《牛津英国文学史：英国文学的国际化/外国文学研究文库》：
Much of the novel consists of Ng's narration of the lives of the guerrillas. It seems an awful life， not worth living， only made bearable by a mixture of extreme idealism and knowledge that capture or surrender means torture and death. Eventually Ng is captured but survives because of an acquaintance， another renegade， who is now working for the Malai. When recaptured by the guerrillas， Ng realizes that he would no longer be able to live such a life： 'I'd rather be a slave in comfort than endure those conditions of freedom. Until now I'd never consciously posed that choice to myself（p. 371）. He saves a Malai officer's son by shooting one of his friends among the guerrillas and buys his freedom.
The Redundancy of Courage examines the complexities of freedom. There is the irony that independence from European imperialism results in a more brutal conquest and colonization by another of the recently liberated nations and that independence leaders soon find themselves fighting to survive in the jungle rather than talking abstruse notions of liberation in colonial comfort. Mo does not reduce his Danuese rebels to caricatures or inflate them to simple heroes. This is a society in all its complexity， whether in the search for food， differing views of engagements and tactics， the improvising of medicines， the treatment of peasants， rivalries， friendships， bravery， betrayals， fear， and incompetence. Ng bears the hardships of the guerrillas and becomes part of the leadership but he is still called a homosexual "Chinaman" and not trusted. This is a Naipaulian study of the complexities and dangers of freedom and becoming aware of oneself as capable of choice. The novel ends on an upbeat note of claiming the struggle will continue， and Ng can be said to have earned his place in Danu society and history by his unwilling， forced， role in the struggle. What was a way to survive has， ironically， become itself one of the legends of the struggle， thus， one might argue， fulfilling claims that belonging is not racial or being 'native' but having lived fully within a society. But is Ng like one of Ishiguro's narrators telling history in such a way as to justify himself?
There is the ironic title of the novel， a redundancy being an unnecessary excess， a possible view of the liberation struggle， especially in the way it keeps bringing pain and death to the Danuese. Maybe Ng's feline ways of survival are better than the courage to feel pain and willingness to die for a cause? We are often reminded in the novel that the survival of the Danuese as a nation depends less on themselves than on the outside world. The pains the guerrillas suffer and inflict are little more than a way of attempting to influence world opinion.
After Redundancy Mo disagreed with Chatto and Windus over the advance for Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard （1995 ）， a novel set in the Philippines， and he self-published it through his own Paddleless Press. Like Emecheta he challenged established trade publishing and found that he could earn as much publishing and distributing his books himself. In Renegade or Halo（1999）， also published by Paddleless， the Renegade is Re， born of a black American father and a tribal Malaysian mother who works as a prostitute in the Philippines. Because of size and colour he is nick named Sugar-Ray， thus Ray， or Re. Those he is raised around speak a pidgin English in which intensity is indicated by doubling the word. As halo is a common Asian iced sweet， a sort of sundae， a hybrid of jellies， candies， beans， and fruits of many colours， he is also nicknamed Halo-Halo， the Halo-squared of the title. Re's life is an allegory of the postcolonial world. His creation is a result of American involvement in Vietnam and the Philippine sex industry； he is educated by Jesuits who train him to think clearly and unemotionally. He studies law and is soon part of a political gang whose way to power is to do the bidding of those holding power. It is， however， a brotherhood of the elite and he， an outsider， is framed for a murder others commit. This leads to his flight followed by travels to many of the newsworthy places of recent history.
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