THE KEEP

TITLE: THE KEEP

AUTHOR: JENNIFER EGAN

Pages: 242

Date: 12/01/2013

Grade: 5

Library

“What’s real, Danny? Is reality TV real? Are confessions you read on the Internet real? The words are real, someone wrote them, but beyond that the question doesn’t even make sense.”

When Danny needs to leave New York, his life there and an unfortunate incident behind in a hurry he accepts an invitation from his cousin Howard. Howard has recently become the owner of an old castle somewhere not too far away from Prague and wants Danny’s help converting the building into a hotel. Danny is apprehensive about this trip. An incident in his and Howard’s past has him worried about seeing his cousin again after many years of no contact. And although Howard doesn’t appear to be holding any grudges towards Danny, the castle itself only increases Danny’s feelings of discomfort. Danny is a creature of the modern age, addicted to his computer, cell-phone, emails and other means of staying in constant touch with everybody around him. Finding himself in a location where contact with the outside world proves to be impossible has him teetering on the edge of panic. And there are more things to worry Danny on the castle grounds. There’s the keep and the old baroness who has locked herself away in it and appears to be changing her appearance depending on the angle from which you view her, a dark pool that swallows Danny’s only hope of communicating with the outside world and secrets that only fuel Danny’s sense of paranoia. As the past comes back to haunt the two cousins there is no way the story can end on a positive note for all involved.

In a high security prison in America a man called Ray has decided to join a writing course. In an effort to impress his female teacher he writes a story about two cousins who join forces to renovate an ancient castle only to have an incident from their childhood follow them into their present. Who is Ray? Has he invented Danny or is he somehow involved in the events described in the story he is writing?

Jennifer Egan doesn’t write straight-forward novels; her writing is different from most other authors’. By the time I reached page 20 I was already confused as to who the narrator of this story was; all I knew was that it didn’t appear to be a conventional narrator. And my confusion didn’t lessen as the story went on. What, if anything, is real? Can we believe anything we’re reading or is it all just figments of somebody’s imagination? Are all characters mad and delusional or is the world they live just on the far side of normal?

As she did in “A Visit from theGoon Squad” Jennifer Egan tells her story from various perspectives and using a host of metaphors. I’m not going to try and mention all of them here because I know I will have missed quite a few. Suffice to say that this is a Gothic ghost story as well as a reflection on modern day communication and the way in which we’ve come to depend on it.

This is a fascinating and intriguing story that needs to be read slowly. While there is more then enough tension and mystery in this book to make the reader want to rush along, I would strongly advice against such a course of action. Everything in this story is in some way, shape or form connected to everything else and it is necessary to pay close attention to what you are reading if you want to get the full picture. In fact, I think that this is a book that would greatly benefit from more than one reading. I’m convinced that I must have missed hints, themes and conclusions; that there is more to this story than I managed to get out of it during this first encounter.

This is the second book I read following a recommendation from TiffanyReisz and I think I may have to invite her to compile my reading list from now on. Not only does she write books that keep me on my toes, fascinated and guessing, she recommends books that do exactly the same. “Mind-fuck” is the word she uses to describe her own and these books and I couldn’t agree more. And boy am I enjoying having my mind messed with.

AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST

TITLE: AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST

AUTHOR: IAIN PEARS

Pages: 692

Date: 31/12/2012

Grade: 5+

Library

“When in a Search of any Nature the Understanding stands suspended, then Instances of the Fingerpost show the true and inviolable Way in which the Question is to be decided. These Instances afford great Light, so that the Course of the Investigation will sometimes be terminated by them. Sometimes, indeed these Instances are found amongst that Evidence already set down.” – Francis Bacon.

I almost always write my own summaries of the books I read. I’ve decided to make an exception for this book though; I just don’t think I can do the contents of this book justice without giving away too much of the plot. So here’s a copy of the blurb as it appears on the inside sleeve of the copy I read:

“We are in Oxford in the 1660’s, a time and place, of great intellectual, scientific, religious and political ferment. Robert Grove, a fellow of New College, is found dead in suspicious circumstances. A young woman is accused of his murder. We hear about events surrounding his death from four witnesses: Marco da Cola, a Venetian Catholic intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood-transfusion; Jack Prestcott, the son of a supposed traitor to the Royalist cause, determined to vindicate his father; John Wallis, chief cryptographer to both Cromwell and Charles II, a mathematician, theologian and inveterate plotter; and Anthony Wood, the famous Oxford antiquary. Each witness tells their version of what happened. Only one reveals the extraordinary truth.”

In November, when I finished “The Prince” by Tiffany Reisz I tweeted about my frustration about the monumental cliff-hanger the book ended on. I was delighted as well as surprised to have her reply to my tweet and admit that she is the queen of the “mind-fuck”. Although I won’t know the exact extend to which she fucked with her readers’ minds in that book and its two prequels until I read The Mistress, the fourth and final title in this part of her “Original Sinners” series, I am inclined to take her word for it. When asked, she recommended “An Instance of the Fingerpost” as one of the ultimate “mind-fuck” books she had ever read. This comment, of course, meant that curiosity got the better of me and I requested the book from my library. All I can say now that I have finished the book is WOW! This is indeed a book in which the reader is taken for a ride, given one impression only to have it demolished in a later part of the book. This book is a work of genius. The reader is presented with a mystery and subsequently given four different accounts of the events that lead up to and followed it. The four parts are told by four different narrators all of whom play a pivotal role in the proceedings. The four men sharing their stories all share from their own perspective and with their own interests colouring what they do and don’t share. And all four men come up with different answers and conclusions. Since only one of our narrators actually has all available information, only one of them shares the full story of what exactly has happened and why, and the reader is held in suspense until the very last page of the book.

What makes this book so incredibly clever is that the author plays a completely fair game with the reader. He doesn’t cheat and confront the reader with a lot of new, yet essential, information in the last few pages of the book. Most of the clues as to what is happening can be found in the first three accounts. I would defy anybody though to only read those parts and try to come up with all the right answers for I don’t think it is possible. This book plays with the reader at every turn and does this in such a way that the book gets ever more intriguing with each subsequent page; that which appears straight-forward turns out to be anything but.

As a mystery this book is intriguing, well plotted and completely engrossing. As a work of historical fiction it is fascinating as well as plausible, not in the least because most of the characters encountered in the book did really live at the time the story takes place.

Of course the second half of the 17^th century is a fascinating time to read about even without the mystery this book provides. England is a country trying to find a balance that will prevent it from descending into civil war once again and modern science is starting to emerge in a time when every new discovery still had to be attributed to the greater glory of God and superstition was still rife. It makes for a wonderful mix of progress and repression and it was with wonder and an occasional smile that I read about obviously very clever people with ideas and discoveries that were nothing sort of genius falling back on their faith to explain what they had produced through their own intelligence.

I could go on raving about this well written, well plotted and well executed book, but I will stop myself. I just want to say two more things:

-          Read this book if you haven’t already done so! And,

-          Thank you Miss Reisz for pointing me in the direction of this fabulous book!