2 Stars
This is a
peculiar novel. Its blending of magic
realism and Gothicism just doesn’t appeal to me.
Harry Steen
finds an old book in a bookstore in Mexico; its title refers to an isolated
village in Scotland where he lived briefly and where something happened which “would
complicate the entire course of [his] life thereafter” (57). That book inspires him to chronicle his life
from an impoverished childhood in the slums of Glasgow to his financially
secure life in Canada as a successful businessman.
The
Wikipedia entry on McCormack states, “McCormack's heroes tend to have an
academic/bookish bent, been born in Scotland, and have settled in the same part
of Canada that he did. They also travel extensively, often by ship, and meet
eccentric fellow travelers who relate to them their life stories and interests.” This is certainly the case with this novel’s
protagonist. After graduating from
university, he sails to Africa and South America but eventually settles in
Camberloo, which seems to be a bizarre blending of Cambridge and Waterloo, two
cities in southern Ontario where the author lived. In his travels Harry meets many odd
fellows.
It is the
number of strange fellows which stretches credulity. There’s Jacob Nelson, a violinist with
exhibitionist tendencies; Charles Dupont who becomes involved in horrific
surgical/anthropological experiments; and Gordon Smith, a wealthy entrepreneur
who enjoyed exotic sexual customs on remote tropical islands. Each of these men has considerable influence
on Harry’s life.
Harry is
not a likeable character. He is so
self-centred and seems to feel himself hard done by, a wronged victim. He admits that he spent his life blaming
someone else for his “self-serving behaviour over the years” (384). It is difficult to feel much for someone so
self-involved. Every time he drinks he
repeats his story of a love lost and becomes maudlin. Yet everything falls into his lap: jobs, sexual encounters, marriage, and wealth. Women are constantly throwing themselves at
him as if he were irresistible when there is little attractiveness in his
personality.
According
to the Wikipedia entry, another characteristic of McCormack’s writing is the
use of coincidence, with characters often meeting in unusual circumstances
years after they have parted.
Again, this
is the case in this novel. Chance and
coincidence are found in real life, but the amount of coincidence in the book
is problematic.
Apparently,
McCormack is also known for self-references and those are found here as
well. McCormack’s books include Inspecting the Vaults, The Paradise Motel, The Mysterium, First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous
Regiment of Women, and The Dutch Wife. In the novel, the titles in a ship’s library
include Inspecting the Faults, The Paladine Hotel, The Wysterium, Last Blast of
the Cornet, and A Dutch Life
(155). What is the purpose of parodying one’s
own titles?
According
to the flyleaf, the book is about the “nature of love” and there are statements
on that topic like, “’We all wish
love would be eternal and exclusive . . . But it rarely seems to be the case’”
(146) and “’first love is often a kind of self-love, a delight in the idea of
being in love’” (383). At the end of the
book, a cloud is lifted and Harry sees how he was wrong about love, but there
are no new insights on the subject.
This book
will undoubtedly appeal to certain readers, but it failed to be compelling for
me. It is not a difficult read by any
means, but it lacks focus. There are so
many tangents – do we really need to know the life stories of patients in a
psychiatric institution specializing “’in artists and academics who’ve somehow
gone wrong’” (374)? At one point, the
narrator comments, “Book lovers naturally do feel a kind of possessiveness and
protectiveness in how they relate to certain authors and books, as though they
were pets” (413). This book is not one
of my pets!
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