I'll confess. Before reading THE RED DANCER, all I knew about Mata Hari was that she was a World War I era spy, a stripper of vaguely Asian extraction. Even after teaching high school history for 10 years, all I could conjure about her was some sort of dancing with veils. That, and her name is occasionally an answer to a crossword puzzle clue. (Dutch Courtesan, 8 letters.) The odd thing is, after reading this fictionalized biography by British writer Richard Skinner, I only know a little bit more.

Admittedly, few facts about the life of the Dutch dancer are written in stone. Born Margaretha Zelle and known as Gerda, she marries a much older Army officer in 1896, hoping to escape a life of poverty. They, along with a young son, are soon posted to colonial Indonesia, although Gerda has difficulty adjusting to the confines of matrimony, flirting with young officers and running up hefty bills at local shops. The son's death, the birth of a daughter, and an ill-timed rendezvous with a young lieutenant all contribute to the family's return to Europe. Since the reader knows from the beginning that this is a fictionalized history, or perhaps a more apt description would be a historicalized fiction, Skinner might have given more insight into Gerda's behavior. Even highly speculative insight could be helpful. Instead, Skinner chooses to tell her story by using multiple narrators, a technique that was highly successful in Matthew Kneale's novel, ENGLISH PASSENGERS. There, over 20 different voices tell the story of the colonization of Tasmania. The structure, along with fictional "historic documents" lends richness to the very complex story. Here, it results in a story that is really around the main character, rather than about her.

After deserting her husband and daughter, Gerda travels to Paris and reinvents herself as Mata Hari, the daughter of an Indian princess. Or a Javanese princess. Or the love child of King Edward. It doesn't seem to matter to European theatergoers, who flock to her performances, although one wonders how successful she would have been had she kept her clothes on. Some say the emperor has no clothes, literally, and Skinner provides a cross-section of fictional reviews of her "art."  Says one writer for the Daily Mail, "It was a tropical plant in all its freshness, transplanted to a Northern soil. The Parisians who witnessed the performance were struck with the unconscious art of the dancer..." We also hear from a 1906 German review, "I would have to lie if I were to say that the performance is more than that of an amateur." It is in Berlin, Skinner maintains, that Mata Hari began spying for the Germans, although historical records differ on when, and even if, she engaged in espionage.

When she takes up spying, the plot advances quickly. She performs across Europe in the days before World War I, moving in the theaters and bedrooms of the rich and powerful, gaining information about industrialization and troop movements. Skinner never glamorizes her occupation, being careful to show the consequences of her actions, particularly in one moving section involving two young British officers loose in Paris.  Throughout the novel, he intersperses brief essays on different historic subjects ranging from the Orient Express to the production of absinthe to West African "juju." The essays are interesting, albeit slightly distracting. He does work hard to create a little bit of sympathy for Mata Hari when she reaches the end of her career. She seems to meet the love of her life, a young Russian pilot, whom she plans to marry once the war ends. Although of course, he could be just another in a long string of men to whom she attaches herself, forcing the reader to again question the veracity of the main character. What is never in question, however, is Mata Hari's capture and eventual execution by the French in 1917. Even then, Skinner chooses other characters as narrators. A kindly nun and a young member of the firing squad tell her final story.

In THE RED DANCER, Skinner does little to clear up the layers of mystery surrounding the life of Mata Hari. She probably would have liked it that way.

   --- Reviewed by Shannon Bloomstran (shanpb@swbell.net)


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