Scooter Chronicles

Sometime last week I finished reading “Icefields” by Thomas Wharton. This was his debut novel, and was also the first book I read for the “2nd Canadian Book Challenge”.

From Amazon.Com, here is a rundown on the description:

This first novel begins with an imaginative and ingenious premise: a physician trekking across the Arcturus Glacier in the Canadian Rockies in 1898 slips and tumbles into a crevasse, where he beholds a winged human figure. The rest of the book tells of Dr. Edward Byrne’s efforts to get to the bottom of the mystery in the ice. Along the way, he encounters a series of eccentrics, each involved in their own quest: the explorer Freya; the industrialist Trask; the poet Hal; and the slightly mad Elspeth, Byrne’s lover. Told through scientific notes, journal entries, letters, and dialogue, this historical tale of the incalculable encountered in the mountains marks a promising debut.

I am going to say at the start of this review that I had trouble getting through this book. At times I was forcing myself to sit and read it. But that’s not to say that it wasn’t a good book, or that Wharton isn’t a good writer. I believe that sometimes you read a book (or see a movie) at the wrong time of your life. You just aren’t in the right frame of mine for it at the time. I think this book falls into that category for me. Also, I was a bit mislead by the above description, and that is not fault of the author’s.

Thomas Wharton

A plus on the author’s side is his writing ability. Wharton uses very good prose. Even with the stripped down feeling of the chapters or sections, quickly moving from scene to scene, his prose stands up very well. At times this movement between scenes made things feel disjointed. I would have liked to read more explanation, or given more a time frame as things jump around. But overall his writing style was very good.

The scientific notes got to be too much for me at times. However, I don’t think it was a matter of Wharton giving too much information. It was a matter of taste and lack of interest in the subject of glaciers. When I read the above description, I figured I was in for a tale of discovery with a tinge of the fantastical. What it really turned out to be was a character study (to my eyes at least).

In some ways I feel let down by this book, and I also feel that I let the author down. I couldn’t grasp what he was trying to convey because my mind just wasn’t in the right place. But he made a strong case for his story.