Beth Powning's Blog: Other Worlds

I loved "People of the Book", as I've loved everything I've read by Geraldine Brooks. Running beneath the narrative of Hanna, a rare book expert, are the true stories behind tiny objects she finds in the binding of an ancient book: a hair, a blood stain, a butterfly wing. From these objects, stories emerge which the reader is privileged to know and Hanna can only guess at. Set in war-torn Sarajevo, this book examines the braid of human compassion that binds together people of varying faiths, offering hope in the midst of anguish. Brooks blends meticulous research with a story that never falters. Four stars!

I hovered between 3 and 4 stars. It's an odd one, but delightful. I found myself skipping the titles of historical sources, wondering if they were necessary beyond the peculiar fact of being there at all. I loved the idea of the ghosts, the nether world, the father longing for his corporeal son. I loved the irreverance of the ghosts, and the fact that they are trying not to be dead. I would love to know how this book came to George Saunders and how it developed as he wrote it.

Thanks to Arundhati Roy for her evident years of compassionate living and for weaving her experiences into this novel. As I read, the sense of India often visited me as I went about my day, a flash of brilliant colour, of endless narratives playing out at the corners of my eyes, of parrots, bicycles, silk, death. However, a word of apology and advice: don't try to read this book in small bits, in bed, during Christmas holidays, after drinking wine. There are many, many characters, names, walk-ons, stories told without apparent relevance to the plot. The time-line is complex. Fourteen years pass in a single, easily-missed sentence. I was often lost. The book could have been clarified. But is this the editor's error, or mine? Is the book's feeling of being a muddle exactly what Roy intended, and insisted upon? Well-worth reading. I learned a great deal about many things, both minute and vast.

Today I finished the second draft of a new novel. It is an emotional moment. I know that this is simply another step in the novel's growth, that there will be many changes ahead, and yet it grows closer to the creature it will eventually become.