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A review by fatima82
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
5.0
From the very first line, "Accidents ambush the unsuspecting, often violently, just like love," I was hooked. But, just in case I changed my mind, the author addresses the reader directly on page six and vividly, painstakingly, makes the reader feel what he felt as he burned in his car. This ability only gets better throughout the book. Each turn of a page was like opening a new present at Christmas.
A porn star and a schizophrenic coupled with love, historical, and religious imagery made for an unlikely yet fascinating tale of psychological and physical suffering. The theme of redemption, while seemingly not attainable for the narrator, drives the story through all of Marianne Engel's reincarnations and in spite of the narrator's self-loathing.
Of all of the tales Marianne told, my favorite was The Glassblower's Apprentice, but the most tragic was that of Siguror's Gift. In this story, the concept of homophobia was introduced in such a way that felt completely realistic for the time period it was set in. The tragedy comes in Einarr's admitting to his wife that he loved him too, after Siguror is buried. (What can I say? *sniff*)
In the beginning, as he falls over the side of the cliff, the unnamed protagonist writes:
-There was a brief momnt of weighlessness: a balancing point between air and earth, dirt and heaven. How strange, I thought, how like the moment between sleeping and falling when everything is beautifully surreal and nothing is corporeal. How like floating towards completion.-
I love that towards the end of the book, as he jumps off of Vicky's cliff at the end of his trip through Dante's circles of hell, again he writes the same words before coming to in bed three days after Marianne has made him go into morphine withdrawal.
The author obviously did his research which gained him my respect with regard to the medical content and made me want to go researching some of the historical content. Not since tackling War and Peace have I felt that way.
Kudos Mr. Davidson. Here's hoping you have a long career of writing excellent books such as this one.
A porn star and a schizophrenic coupled with love, historical, and religious imagery made for an unlikely yet fascinating tale of psychological and physical suffering. The theme of redemption, while seemingly not attainable for the narrator, drives the story through all of Marianne Engel's reincarnations and in spite of the narrator's self-loathing.
Of all of the tales Marianne told, my favorite was The Glassblower's Apprentice, but the most tragic was that of Siguror's Gift. In this story, the concept of homophobia was introduced in such a way that felt completely realistic for the time period it was set in. The tragedy comes in Einarr's admitting to his wife that he loved him too, after Siguror is buried. (What can I say? *sniff*)
In the beginning, as he falls over the side of the cliff, the unnamed protagonist writes:
-There was a brief momnt of weighlessness: a balancing point between air and earth, dirt and heaven. How strange, I thought, how like the moment between sleeping and falling when everything is beautifully surreal and nothing is corporeal. How like floating towards completion.-
I love that towards the end of the book, as he jumps off of Vicky's cliff at the end of his trip through Dante's circles of hell, again he writes the same words before coming to in bed three days after Marianne has made him go into morphine withdrawal.
The author obviously did his research which gained him my respect with regard to the medical content and made me want to go researching some of the historical content. Not since tackling War and Peace have I felt that way.
Kudos Mr. Davidson. Here's hoping you have a long career of writing excellent books such as this one.