While
there has been ongoing turmoil at the Academy, even before the murder, the
residents of Three Pines have been examining a unique cache.
Gabri
and Oliver have gathered together a mass of papers and documents, recently
found during renovations to the bistro, that formed the original insulation. The
aged poet, Ruth Zardo, and Reine Marie spend leisurely afternoons sorting
through and considering this wall archive.
During
their review they become absorbed by a hand drawn map with illustrations around
the edges. Hidden for almost a hundred years, it has Three Pines at its heart.
The roads of the map all lead to the village.
I
loved maps when I was a boy. They took me to places far from the farm in
Saskatchewan. I never thought of them as means of finding your way home.
Until
reading A Great Reckoning I never
thought of them as creations in which we are left looking down from the heavens
upon the earth.
The
map is a surprise for the village is not on any modern maps; not even the ubiquitous
Google Maps. Our rational minds question how can it be that a village is absent
from an obsessively mapped world?
Reine
Marie provides an explanation by quoting the latin phrase damnatio memoriae (banished from memory) but why has Three Pines
been banished from memory?
Yet
there is magic in Three Pines being absent from maps. The village belongs to
another world that the characters arrive in from the real world. Penny has
created such an amazing place in Three Pines that it is real to me. In reading
the series, especially A Great Reckoning,
I leave my real world for the paper world of Three Pines. It is a “looking
glass” experience as I am taken into the imaginary world of Three Pines just as
the fictional young cadets feel themselves leaving their real world for the
other world of Three Pines. I had a sense of the legendary Brigadoon where once
every hundred years a Scottish village comes alive. The four students are
experiencing a village that does not officially exist.
On
their arrival Gamache billets each of the cadets with a villager. It is
brilliant plotting as the villagers are drawn into the mystery and we see the
young cadets respectively interacting with Clara, Ruth, Myrna, Gabri and
Oliver.
To
occupy the Cadets Gamache instructs four of the cadets to research the map.
Not
often does a reader of mysteries have a moment of pure astonishment. Where and
when the cadets find a sign of the map’s history in Three Pines left me almost
gaping in surprise.
Yet
how can an aged map explain a lost village. If the discovery of the map left me
astonished the reason was even more powerful. In the conclusion of the 12th
book of the series Penny leads readers to the poignant background of Three
Pines. The explanation is so beautifully crafted and so perfect and so
unexpected I was left sitting in my chair in wonderment.
A Great
Reckoning
is the culmination of a dozen books. It is the best in a grand series and
deserves to be an award winner.
In
reading her acknowledgements I was misty eyed as Louise went through the dozens
of people who have helped her and her husband, Michael, so that she could
continue writing. His dementia has progressed and he needs constant care.
Loss
comes in different ways to everyone. Louise, in the midst of the swirl of caring
for and loving Michael, has written a classic.
****
Penny, Louise – (2005) - Still Life; (2006) - Dead Cold (Tied for 3rd Best fiction of 2006); (2007) - The Cruelest Month; (2009) - The Murder Stone (Tied for 4th Best fiction of 2009); (2010) - The Brutal Telling; (2011) - Bury Your Dead (Best Fiction of 2011); (2011) - A Trick of the Light; (2012) - The Beautiful Mystery (Part I) and The Beautiful Mystery (Part II); (2013) - "P" is for Louise Penny - Movie Producer and Review of the Movie of Still Life; (2013) - How the Light Gets In; (2014) - The Long Way Home; (2014) - The Armand Gamache Series after 10 Mysteries - Part I and Part II; (2015) - The Nature of the Beast (Part I) and The Nature of the Beast (Part II); (2016) - A Great Reckoning - The Academy and Comparisons
It is so terribly sad, Bill, about Michael's health. I wish them both peace and strength as they deal with this.
ReplyDeleteAs for the book, I'm so glad you think so highly of it. I love maps, too, and I can see how one could play an important role in a story. And it sounds as though all of the beloved Three Pines characters are involved in the novel, and I'm happy about that. I know what you mean about the place seeming real.
Margot: Thanks for the comment. Dementia is a cruel affliction. I find maps wonderful aids to imagination. While I generally appreciate letting words in fiction provide the inspiration I would have loved to have seen an artist's conception of the map in A Great Reckoning.
DeleteI've not been a great fan of Louise Penny, but your three blogposts on this book are fascinating and really encouraging. I'm another fan of maps, and the use of them in this book sounds extraordinary..
ReplyDeleteMoira: Thanks for the comment. I would be very interested in your thoughts on this book. I am thinking that maybe loving maps is an indicator of a lover of mysteries.
DeleteI had stopped reading the Armand Gamache books, but I think I'll try this one. I love maps, too, and any time I'm reading about a location in a book or a blog, I look at maps online/
ReplyDeleteDementia is awful. My mother had that affliction for the last six years of her life, but it had begun before that, but worsened quickly. It's awful, but we found a wonderful facility for her to live in.
Kathy D.: Thanks for the comment. I would not have thought a map of a local area could be as powerful a part of a plot as it was in A Great Reckoning.
DeleteI am sorry your mother, yourself and your family had to deal with dementia.
Thank you. It is harrowing, but skilled professionals and a good facility mean a great deal.
ReplyDeleteKathy D.: Thanks. All my best to you.
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