As we read and re-read Frederick Busch’s The Night Inspector, we may ask ourselves, what is the book’s major theme, my bro? (This is assuming that we call ourselves my bro).
An answer lies in the story’s beginning and end. As I have mentioned, the very first scene shows Billy ordering that a prosthetic mask be made to hide his wounded face. The last scene, some two hundred and seventy-six harrowing pages later, shows Billy working with Chun Ho, the woman who seemed to accept him the most in the story, in her laundry business. The implication is that they are a couple, committed to one another, and this represents a transformation for Billy, who begins the story not trusting others (except Jessie, more on this later). He and Chun Ho pass a couple of men, and Billy thinks: “I wondered what they made of what they saw; a tea-colored woman with an oval, impassive face and a man beside her whose face was a mask of another sort. In silence, these masks, then, which were turned toward them, permitted those who wore them to be regarded in the light of the bystander’s curiosity, and, quite probably, their scorn.”
Masks, best beloved. Masks are key. People hide their true selves behind masks, both literal and figurative. Masks are ubiquitous in the world, worn by everyone from the literary adventurer, Zorro, to contemporary ICE agents who wish to conceal their identities.
Billy lives an anonymous life, post-war, post-injury. His neighbors know him to be armed with “a face they cannot read.” Since Billy hides behind a mask and sometimes a veil, others are deprived of the information an intact face might provide. His mask is a protection against others seeing his true self without his permission. This true self is, in Billy’s estimation, horrible to behold.
M, the character based on Herman Melville, is fascinated by Billy’s mask, as mentioned. An irony is that in Melville’s famous Moby Dick, Ahab exhorts his men to “strike through the mask,” meaning get at the truth. A further irony, of course, is that Billy is hiding his true intentions from M, in order to manipulate M’s feelings, both of being against slavery and of being a failure, although this “masking” becomes more and more difficult for Billy to maintain as the story progresses. His strong emotions about Jessie—and in a parallel story, Chun Ho, are revealed to the reader, and the women accept him.
Jessie and Chun Ho—the two female characters who Billy is intimate with—apparently in more ways than one. Sex with them feels genuine to Billy. Jessie is described as a beautiful and elegant prostitute, a Creole woman with elaborate tattoos (Queequeg? anyone). A curiosity of the story is that Billy never seems to question her apparent affection for him, that is, why would this woman be so interested in him sexually? He does pay for her affections, yet her behavior seems to be more enthusiastic than money can buy. Billy and the reader learn that Jessie hides her own self behind a mask of beauty and sexuality.
Chun Ho is the Chinese American woman who Billy pays to wash his clothes (that is her business). There’s probably some kind of metaphor here for clothes washing representing Billy removing his mask, which he does, allowing Chun Ho to give him a bath. And this leads eventually to a scene of eroticism! A wet scene, my friends. Everyone gets wet. Chun Ho hides herself behind language, not knowing English well, and what the story often describes as her “mask” of indecipherable facial features. Perhaps for cultural reasons, she reveals herself very gradually, and Billy is smitten with her. Her young children call Billy “gui” which we are told means ghost-man in Mandarin, and ghosts are a related theme. Billy learns that the Confederates during the war refer to him as a ghost who kills
The story of The Night Inspector is essentially about deception, a grand double-cross, if you will. The protagonist Billy, and Jessie, must hide their true intentions to achieve their goals. SPOILER ALERT! Jessie involves Billy in a scheme to bring formerly enslaved children to New York City from Florida in order, she tells him, to free them. His role is to provide money and to enlist M, who is a U.S. customs inspector and will help by providing legal permission for the ship to land the children in New York harbor. Billy also enlists the help of Adam, a former slave who is familiar with the New York waterfront, telling both he and M that they are performing a mission of mercy. Billy believes this; another related theme in the story is that of children being menaced by bad adults. However, Jessie tricks them all, betraying the trust that Billy placed in her. The children are being brought north to be slaves, possibly sexual slaves, and Jessie and her allies will profit from this arrangement. Things go horribly wrong when Jessie gives the children laudanum to make them sleep during the long voyage; by mistake, she gives them too much and they die. Billy winds up feeling betrayed and responsible for betraying M and Adam. Of course, when faced with problems, violence is his usual recourse, and he takes bloody revenge on all who wronged him. At this point in the story, those who matter to him—M, Adam, Sam, Jessie, and Chun Ho—know his true nature.
More could be written about this complex book, but all good things must come to an end (is that true?). Next week, we’ll begin a new story, Susan Minot’s Evening.
Till then. My bro.
Great writing and analysis. Being with Al gives us
a chance to get behind the mask of each book he writes about.
Appreciate his insights, humor and the chance to journey with him.