The Dog (32 page)

As is well known, Lord Black’s relations with the forces of justice only deteriorated after the Trump wedding, and I haven’t kept up with the various convictions, judgments, suits, appeals, and proceedings (including moves to “strip” him of membership of the Order of Canada, to bar him from holding U.S. company directorships, and to discourage him from sitting in the House of Lords) that have engulfed him. I take no sides. I will only say that, if the moves against Black show no sign of ending, neither does Black’s strangely joyful struggling. For the time being he remains in prison in Florida. Here, I find myself moved to a certain respect and sympathy—and, is it possible, envy: he has, as it were, surfaced from illusion. He is purely disgraced. He is behind bars. He wears a jumpsuit. His enemies have revealed themselves—as have, I feel sure, his friends. Also, obscurely, he is in the clear. Maybe I’m perverse, but I connect imprisonment to a limit of culpability. It’s certainly true that, so long as he’s inside, he can hardly be punished more.

The Swedish frictions came to an end some while ago. I have no wish to move. Because of my new phobia or new PTSD,
the Pasha now faces away from the windows, and to open my eyes is to see a white wall. In its way, it is a magnificent vista. I could stay where I am, looking at that wall, for a long time—and in fact this is what I do, quite without foreboding. On the contrary: any minute now, Watson, followed soon after by the others, will as it were rat-a-tat-tat on the door.

I am grateful for assistance received from the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers; the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; and the Corporation of Yaddo.

Joseph O’Neill was born in Cork, Ireland, and grew up in South Africa, Mozambique, Turkey, Iran, and Holland. His works include the novels
Netherland
, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award,
The Breezes
, and
This Is the Life;
and a family history,
Blood-Dark Track
. He lives in New York City, and teaches at Bard College.