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Morris West
talks about his new book...
and hopes he's lost
the gift of prophecy
rop-selling Australian
author Morris West
has earned something
"a reputation as a prophet.
In "The Shoes of the Fish
.man" he accurately pre
cted the emergence of a
ope from a Communist na
on of Eastern Europe. "The
mbassador" foreshadowed
ie United States' Vietnam
uagmire.
Many of West's other
ooks have dealt with issues
- terrorism, for example -
lat leapt on to the world's
-ont pages soon after he
rote about them.
Now he is hoping sincere
t the gift has deserted him.
or his latest book is about
ie end of the world.
I felt an odd sort of unre
lity sitting in a hotel room
oised over the glories of
ydney Harbour talking
bout death and the end of
^erything with Morris West
¡iring his brief visit to pro
lote "The Clowns of God,"
) be published in Australia
uring July.
He was, surprisingly, so
stonishingly cheerful about
ie whole thing.
Looking fit and well-fed,
very inch the successful author, West
idiated contentment. He explained his
ell-being had everything to do with a
ersonal, recent, totally unplanned look
ver the brink of eternity.
"What happened to me was really very
trange," he said. "Without giving away
ie ending of the book, I'd been wrestling
ith the problem of how you could por
"ay death on a vast scale - sort of a
íousand Jonestowns.
"Then, quite suddenly, I started to die.
"I was in Florida, holidaying at a re
Jrt there, and I got what I thought was
n attack of gastric flu. I took some aspir
I - which apparently you should never
o in such a situation - and without
nowing it, for 10 hours I was
aemorrhaging internally."
By the time he was rushed into inten
ve care, he had lost 60 percent of his
vailable blood supply.
"This was a very curious moment. I
as not in that state of somebody who
as been clinically dead - let's not con
ise that. But I was in the state of know
ig that I was critically ill and could die.
He correctly predicted a Pope from
behind the Iron Curtain. But he says
his doomsday book is only guessing
If they couldn't stop the bleeding I was a
dead man.
"The doctor said, "We can't operate
because we can't see anything. And if we
open you up with 60 percent of your
blood supply outside your veins, you
could die of shock. So the most we can do
is pump you full of ice water, and see if
that stops it.'
"I was conscious, but drifting ... I
thought, 'Well, I don't know who I'm go-
ing to meet, but whoever gave me this life
gave me a good one. Thank you.' And
that was it.
"It was a calm, relaxed feeling. Part of
you is sort of letting go of life, but the
other part is not desperate at all.
"It has changed me. I now feel very
calm. You see, I'm 64 and I'll be 65 next
month. Now that's a stage of life when
you recognize the fact of your mortality.
"An experience like that puts it in fo-
cus for you.
"And oddly, the dramatic problem in
the book was solved for me, too, because
I realized that the end of everything
wouldn't be a cataclysm, a Hiroshima
multiplied 1000 times. What
iever the end, whether it was
collective or individual, it
would be something very
small, very quiet."
West was silent for a mo-
ment. Then a broad smile
crossed his face as his wife
Joy walked in from an adjoin-
ing room. "Don't let me inter-
rupt," she said, passing
through. "I'm just on the way
out to stock up on Vegemite
while we're here."
The Wests - he has been
married twice - have homes
in Italy, England and the
United States, but the boy
from St Kilda still lives on in
Morris West.
"I've never lost my Aus-
tralian identity, nor have the
kids," he said. "Despite the
fact that I first left Australia
20 years ago, we've never
given up our Australian pass-
ports.
"I have two children from
my first marriage. They are
now in their 30s. And four
babies who go 26, 24, 22 and
17."
Morris West was a reluc-
tant expatriate, and he now
thinks of himself as an Aus-
tralian with a very mobile
lire-style. It was very dînèrent 20 years
ago for an Australian who wanted to be
professional in writing," he said. "Every-
thing was overseas and one had one's
first successes there."
With sales of more than 25 million
since his first book was published in
1941, he can afford to go anywhere and
do almost anything he wants.
A former Christian Brother in Mel-
bourne, he left the order after eight years
before taking his final vows. He sees him-
self as a writer with a Christian world
view, but basically as a storyteller.
He denies, however, that he has any
prophetic gifts.
"It's an intuitive talent, which so
often is wrong, but the intuitive ap-
proach says it just has to fit together like
that," he explained.
And for those concerned with his
startling track record of being ahead of
events, Morris West doesn't really think
the end is nigh - quite.
On the other hand, he's not all that
comforting about it.
- PAUL DOUGHERTY
$