Book #95

Reviewer: Inspirational Reads

Joe and his wife are on a romantic picnic when a hot air balloon becomes untethered with a lone boy in it. Joe and a number of other onlookers rush to assist; the boy lives but one of the rescuers does not. It is at this event that Joe meets Jed Parry, one of the other rescuers and with one shared glance Jed begins an obsession with Joe that dramatically alters both their lives.

The story is told from Joe’s perspective, recalling the events set off by the ballooning tragedy. And from the outset Joe makes us aware of this impending “something”, that this event is where everything spirals out from. The tension is there from the beginning. We become aware of Jed Parry’s obsession almost immediately as Joe receives a phone call from him that very night. And McEwan only ups the ante from there.

Joe views himself as a scientist, his profession as a science writer only came about through self-perceived failure. It is this analytical nature that Joe brings to bear on Parry’s obsession. His own compulsion to know why this is happening, what he can do to stop it, what he needs to do to keep himself and his wife safe, becomes manic in its intensity, mirroring Parry’s lovesick madness. Joe’s own crazed behaviour impacts his marriage and soon the reader too begins to doubt that everything is right with Joe himself.

This is my first Ian McEwan read, and it’s a fantastic introduction to a great writer. There is a lot going on here story wise. There are a number of sub-plots circulating around this one event other than the stalking of Joe by Parry. The second half of the book meanders a bit in trying to draw all these together. What doesn’t suffer is the writing. McEwan uses Joe’s all-consuming scrutiny to put forth outstanding passages, such as:

Our misery in the aftermath was proof that we knew we had failed ourselves. But letting go was in our nature too. Selfishness is also written on our hearts. This is our mammalian conflict – what to give to the others, and what to keep for yourself. Treading that line, keeping the others in check, and being kept in check by them, is what we call morality.

Although this was my first McEwan, it was the third in a line of contemporary writers that had a similar feel; an intelligent person suffers a major event, usually tragic and the story goes on to show the impact of this event with the protagonist introspectively analysing their actions, the actions of those around them and the associated emotions. Usually some form of violence is needed to bring about the climax. Enduring Love did not suffer in comparison, this was the best of the bunch and to be fair I enjoyed every one and the writing was impeccable for all, (just for interest’s sake the other two are Siri Hustvedt’s What I Loved, and her husband Paul Auster’s Invisible), it just suffered for it’s similarity. And it also sounds like a majority of McEwan’s work is along these lines. This will in no way stop me from reading more, I just won’t be going through all of his (or Hustvedt’s or Auster’s) one after the other.

This is a cracking story with excellent writing. There is also a movie adaptation staring Daniel Craig and Rhys Ifans which will be interesting to check out despite it’s 6.4/10 rating on IMDB. But for the book itself, I recommend it and rate it 4/5.

Book #745

Reviewer: Inspirational Reads

Synopsis:

Cantarel, a scholarly scientist, whose enormous wealth imposes no limits upon his prolific ingenuity, is taking a group of visitors on a tour of “Locus Solus,” his secluded estate near Paris. One by one he introduces, demonstrates, and expounds the discoveries and inventions of his fertile, encyclopaedic mind. An African mud-sculpture representing a naked child; a road-mender’s tool which, when activated by the weather, creates a mosaic of human teeth; a vast aquarium in which humans can breathe and in which a hairless cat is seen stimulating the partially decomposed head of Georges Danton to fresh flights of oratory. By each item in Cantarel’s exhibition there hangs a tale—a tale only Roussel could tell. As the inventions become more elaborate, the richness and brilliance of the author’s stories grow to match them; the flow of his imagination becomes a flood and the reader is swept along in a torrent of wonder and hilarity.

I am the type of reader that will easily abandon a book if I am not enjoying it. I have no shame about this; there are far too many books to be read and my time is too precious. But what this challenge has meant is that to fairly give a review of what I have read, I have to read my allocated book in its entirety. And this has been driven home quite clearly by this book.

Roussel has been described as a surreal science-fiction writer.  And by surreal, Roussel embraces the bizarre aspect much more than the dreamlike quality of surrealism, which is to the readers benefit. Because, as evident from the synopsis, the novel is full of Roussels outlandish creations (mosaic of human teeth people! Minute parasitic bugs used to create music and halos of light from within tarot cards!), explained in such excruciating detail that I can’t decide whether Roussel should be admired for his verbosity or have a thesaurus chucked at him (in his grave)

There are parts of this novel that I enjoyed; all the displays have a backstory as to what is being represented and why it was chosen by our host, Cantarel.  Most are heartbreaking, a few uplifting. But even this was disjointed as there is no flow or natural progression to the exhibits, just one after the other. And then at the end, they just return to the main house for tea.

To be fair, the sheer imagination involved is astounding and while wordy, they are well written. But the overwhelming detail and the lack of cohesion made this read a chore and has resulted in a mediocre rating of 2.5/5 from me.