Shelf Life Book Reviews

Today’s review wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for Pam of  Pam’s Perspective. Her glowing review for Andrew Davidson’s The Gargoyle sparked my interest right away, and when I found myself with time to spare at the library, that’s what I reached for. And after reading it in a record 4 days (it helped being sick all day one of those days), I think I owe her an enormous thank you.

Think 1001 Nights meets The Hunchback of Notre Dame, with a heavy dose of Inferno for good measure

Genre: fiction, novel

Plot: This remarkable books begins as the narrator plunges off the road in a terrible car accident that leaves him severely burned. As he endures the torments of burn recovery, his only thought is planning his elaborate suicide. Then he meets Marianne Engel, a sculptress who claims they were lovers in medieval Germany. Although he is skeptical, she enchants him with her tales of love and sacrifice from Finland to Japan, slowly  nursing his spirit back to health. The story doesn’t end there, though–as the narrator’s morphine addiction increases, Marianne is convinced she has a short time to live and devotes a frantic amount of energy into her carvings. Does the narrator have the strength to care for her, too?

Structure: Each of the chapters were of a hefty size, but they were seperated into much smaller vignettes. The story is told from the unnamed narrator’s perspective, intertwined with Marianne’s stories of their past life or of other doomed lovers around the world; the effect is addictive, as Davidson through Marianne tells the story of their medival past in chunks, always pausing just when the story reaches a crucial revelation.

Execution: This novel would have been remarkable for anyone, but for a debut it’s unbelievably impressive. The first 100 pages are intoxicating; the writing is brillantly witty and fascinating in the objective, but self-depricating, way of describing the more excruciating consequences of the narrator’s burns. When Marianne enters the picture, things become much less sarcastic and slow down, but still the pages nearly fly by as  the story spirals deeper and deeper. Davidson uses myth in an almost primitive way:  as a means of entertainment, yes, but also as an instrument of transformation. And the contrast between Marianne’s unshakable–if eccentric–faith and the narrator’s unfailing cynicism was a beautiful portrait of faith and reason falling in together.

Marianne, I think, is what really made the book sparkle. While the narrator’s transformation was moving, her personality was endearing. She was eccentric, yes, but not in an overly cliched way. In other words, this wasn’t Dharma from Dharma & Greg, or Phoebe from Friends. She was crazy in her own unique way, but sympathetically. Despite the narrator’s rational explanation that she is a manic-depressive schizophrenic, you can’t help but believe her stories and appreciate her devotion. And any writer who can create a character who we know is mentally unstable anad yet cause us to yearn for her purity, her goodness, her brightness of spirit has clearly found his craft.

Theme:  burn victims, medieval Germany, Dante’s Inferno

Read this if  you like unusual romances, or have a fetish for medieval architecture

4 out of 5 stars

Other works:
Hopefully Davidson will get back to work so I can add something here!

If you liked this, you  might also like:
Rana Dasgupta’s Tokyo Cancelled  (for the 1001 Nights aspect)
Sarah Dunant’s Sacred Hearts (f0r the parts that took place in a monastery)
Ali Shaw’s The Girl with the Glass Feet (for the unusual use of mythos)
Glen Duncan’s I, Lucifer (for the heavy-handed church imagery and the unrelenting wit)

Oh Lisa See. If I’ve ever come close to a destructive relationship with someone, it’s definitely you.  Your first book I devoured, and came back for seconds. Your second kept me hanging on, frustration after frustration, to ultimately disappoint in a huge way. But I still remembered the good times we had together, and so I couldn’t help but try your third. Sigh. I wanted so  much to like it, truly I did.

A good story of sisters immigrating to America, but lacked any satisfaction in the ending

Genre: fiction, historical

Plot: Pearl and May are two sisters, growing up in the “Paris of Asia” in the 1920s. They are young, rich, and beautiful, enjoying the high life of modern women. That is, of course, until their father bankrupts himself and is forced to marry them to his debtor’s sons, just as the Japanese begin their conquest. Forced to flee to San Francisco, they must learn to make a life with the strangers they have married, facing racial and economical hardships as they mourn for their former lives as “beautiful girls”.

Structure: Each of the chapters had a jaunty title such as “a piece of jade” or “one inch of gold”. They were strictly chronological, though toward the end the space between them lengthened considerably. The narration is from Pearl’s perspective.

Execution: Lisa See reminds me a little bit of what Patrick O’Brien would be if he set his heart on China instead of the British navy. In other words, they are both great on the nitty-gritty details that really count in historical fiction, but in my eyes, weak on the plot.

At first, the novel was very well executed. The plot was surprising, and you really felt emotionally compelled along with Pearl at each turn. What was especially well done—besides the historical accuracy and, as I always harp on, the use of native language-to-English ratio—was the relationship between Pearl and her sister May. This was a complicated one, and just as in the real world, they had ups and downs which were realistically portrayed.

Things got into a bit of a lull toward the middle, where everything seemed to be going just swimmingly for everyone involved. In the final pages, the plot picks up again at an almost frenetic pace as tragedy occurs and family secrets are spilled, sending a disillusioned daughter rushing off to Communist China. Her mother desperately scrapes up the money to follow her, determined to bring her back to the US safely. And…that’s where the story ends.

I felt like screaming. Did she get her back? Were they ever reconciled after the truth came out? But See obviously felt she had reached her goal or deadline or whatever and abruptly brought things to an end. This frustrated me more than I can adequately convey, and in reality soured my opinion of the novel much more than I had thought of it up until that point.

Theme:  Shanghai, San Francisco, Chinatown, Chinese-Americans, Chinese Immigration Exclusion Act, sisterhood

Read this if  you so love Chinese culture you’d read anything, anything about it.

3 out of 5 stars

Other works:
Although I’ve read both Peony in Love and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan I would actually only recommend the latter.

If you liked this, you  might also like:
Ha Jin’s Waiting and A Good Fall
Alan Brennert’s Honolulu
Yoshiko Uchida’s Picture Bride