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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
https://www.danscanon.com/2020/08/the-course-of-heart-by-m-john-harrison.html
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
A tale about the allure of a fantastic world that can be breached with obscure magical ritual – the obsession with which destroys the characters' lives. This ostensibly moves beyond M. John Harrison's early deconstructions of the fantasy genre, but given how phantasms invade and wreck the seemingly ordinary lives of the characters in the novel, I feel like it's of a piece with Harrison's ability to take genre elements and make them dangerous and unsettling again. For example, although the corrupt (and corrupting) magician Yaxley seems to be modelled on Aleister Crowley, he reminds me just as much of the decadent wizards in Fritz Leiber and Jack Vance, who offer quests and magnificent rewards but can never be trusted by the roguish heroes. This book is like the inverse of the author's Viriconium series, which gradually brought its fantasy world into a closer relationship with our own. Here the fantasy genre lurks in the shadows of what appears to be a standard work of 'literary' fiction.
Unlike most fantasy authors, M. John Harrison is happy to leave the structure of his overlapping universes vague and unexplained. Moreover, if the genre as a whole operates by using metaphor to convey meaning, Harrison's metaphors are notably enigmatic. The three characters who performed the magical ritual as students are all haunted by monsters that reflect aspects of inner psychological turmoil.
The book is ultimately a love story where the love affair is skillfully obscured until the final pages. It's a superb reveal, and subtly recontextualises everything that has come before it. The book can be criticised for. An undercurrent of the book is that obsession with a more perfect magical world arises and is a substitute for a lack of solid connections with this one. Love obviates the need for dangerous, all-consuming magic. It's a grim verdict for a fantasy author to reach.
Unlike most fantasy authors, M. John Harrison is happy to leave the structure of his overlapping universes vague and unexplained. Moreover, if the genre as a whole operates by using metaphor to convey meaning, Harrison's metaphors are notably enigmatic. The three characters who performed the magical ritual as students are all haunted by monsters that reflect aspects of inner psychological turmoil
Spoiler
– Pam's lovers perhaps reveal a lack of romantic fulfilment, Lucas Medlar's dwarf/child a guilt and self-disgust that spills over into masochism. The unnamed narrator's glimpses of a (more benign) green goddess is in the opening of the book associated with his mother, and perhaps reflects a tendency to revere but misunderstand womenThe book is ultimately a love story where the love affair is skillfully obscured until the final pages. It's a superb reveal, and subtly recontextualises everything that has come before it. The book can be criticised for
Spoiler
fridging the two female characters, although rather than providing a motivation for the male characters, their deaths totally unravel their lives
challenging
dark
deeply harrowing, borderline nonsensical, challenging & rewarding, loved every second
It is a tribute to [a:M. John Harrison|10765|M. John Harrison|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1277603037p2/10765.jpg]'s prose that I finished [b:The Course of the Heart|17742|The Course of the Heart|M. John Harrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391343339l/17742._SY75_.jpg|295279].
The overall narrative is clear, but moment to moment is cloudy. I'm sure there is deeper meaning here, but not sure what it is yet. Maybe my subconscious will work on it and the light bulb will come on some day.
I think Gnosticism comes into play, but don't know enough about the subject to put it together.
Maybe some day I'll reread, or maybe not.
The overall narrative is clear, but moment to moment is cloudy. I'm sure there is deeper meaning here, but not sure what it is yet. Maybe my subconscious will work on it and the light bulb will come on some day.
I think Gnosticism comes into play, but don't know enough about the subject to put it together.
Maybe some day I'll reread, or maybe not.
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I wanted to like this, but the prose kept me at arms-length the entire time. Harrison is clearly a good writer and I want to read more from him, but this story was just--something.
Originally published on my blog here in January 2002.
Three undergraduates, under the guidance of one of the tutors, perform an occult ritual in a Cambridge field. In later years, even though none of them can quite remember what happened or what they actually did, the experience continues to haunt them. They spend their lives trying to escape it, trying to have lives which do not centre around this disturbing event.
Harrison portrays the world of the occult as sleazy and sordid, where unpleasant immoralities need to be committed to try to bring about uncertain results. It is made very obscure to the reader; Harrison does not reveal any more to the readers than the characters are able to remember. All we can know are the effects that it has had on the three former students - the visions and obsessions which stalk them - and how they try to deal with them. Even the existence of the supernatural (in the novel's fictional world) is left somewhat in doubt (shared hallucinations being the only evidence).
Perhaps more than Harrison's other novels, The Course of the Heart is reminiscent of other writers; there are echoes here of [b:The Sea, the Sea|11229|The Sea, the Sea|Iris Murdoch|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1302898449s/11229.jpg|1410491] and Iris Murdoch (particularly of [a:Lawrence Durrell|8166|Lawrence Durrell|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1342708068p2/8166.jpg]). The Course of the Heart is an excellent and thought provoking novel, stripping the world of the occult of the glamour which it is so frequently given.
Three undergraduates, under the guidance of one of the tutors, perform an occult ritual in a Cambridge field. In later years, even though none of them can quite remember what happened or what they actually did, the experience continues to haunt them. They spend their lives trying to escape it, trying to have lives which do not centre around this disturbing event.
Harrison portrays the world of the occult as sleazy and sordid, where unpleasant immoralities need to be committed to try to bring about uncertain results. It is made very obscure to the reader; Harrison does not reveal any more to the readers than the characters are able to remember. All we can know are the effects that it has had on the three former students - the visions and obsessions which stalk them - and how they try to deal with them. Even the existence of the supernatural (in the novel's fictional world) is left somewhat in doubt (shared hallucinations being the only evidence).
Perhaps more than Harrison's other novels, The Course of the Heart is reminiscent of other writers; there are echoes here of [b:The Sea, the Sea|11229|The Sea, the Sea|Iris Murdoch|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1302898449s/11229.jpg|1410491] and Iris Murdoch (particularly of [a:Lawrence Durrell|8166|Lawrence Durrell|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1342708068p2/8166.jpg]). The Course of the Heart is an excellent and thought provoking novel, stripping the world of the occult of the glamour which it is so frequently given.