Dr Ragab’s Universal Language - Robert Twigger

Dr Ragab’s Universal Language plays an entertaining little game with the reader, on one hand presenting the intriguing notion that through proper meditation, learning and discipline that the secrets of life and the universe can be revealed and mastered by the keen disciple, but that it can also be a dangerous force if misused by less luminous souls without the right mindset and without guidance. On the other hand it could also be a load of old hooey. One’s reaction to the Robert Twigger’s book is likely to similarly be intrigued with the notion and how it is presented or dismissive of the whole enterprise.

The perspective that the unusual story of Dr Ragrab’s wisdom is at least presented in a manner that creates an interesting dialectic. Driven by his own interest in bunkers a writer commissioned to write up the history of a German aluminium company uncovers some fascinating old documents belonging to the founder of the company. In an effort to survive his captivity by a number of militia assailants who are holding him in his underground shelter, Hertwig recalls his learning and experiences in the East as a disciple of the enigmatic Mystic Dr Ragrab.

There’s something of Haruki Murakami, particularly The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, in the surrealism of the war-time experiences and idea of their being an interconnectedness of everything that can be made sense of through a form of self-discipline and sensory deprivation - fascination of and isolation in bunkers here, deep wells in Murakami - leading eventually to enlightenment. Twigger however never convinces or at least holds and entertains the reader the way Murakami does, even of they don’t really follow what is going on.

The presence of the writer here who has discovered Hertwig’s recollections of Dr Ragrab’s teachings is the key here, providing some amusement in his hope of using the teachings of the documents to lure a girl he fancies away from a more manly prospect, but it does prevent the reader from taking any of the material at all seriously. The book does find a satisfactory ending that ties everything together, but it doesn’t make up for the fact that the majority of the story is uninteresting and not really funny or original enough.