Tag: novel

The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donohue

The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donohue

The Motion of Puppets is a clever play on an ancient Roman myth.

Orpheus was a musician who was so talented he could charm the birds from the sky and make the forest spirits weep. He madly loved a woman named Eurydice.

One day, she stepped on a serpent and died. Orpheus nearly lost his mind out of grief for her. So, he made his way to the underworld to beg Lord Hades for his bride.

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Orpheus plays such sweet music that Persephone weeps and Hades allows the bard to take the shade of his dead wife back to the living world. There’s one condition, he can’t look back to see if she’s following.

I think we all know what happened then. This book takes that tragedy and places it in the modern world.

Everything is fine until Theo’s wife, Kay, goes missing. “She should be more responsible, should know that he would worry, but he could hear her laughing it off when she came home. You’ll give yourself ulcers, she’d say. You fret too much. I just went out for croissants.” pg 18

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He assumes she stumbled into the bed of one of her coworkers and is sleeping off a hangover. But the truth is much worse.

Kay has been transformed into something else, something magical and monstrous. “We lucky few can move about as long as the people are not watching. Midnight to first light, we are free.”pg 41

She is trapped in a metaphorical “underworld,” ruled over by an ancient power and his minions. “You cannot go home,” he said. “You cannot ever leave the Back Room.” pg 76

Even if Theo can figure out where she’s gone, how on earth will Kay go back to the shape she had before?

Keith Donohue has crafted a clever and haunting novel, putting a horror-tinged lens on the myth.

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“And, besides, let me tell you a secret: all art needs a little sadness in it, a small tragedy to balance the human comedy.” pg 111

Like Moulin Rouge, Baz Luhrmann’s musical take on Orpheus and Eurydice, the elements of the original story are in both works of art. I think The Motion of Puppets is more weird and other-worldly.

To truly enjoy this tale, you have to be willing to believe in magic.

Highly recommended for readers who like twists on mythology or not-too-terrifying horror stories.

If you like mythological re-tellings, you may also enjoy The Snow Child or Circe.

Thanks for reading!

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

Axl and Beatrice are an aging married couple in the time of King Arthur. They’re on a quest to visit their son and face otherworldly threats like ogres and pixies as well as more regular dangers like Saxons on the road. They meet a boy named Edwin, who has a secret, and a warrior named Wistan, who is on a quest of his own.

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Making matters even more difficult, there’s a mind-fogging mist covering the land that makes people forget things that just happened to them moments ago and the past is a puzzling blank. Axl and Beatrice would also like to solve the mystery of this mist, but first, they need to remember where their son lives.

This fantasy novel tackles the themes of love, forgiveness, and war- but, be warned, this is a ‘love it or hate it’ kind of read and will not appeal to everyone.

This is the first book I’ve read by Ishiguro and my feelings about it are complicated.

At first, I hated it because of the plodding pace and the fact that, although the author hinted at plenty of magical creatures and cryptic places, he didn’t do anything with them. But then, Ishiguro layered the themes on each other and brought the novel to a conclusion that I can’t stop thinking about… so I’m torn.

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Depending on where I was in the book, this was either a one star or a five star- so I’m going to come down right in the middle with three.

The mist is so pervasive throughout this story that it almost a character all of its own: “It’s queer the way the world’s forgetting people and things from only yesterday and the day before that. Like a sickness come over us all.” … She had said this while looking away into the mist-layered distance, but now she looked straight at him and he could see her eyes were filled with sadness and yearning.”pg 21, ebook.

A life lived without memories makes day-to-day living more simple, but remembering and appreciating the good times, almost impossible.

Throughout this story, I was cheering for Axl and Beatrice to remember their shared past. They’re my favorite characters in this tale.

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“Yet are you so certain, good mistress, you wish to be free of this mist? Is it not better some things remain hidden from our minds?” “It may be so for some, father, but not for us. Axl and I wish to have again the happy moments we shared together. To be robbed of them is as if a thief came in the night and took what’s most precious from us.” pg 113, ebook

Wistan is a Saxon warrior beyond compare, but he does not love Britons: “It was Britons under Arthur slaughtered our kind. … We’ve a duty to hate every man, woman and child of their blood. So promise me this. Should I fall before I pass to you my skills, promise me you’ll tend well this hatred in your heart. And should it ever flicker or threaten to die, shield it with care till the flame takes hold again.”pg 172, ebook.

Despite his efforts to remain detached, he develops a soft spot for Axl and Beatrice (Britons). Perhaps if he didn’t label people under blanket terms like “Britons” then he’d feel more kindly disposed towards them. Blind hate softens when you get to know someone and understand who they are. I think that is part of Ishiguro’s point… maybe.

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There were plenty of confusing moments in The Buried Giant for me.

What’s with the old lady slaughtering small animals in that ruin? What’s with the island where people go to live entirely by themselves? (Metaphor for death or a trip to fairyland?) What’s with Edwin’s memories? Or the priests who feed themselves to the vicious birds for things they can’t remember?

Or that ending? (Geez, that ending!)

I can see how this would make an excellent book club choice because there is so much that can be interpreted different ways and discussed.

Picking read alikes for this novel was tricky because the tone, pacing, and complexity of this book is so unique.

The Last Unicorn is a fairy tale with layers, like this read, but for young adults. Mythago Wood might be another solid choice, but it takes place in the modern era rather than the distant past. Or you could try: Suldrun’s Garden. I read that a long time ago and didn’t like it much, but it is a classic fantasy book set close to the same time as The Buried Giant.

Thanks for reading!

The Abominable: a Novel by Dan Simmons

The Abominable: a Novel by Dan Simmons

The Abominable by Dan Simmons is a historical fiction novel about mountain climbing and a mystery that is set, for the most part, during the early years of World War II.

The story reads like less of an adventure novel and more like an homage to the sport of mountaineering.

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Dan Simmons takes his time building the tension of the tale with back stories and detours until I nearly lost interest in the whole thing. But, to be fair, I have never been a serious mountain climber, having injured myself the first and only time I tried it.

I do enjoy long hikes in beautiful spaces. I don’t like risking my life or the lives of my companions in the process. So, not my thing, but maybe it’s somebody else’s.

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If hiking is your jam, the long and technical descriptions of climbing techniques, knots, and methods in The Abominable might be just the read you’ve been looking for.

Here’s a pretty passage about viewing the night sky, high up in the mountains: “When you look at the stars near the horizon…especially when it’s really cold.. they tend to jitter around. Jumping left, then right… all while they jiggle up and down at the same time. I think it has something to do with masses of super-cold air lying over the land or frozen sea acting like a lens that’s being moved…” pg 18

One of the many passages that literally made my hands sweat in fear for the characters: “It’s tricky playing out the rope to Jean-Claude as I crab-shuffle to the left. Most of it is in my rucksack, which keeps trying to pull me back and off the face with just the weight of the extra rope and a few other small things in it, but some I’ve had to loop over my right shoulder to keep playing out to J.C. …

I’ve made it a little more than halfway to the pipe ledge when I slip…” pg 111

There are hundreds of pages with writing like that. I found it stressful, but again, I’m not a mountain climber.

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There’s a lot of wry humor in this read too: “…why are they so eager to get this blessing from the monastery’s holy man, Dzatrul Rinpoche? If everything’s predestined for them anyway, what difference will the abbot’s blessing make?” Pasang smiles his small smile. “Do not ask me, Mr. Perry, to make sense of the internal contradictions that are common in all religions.” pg 341

More love for mountain climbing: “Machig Labdron once wrote, Unless all reality is made worse, one cannot attain liberation… So wander in grisly places and mountain retreats… do not get distracted by doctrines and books… just get real experiences… in the horrid and desolate.” “In other words,” I say, “face your demons.” “Exactly,” says Reggie. “Make a gift of your body to the demons of the mountains and wilderness. It’s the best way to destroy the last vestiges of one’s vanity and pride.” pg 346

This book in two lines: “We were metaphorical inches from hypothermia-which has a wider range of terrible symptoms than merely going to sleep and freezing to death, not the least of which would be intemperate belligerence and a need to rip our clothes off as we froze-and literal inches from a 9,000-foot drop to our south side and a 10,000-foot drop a few more feet away to the north side. But for the moment, we were very happy.” pg 554

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And some people call that fun.

So, beyond being terrified during the climbing portions and bored by the never ending, rambling style of story-telling, I wanted much more of the fantastical in this tale, for example: the abominable snowman!

I’m not going to say anymore about yetis because I don’t want to spoil the surprising twists and turns of this tale for those who do choose to pick it up. Prepare yourself for one hell of a climb though- because it’s a long and meandering one.

Thanks for reading!