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10/3/11
Patrick O'Leary: The Gift
What a frustrating book this has been to read. I loved it and hated it in equal measure. It's a beautiful book from the cover design by Bonni Leon (it's not clear if she's the artist as well as the designer) to the flowing prose which is, in itself, a character (as in characterises) the novel. I loved it for its sumptuous use of language and I hated it for all its side-trips and dead ends which didn't seem to be leading anywhere. I would have loved it more if the storyteller didn't ramble on so...
Yes, this is a book about stories and the telling of them and the central conceit is that on a sea voyage a storyteller enthralls (literally) the crew after a mysterious naked woman has been hauled up, drowned, out of the sea and thrown back in again. The storyteller begins, and for every story that he tells that seems to lead you somewhere there are many stories that don't seem to have any point at all. It's not even clear whether his stories are about the same world that the ship and the crew inhabit. Yet eventually, after much waffle, everything ties together and his told story comes to a conclusion - and then the bookend story also comes to a conclusion and neatly ties in with the told story, and then the novel also comes to a conclusion. Yes, you do eventually learn the secret of the drowned woman, but she's only a byproduct of the main story.
There were times when I almost lost the will to live and I was screaming silently 'Get on with it!' and other times when I was captivated by the imagination of Mr. O'Leary. By and large I'm glad I read 'The Gift', but I wouldn't ever want to have to read it again. It's a book I can admire from the outside without ever getting drawn in completely.
Patrick O'Leary: The Gift
What a frustrating book this has been to read. I loved it and hated it in equal measure. It's a beautiful book from the cover design by Bonni Leon (it's not clear if she's the artist as well as the designer) to the flowing prose which is, in itself, a character (as in characterises) the novel. I loved it for its sumptuous use of language and I hated it for all its side-trips and dead ends which didn't seem to be leading anywhere. I would have loved it more if the storyteller didn't ramble on so...
Yes, this is a book about stories and the telling of them and the central conceit is that on a sea voyage a storyteller enthralls (literally) the crew after a mysterious naked woman has been hauled up, drowned, out of the sea and thrown back in again. The storyteller begins, and for every story that he tells that seems to lead you somewhere there are many stories that don't seem to have any point at all. It's not even clear whether his stories are about the same world that the ship and the crew inhabit. Yet eventually, after much waffle, everything ties together and his told story comes to a conclusion - and then the bookend story also comes to a conclusion and neatly ties in with the told story, and then the novel also comes to a conclusion. Yes, you do eventually learn the secret of the drowned woman, but she's only a byproduct of the main story.
There were times when I almost lost the will to live and I was screaming silently 'Get on with it!' and other times when I was captivated by the imagination of Mr. O'Leary. By and large I'm glad I read 'The Gift', but I wouldn't ever want to have to read it again. It's a book I can admire from the outside without ever getting drawn in completely.
