UPDATED - SEE BELOW
Earlier this week I finished reading “The Gargoyle”, the debut novel by Andrew Davidson. This one counts in my total for “The 2nd Canadian Book Challenge”.
Here is a rundown on the plot, the description I read that got me hooked on the idea of reading it (from Amazon.Com, of course):
The unnamed narrator of “The Gargoyle” is a very contemporary cynic, physically beautiful and sexually adept, who dwells in the moral vacuum that is modern life. As the book opens, he is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body. As he recovers in a burn ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned, he awaits the day when he can leave the hospital and commit carefully planned suicide—for he is now a monster in appearance as well as in soul.
A beautiful and compelling, but clearly unhinged, sculptress of gargoyles by the name of Marianne Engel appears at the foot of his bed and insists that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly injured mercenary and she was a nun and scribe in the famed monastery of Engelthal who nursed him back to health. As she spins their tale in Scheherazade fashion and relates equally mesmerizing stories of deathless love in Japan, Iceland, Italy, and England, he finds himself drawn back to life—and, finally, in love. He is released into Marianne’s care and takes up residence in her huge stone house. But all is not well. For one thing, the pull of his past sins becomes ever more powerful as the morphine he is prescribed becomes ever more addictive. For another, Marianne receives word from God that she has only twenty-seven sculptures left to complete—and her time on earth will be finished.
What I find interesting is the buzz this book is creating. I didn’t hear it before getting a copy (an ARC through BookMooch). Had I been hearing this buzz, I probably would not have read it. As it was, I read the above description and heard nothing else, deciding it was something that sounded very entertaining. Some of this buzz even occurred before the book was published, with the author’s agent turning down huge offers (LINK). Hype, as we know, can be an ugly thing. I could have ruined this for me.
As it was, it didn’t ruin it. I found the book very compelling. Certainly, as there always is with debut novels, there were some issues. The drug addiction wasn’t played out enough to make it a real harsh component of the story. Sure, it was there, but would disappear for a while, or only be in the background considering it was being played up.
Andrew Davidson
But there were strengths in the book. It being a good story, with a dark side, made me want to keep reading. The supporting cast of characters were pretty well done. The reader was given enough background and personality traits to make them very believable even with the small amount of time they were in the story. The darker natures of the book were well explored, but not overly done. Especially the processes of healing and pain. To me at least, it was exaggerated for the sake of making the book a statement or trying to put on a show. And I thought the ending was well done, too. It still left a lot up to the reader’s imagination, while being very thorough where it needed to be.
It certainly wasn’t the best book I have read, and in some respects I expected more dark mystery surrounding the two main characters after reading the description. But even with all the buzz I have read, I think it’s was a very good book.
[UPDATE:]
I forgot that Marianne tells the narrator four stories throughout this book. All of them are rather heartbreaking tales, but very much a part of the overall story, and all very well done. These four should not be forgotten.
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