new friends is lynched on the river bank. Which nudges him towards to a moment of grim decision: does he intervene or not, does he stand up against the racist thuggery and do so alone? 

Meeting destiny

One of Seth’s favourite books – not that he’s that widely read – is An Atheist Christian Gunslinger, which gives him a template for his actions. It’s fortuitous that his son, stationed overseas in another American forever war, has left him a gun, and a superior one at that. So, like Gary Cooper striding out to meet his destiny in the classic movie High Noon, the stage is set for a final showdown. Fortuitously Seth has adequate time to prepare; tacking tin sheets to the inside walls of his shack, making sure he has enough ammunition to hand whichever window he uses to keep watch. In this it’s a bit like the desperate stand at the Alamo, where Seth tries his damnedest to be the last man standing. 

Welsh War & Peace

This isn’t the first time Jerry Hunter has portrayed his native country, having previously written what might well be the longest novel in Welsh. Ynys Fadog was a multi-generational account of America’s earliest settlers, complete with the ruptures of war and chronicled the difficult birth of a country. He now looks at what might be the end of the Imperium, when democracy has died and climate change has set the country on a course for burning. 

Dark resonances

Reading this dark parable for twisted American times, the reader will see and hear many resonances with today, and see how believable is the trajectory that gets us to the sort of broken place described in Hunter’s dystopia. Without giving the ending away it’s heartening to realise that the just will eventually triumph and racists yelling ‘Maga, maga, maga’ will get their due which is reason enough to give thanks to the Al Meytee and al hiz ayn jelz in Hevon. Reading this terse, tightly-woven narrative is further proof of Hunter’s ranging intelligence and flair for ready invention, while the act of reading the novella is like a veritable crash course in Mexibilly, which is its own sort of accomplishment. 

An Atheist Christian Gunslinger: a dystopia by Jerry Hunter is published by Melin Bapur and is available from all good bookshops.

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