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The Truth About Celia
While playing alone in her backyard one afternoon, seven-year-old Celia suddenly disappears while her father Christopher is inside giving a tour of their historic house and her mother Janet is at an orchestra rehearsal.
Utterly shattered, Christopher, a writer of fantasy and science fiction, withdraws from everyone around him, especially his wife, losing himself in his writing by conjuring up worlds where Celia still exists—as a child, as a teenager, as a young single mother—and revealing in his stories not only his own point of view but also those of Janet, the policeman in charge of the case, and the townspeople affected by the tragedy, ultimately culminating in a portrait of a small town changed forever . The Truth About Celia is a profound meditation on grief and loss and how we carry on in its aftermath.
Utterly shattered, Christopher, a writer of fantasy and science fiction, withdraws from everyone around him, especially his wife, losing himself in his writing by conjuring up worlds where Celia still exists—as a child, as a teenager, as a young single mother—and revealing in his stories not only his own point of view but also those of Janet, the policeman in charge of the case, and the townspeople affected by the tragedy, ultimately culminating in a portrait of a small town changed forever . The Truth About Celia is a profound meditation on grief and loss and how we carry on in its aftermath.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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About the author
Kevin Brockmeier
40 books495 followersBorn and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Brockmeier received his MFA from the Iowa Writer's Workshop in 1997. His stories have been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Crazyhorse, and The Georgia Review. He is the recipient of an O. Henry Award, the Nelson Algren Award, and a National Endowment of the Arts grant.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
January 24, 2009
i don't know that the conceit of this book was emphatic enough, or even necessary, but i don't care, i love his writing. i could read about 400 more pages of this story - i like my imaginary-multiple-perspective-narratives loooong, baby. okay, i've decided - he should email me one story a day continuing this theme. i'm glad we are all in agreement thank you.
April 13, 2011
I'm going to go with..."haunting". This book is troubling and deliberate as it draws the reader into the nightmare created when a child disappears.
This is the story of a seven year old girl who is suddenly gone, leaving her father with grief, guilt and a touch of madness. The book is presented from the perspective of the father, an author, as he imagines his Celia and the circumstances which may have surrounded her disappearance. He considers that she may be growing-up in a different circumstance than the life that he and his wife had created. He folds-in on himself, unable to return to a functional life and losing his marriage to the incident.
Kevin Brockmeier is one of the most imaginative contemporary writers whom I have encountered. His characters are real and appealing, but he introduces aspects of fantasy as he fabricates his story. He thinks like no other author whom I have found.
I also recommend his The Brief History of the Dead.
This is the story of a seven year old girl who is suddenly gone, leaving her father with grief, guilt and a touch of madness. The book is presented from the perspective of the father, an author, as he imagines his Celia and the circumstances which may have surrounded her disappearance. He considers that she may be growing-up in a different circumstance than the life that he and his wife had created. He folds-in on himself, unable to return to a functional life and losing his marriage to the incident.
Kevin Brockmeier is one of the most imaginative contemporary writers whom I have encountered. His characters are real and appealing, but he introduces aspects of fantasy as he fabricates his story. He thinks like no other author whom I have found.
I also recommend his The Brief History of the Dead.
Read
April 3, 2020Mawkish, disjointed story about a missing child that’s held together by an unnecessary metatextual framing device, that of an imaginary author who is the missing child’s father. I appreciated the first 76 pages, particularly “The Green Children,” which was reprinted in Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. The rest of the book didn’t work for me, especially not the chapter from the perspective of the missing (presumably dead) child. A certain plot twist about a ghost child seemed clever, but with reflection, I decided it was merely gimmicky. A fast but disappointing read.
January 24, 2018
La primera parte me estaba gustando mucho pero luego perdió el sentido y perdí todoel interés.
January 25, 2021
Seven-year-old Celia Brooks vanishes from her Springfield backyard on a Saturday afternoon in March 1997, while her mother Janet, who plays the clarinet, is at a Community Orchestra rehearsal, and her father, a novelist named Christopher Brooks, is inside showing two visitors the family's historical home. We meet the residents of the small town going about their lives four years later, on a day that will culminate in a memorial service for Celia. In the heart of this slender book, between the disappearance and the memorial, we are with Christopher, in his deep grief, trying to make sense of his young daughter's disappearance, that he channels into re-imaginings of Celia, stories that bring her back as a green-skinned waif in the Middle Ages, as the single mother of a 10-year-old boy who wants to learn magic, as a disembodied spirit who calls him on her Disney plastic telephone. We don't learn what actually happened to Celia, nor do we follow the police investigation, but the method employed by Brockmeier creates a more splendid and evocative novel-in-stories about loss and mortality.
May 30, 2016
Para comenzar el autor nos situa en tiempo y espacio describiendonos su entorno, su familia, sus costumbres y un poquito de la personalidad de cada uno de los integrantes de la pequeña familia (padre, madre e hija), debo reconocer que las descripciones fueron bastante buenas.
Una mañana comun y corriente, la madre se va a su clase de musica, y su padre queda ordenando su pequeña casa mientras cuidaba a su pequeña hijita Celia, como es normal en los niños pequeños en lugar de ayudar, terminan estorbando a la hora de hacer las tareas del hogar, por ello, su papà le dice que salga a jugar a afuera de su casa para drisfrutar un poco del dia tan soleado que tenian, ella obedece y salia a su jardin, el padre cada tanto se asoma por la ventana y la observa en silencio, mientras ella juega con una mariposa, con una pelota, etc, pero al rato ella no està.
No sabemos a ciencia cierta si ella se escapa, se pierda, la secuestran o simplemente desaparece, nunca se encontro ni una sola pista.
Lo que sucede en las siguientes 200 hojas aproximadamente no tiene ni pies ni cabeza, la madre supera aparentemente sin mucho esfuerzo la desaparicion de su hija, pero en cambio, su padre, se encarga de imaginar cientos de escenarios posibles intentando reconstruir que fue lo que paso esa mañana, lo ultimo que recuerda era verla caminando con los brazos extendidos por un pequeño muro destruido.
La idea estaba muy bien, prometia mucho, pero no se llego a ninguna lado, lo unico que se consiguio fueron 200 paginas en las que se contaba una y otra vez la misma situacion, solo que cambiando algunos detalles de la secuencia de Celia, intercalandola con mini-historias de otras personas del pueblo.
En lo profundo de mi corazon deseaba que magicamente apareciera Celia y se descubra cual de las mil millones de teorias que habia leido era la correcta, pero lamentablemente el final fue tan flojo como el libro en si, todo quedo en teorias, sin ningun tipo de giro de trama, o final (sea alentador o tragico).
(Reseña completa en http://elmarcapaginasbooks.blogspot.c...)
Una mañana comun y corriente, la madre se va a su clase de musica, y su padre queda ordenando su pequeña casa mientras cuidaba a su pequeña hijita Celia, como es normal en los niños pequeños en lugar de ayudar, terminan estorbando a la hora de hacer las tareas del hogar, por ello, su papà le dice que salga a jugar a afuera de su casa para drisfrutar un poco del dia tan soleado que tenian, ella obedece y salia a su jardin, el padre cada tanto se asoma por la ventana y la observa en silencio, mientras ella juega con una mariposa, con una pelota, etc, pero al rato ella no està.
No sabemos a ciencia cierta si ella se escapa, se pierda, la secuestran o simplemente desaparece, nunca se encontro ni una sola pista.
Lo que sucede en las siguientes 200 hojas aproximadamente no tiene ni pies ni cabeza, la madre supera aparentemente sin mucho esfuerzo la desaparicion de su hija, pero en cambio, su padre, se encarga de imaginar cientos de escenarios posibles intentando reconstruir que fue lo que paso esa mañana, lo ultimo que recuerda era verla caminando con los brazos extendidos por un pequeño muro destruido.
La idea estaba muy bien, prometia mucho, pero no se llego a ninguna lado, lo unico que se consiguio fueron 200 paginas en las que se contaba una y otra vez la misma situacion, solo que cambiando algunos detalles de la secuencia de Celia, intercalandola con mini-historias de otras personas del pueblo.
En lo profundo de mi corazon deseaba que magicamente apareciera Celia y se descubra cual de las mil millones de teorias que habia leido era la correcta, pero lamentablemente el final fue tan flojo como el libro en si, todo quedo en teorias, sin ningun tipo de giro de trama, o final (sea alentador o tragico).
(Reseña completa en http://elmarcapaginasbooks.blogspot.c...)
November 22, 2014
In a word: lovely.
In another: heartbreaking.
A series of short stories, written by a man (not the author; this is the frame narrative) wondering what has become of his daughter, who disappeared when she was seven years old. Some of the stories are realistic, imagining what happened that day or how the townspeople reacted or the adult Celia might have grown up to be.
It's how a father struggles to hold on while a mother struggles to move past. It's different ways to deal with grief. It's the hopeful thoughts and dreams, no matter how realistic. And it's all wonderful.
In another: heartbreaking.
A series of short stories, written by a man (not the author; this is the frame narrative) wondering what has become of his daughter, who disappeared when she was seven years old. Some of the stories are realistic, imagining what happened that day or how the townspeople reacted or the adult Celia might have grown up to be.
It's how a father struggles to hold on while a mother struggles to move past. It's different ways to deal with grief. It's the hopeful thoughts and dreams, no matter how realistic. And it's all wonderful.
September 18, 2011
Brilliant, like watching a brilliant chess match, not knowing why the rook moved there but in 5 moves it becomes apparent. Not obtuse but stimulating. Short but not a quick read for me, I was so impressed by the fragmentation of the narrative, and the subjective essence Brockmeier lends to his characters is at once thrilling. For Brockmeier, the danger of falling into a predictable "missing person" trap was parried not by means of the story itself, but rather its presentation.
June 2, 2018
Basically this is a story about a 7 year-old girl who goes missing. Some chapters are from the perspective of each of the parents, some are from the POV of the (ghost?) girl, and other chapters are stories of maybe people tangentially related, or perhaps unrelated to the rest of the narrative. It's about grief of course, and sometimes in a fantastical form.
Read
July 11, 2010I bought you doing a dark winter when I needed to read about something that was sadder than I felt. Your first 30 pages were about as much as I got through. I'm sure you're worth more than that, but I would need a reason to continue. And I hope I never have one.
July 18, 2015
Kevin Brockmeier's writing makes me so happy that I am a reader. His words just sing to me and hit all the most beautiful notes. Even when he's describing the saddest thing in the world, the words sing.
December 11, 2022
No le veo el sentido a muchas partes del libro, es bastante peculiar. No tiene un objetivo final pero es entretenido. Un poco difícil de leer porque rompe mucho el hilo de la historia metiendo otras y deja muchas preguntas sin resolver.
November 1, 2014
If you are expecting some sort of resolution/ending in this book, don't read it. If you want a book that explores the effect of a missing child on the parent (s) then by all means, read this book
September 29, 2017
The writing is beautiful. Nothing happens.
August 19, 2018
Didn't like it at all. Very hard to get into, the chapters vary from perspective, you never find out what happened to the girl. Waste of time.
March 20, 2019
Very disconcerting story.
January 30, 2022
La verdad sobre Celia es un libro duro. Una historia de ficción dolorosamente real, que rompe los esquemas del lector, y lo introduce en un mundo onírico, en el que nunca puede estar seguro de nada.
De su autor, Kevin Brockmeier, ya había leído (sin mucho éxito, todo hay que decirlo) otro libro que me desconcertó por completo. Parece ser que lo de producir cierta desazón es una especie de firma personal, por que también me ocurrió con este libro.
De La verdad sobre Celia, no me gustaron mucho ni la estructura ni el desarrollo de la historia. El primero consiste en una serie de relatos más o menos breves, algunos de los cuales no tienen ninguna relación con la historia principal y que no terminas de encajar del todo. El segundo resulta un tanto aburrido, gracias a las escenas superfluas, descripciones innecesarias y un argumento que juega al escondite todo el rato con el pobre lector.
La historia es sencillamente arrolladora. Nuestro protagonista, Christopher Brooks, autor de libros de ficción, escribe a raíz de la desaparición de su hija Celia, una serie de relatos donde la realidad y la imaginación confluyen. En esencia, es un libro dentro de otro, en el que el autor nos describe el mundo de las pequeñas y grandes ausencias, de lo cotidiano como modo de refugiarse del dolor, del paso del tiempo cuando uno ya no sabe ni que esperar. Todas estas emociones tienen su contrapunto en las exhaustivas explicaciones de la vida material, no solo del protagonista, si no de un pueblo entero. Aún así, el desenlace te deja una enorme sensación de vacío. En realidad no puede decirse que tenga conclusión.
Resumiendo, La vida de Celia, no es apta para estómagos sensibles. No engaña, hace sufrir de principio a fin. Pero, como la vida, también enseña algo.
De su autor, Kevin Brockmeier, ya había leído (sin mucho éxito, todo hay que decirlo) otro libro que me desconcertó por completo. Parece ser que lo de producir cierta desazón es una especie de firma personal, por que también me ocurrió con este libro.
De La verdad sobre Celia, no me gustaron mucho ni la estructura ni el desarrollo de la historia. El primero consiste en una serie de relatos más o menos breves, algunos de los cuales no tienen ninguna relación con la historia principal y que no terminas de encajar del todo. El segundo resulta un tanto aburrido, gracias a las escenas superfluas, descripciones innecesarias y un argumento que juega al escondite todo el rato con el pobre lector.
La historia es sencillamente arrolladora. Nuestro protagonista, Christopher Brooks, autor de libros de ficción, escribe a raíz de la desaparición de su hija Celia, una serie de relatos donde la realidad y la imaginación confluyen. En esencia, es un libro dentro de otro, en el que el autor nos describe el mundo de las pequeñas y grandes ausencias, de lo cotidiano como modo de refugiarse del dolor, del paso del tiempo cuando uno ya no sabe ni que esperar. Todas estas emociones tienen su contrapunto en las exhaustivas explicaciones de la vida material, no solo del protagonista, si no de un pueblo entero. Aún así, el desenlace te deja una enorme sensación de vacío. En realidad no puede decirse que tenga conclusión.
Resumiendo, La vida de Celia, no es apta para estómagos sensibles. No engaña, hace sufrir de principio a fin. Pero, como la vida, también enseña algo.
June 11, 2021
2.5/5 stars
"I want to understand what she is thinking, in this moment just before it happens (though I do not yet know that it will happen). What is she remembering, or noticing, or imagining? What is she watching so intently? It is important to me. Watching her, I feel an enormous plummeting sensation in my legs, as if I have missed the last step on a ladder, though it may be that I feel this only in retrospect. I do not know."
I picked this book up randomly when the Kindle version went on sale. I read the description and thought "why not?" My feelings are mixed. There are some really nice descriptions in here, and some interesting explorations of grief, but there's a lot of padding, too. I didn't quite understand the author's framing device or some of the middle chapters. For me, this one is just "meh," I'm honestly not sure who I'd recommend it to.
"I want to understand what she is thinking, in this moment just before it happens (though I do not yet know that it will happen). What is she remembering, or noticing, or imagining? What is she watching so intently? It is important to me. Watching her, I feel an enormous plummeting sensation in my legs, as if I have missed the last step on a ladder, though it may be that I feel this only in retrospect. I do not know."
I picked this book up randomly when the Kindle version went on sale. I read the description and thought "why not?" My feelings are mixed. There are some really nice descriptions in here, and some interesting explorations of grief, but there's a lot of padding, too. I didn't quite understand the author's framing device or some of the middle chapters. For me, this one is just "meh," I'm honestly not sure who I'd recommend it to.
February 22, 2018
I was expecting to like this better than I did, having lost a close family member it's a subject that is close to home. It just didn't click at all. The section switching characters seemed to serve no purpose, it felt completely flat. I'd have cut it some slack if the language was particularly good, but the verb constructions were all very weak, it felt very flat and lifeless, which is suppose is a reflection of the grief, but I think a better writer would have found a better way of expressing that.
March 2, 2024
This is a different take on the domestic drama. I could easily name the authors/books who have this sort of narrative very straightforwardly presented; this book stands out by providing multiple perspectives and possibilities, and slightly off-kilter ideas. Even though the ultimate fate of Celia is unresolved, the narrative doesn’t feel unresolved, which I think takes some smart writing to accomplish.
November 15, 2021
A very different outline. Each chapter starts off like a new story, but it gets woven eventually. Very descriptive wording.
August 13, 2023
An exquisite book about grief after a child goes missing. This book is subtle, not obvious, and I liked that aspect of it.
August 17, 2022
As soon as I finished Brockmeier’s A Hundred Variations I went out and found 3 of his novels. After starting this one I realized I had completely lost my appetite for anything organized around the theme of death and put them all aside. It could be a spoiler to say anything more about this beautiful book than that I’m so glad I eventually got over that hesitation and read it, and I’ll pick up the others very soon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 15, 2012
In some ways Brockmeier is a bit of an enigma to me. He's writing about a topic numerous other authors have written about, the disappearance of a child but the way he writes it seems so real and engaging without any sort of pretense or phony tear jerking scenes and yet one can't help but feel so drawn in to the characters and the story, to their alternate versions of history. Some of it is more fantastical in terms of its ideas and others of it are grand hallucinations the reader believes are truly happening just as the protagonist is. Borckmeier is honest and touching in his ability to write this kind of story, a delicate wonder that could easily become a stale cliché. When it seemed all words and worlds had already been explored, Brockmeier managed to transcend the limitations of already used language and make it all seem so real again.
Favorite Quotes:
pg 11 "She likes the way the joke makes a perfect ring, wrapping around on itself again and again, like a pinwheel or a revolving door, but not everyone thinks it's funny."
pg. 45 "NOTHING MAKES GOD LAUGH LIKE WHEN WE TELL HIM OUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE"
pg. 91 "The school projector always sounded like a bicycle with a playing card pinned between the spokes, rattling softly then loudly and then softly again, and it gave the movies they watched in the classroom a stuttering sort of rhythm, a cadence of music that lay just beneath the action and came to seem inseparable from it."
pg. 106 "Janet felt an unexpected lightness inside her. There was no behavior so outlandish that it wasn't a believable human response to the world."
pg. 136 "Frank Lentini, Magician," and he headed for the front door. Just before he left, Micah took his sleeve and asked him a question: 'You're not me coming back from the future to tell me about my life, are you."
...
"No, son," he finally said. "No, I wish I was. Some tricks even a magician can't perform."
pg. 194 "...as if the words were crawling up from underneath his tongue."
pg. 207 "Sometimes he thinks that the world as we know it is as thin as a tissue of cloud-that we can pierce through it without even trying, stepping sideways out of ourselves, and end up in some other world altogether, or in no worked at all. Sometimes he thinks that the shout he heard that afternoon was the sound Celia made as the tissue closed behind her.
Favorite Quotes:
pg 11 "She likes the way the joke makes a perfect ring, wrapping around on itself again and again, like a pinwheel or a revolving door, but not everyone thinks it's funny."
pg. 45 "NOTHING MAKES GOD LAUGH LIKE WHEN WE TELL HIM OUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE"
pg. 91 "The school projector always sounded like a bicycle with a playing card pinned between the spokes, rattling softly then loudly and then softly again, and it gave the movies they watched in the classroom a stuttering sort of rhythm, a cadence of music that lay just beneath the action and came to seem inseparable from it."
pg. 106 "Janet felt an unexpected lightness inside her. There was no behavior so outlandish that it wasn't a believable human response to the world."
pg. 136 "Frank Lentini, Magician," and he headed for the front door. Just before he left, Micah took his sleeve and asked him a question: 'You're not me coming back from the future to tell me about my life, are you."
...
"No, son," he finally said. "No, I wish I was. Some tricks even a magician can't perform."
pg. 194 "...as if the words were crawling up from underneath his tongue."
pg. 207 "Sometimes he thinks that the world as we know it is as thin as a tissue of cloud-that we can pierce through it without even trying, stepping sideways out of ourselves, and end up in some other world altogether, or in no worked at all. Sometimes he thinks that the shout he heard that afternoon was the sound Celia made as the tissue closed behind her.
December 3, 2007
Kevin Brockmeier's "The Truth About Celia" contains within it The Truth About Celia, a collection of stories by stricken father Christopher Brooks. 7-year-old Celia vanished on March 15, 1997 -- one moment she was playing in the yard, and the next she was gone. No trace, no clues, no resolution. Nothing Christopher Brooks has done since could really be described as coping -- he agonizes, he blames, he yearns, and he speculates. Was Celia kidnapped? Is Celia dead? Did Celia slip through the membrane separating our world from another? Could Celia come back? Could Celia contact him? Has Celia grown up? Has she forgotten her childhood? From his tortured speculations he spins these stories, The Truth About Celia. Of course, the only true truth about Celia is that she's gone. She's a mystery that will never be solved.
So, a word about the post-modern nature of the text is in order, I suppose. Experiencing the authorship of the book is interesting. How often as you read do you consider the author? As you're reading The Truth About Celia you can forget all about the author for a time; then when you remember the author, you first think of Christopher Brooks, the bereaved father: How much of this is true? How accurate is he being in his descriptions of himself, his wife, the police officer, the priest, the drunk? What does his wife think about how he told her story? How well did he know Celia? Which Celia is the "true" Celia? How is Christopher holding up? How did he manage to transmute his grief into literature? How do you begin to shape and edit such painful source material? Then you remind yourself of Kevin Brockmeier, and of the fact that Christopher Brooks doesn't exist. Which starts a new chain of questions: What does Brockmeier want to say about loss? How does it feel to erase yourself as the author? To what extent is Christopher Brooks Kevin Brockmeier? Is Christopher a creation or a stand-in? How accurate is Brockmeier's portrayal of loss and grief? And does Kevin Brockmeier know what happened to Celia -- did he invent a secret history for her that he withheld from Christopher?
So, a word about the post-modern nature of the text is in order, I suppose. Experiencing the authorship of the book is interesting. How often as you read do you consider the author? As you're reading The Truth About Celia you can forget all about the author for a time; then when you remember the author, you first think of Christopher Brooks, the bereaved father: How much of this is true? How accurate is he being in his descriptions of himself, his wife, the police officer, the priest, the drunk? What does his wife think about how he told her story? How well did he know Celia? Which Celia is the "true" Celia? How is Christopher holding up? How did he manage to transmute his grief into literature? How do you begin to shape and edit such painful source material? Then you remind yourself of Kevin Brockmeier, and of the fact that Christopher Brooks doesn't exist. Which starts a new chain of questions: What does Brockmeier want to say about loss? How does it feel to erase yourself as the author? To what extent is Christopher Brooks Kevin Brockmeier? Is Christopher a creation or a stand-in? How accurate is Brockmeier's portrayal of loss and grief? And does Kevin Brockmeier know what happened to Celia -- did he invent a secret history for her that he withheld from Christopher?
December 3, 2014
2 estrellas 〓 "it's ok"
Lo que me produjo este libro se le puede asignar una palabra perfecta: decepción. Si bien lo compré en una oferta y estaba super barato, me esperaba un realismo psicológico que nunca llegó, aquel que ofrecía la contratapa.
Empieza bien: una chica desaparecida, padres preocupados, resultados esperados (como alteraciones sociales y cambios rutinarios), teorías refutables... Pero a medida que avanzan los capítulos, el autor te lleva por diferentes escenarios adversos, algunos fuera del contexto de esta historia y que no tenían absolutamente nada que aportar a lo que sería el tema central del libro: la desaparición de Celia.
Siento que la realidad psicológica en este libro faltó. Me hubiera gustado que el padre expresara abiertamente y con mayor frecuencia las trampas que su propia mente realizaba, como pasa en el capitulo "Teléfonos". Pero siento que el resto del libro son solo descripciones de la escena, de la ciudad, de cómo "ya nada es lo mismo pero sigue siéndolo" y es agoviante.
PEQUEÑO SPOILER
Ni siquiera al final del libro terminamos conociendo la verdad sobre Celia. Y en un momento cuando parece que vislumbramos parte de su futuro, esa visión termina al instante de forma repentina y sin ningun final que no sea abierto. Son solo teorías que se alternan y te dejan la libre elección de elejir cuál te gustó más.
Para una persona como yo, que casi nunca puede dejar algo inconcluso, este libro me colmó de ansiedad y nerviosismo.
Y la forma en la que está redactado es como si las líneas de tiempo no existiesen, lo cual da una sensación de que nada está ocurriendo, de que no hay avances en la historia. Esta bien, yo tampoco esperaba un policial, pero quería saber detalles concretos y sucesivos sobre la desaparición de Celia + cómo esto habría perturbado psicológicamente al padre de ella, y eso fue exactamente lo que este libro no me dio.
Lo que me produjo este libro se le puede asignar una palabra perfecta: decepción. Si bien lo compré en una oferta y estaba super barato, me esperaba un realismo psicológico que nunca llegó, aquel que ofrecía la contratapa.
Empieza bien: una chica desaparecida, padres preocupados, resultados esperados (como alteraciones sociales y cambios rutinarios), teorías refutables... Pero a medida que avanzan los capítulos, el autor te lleva por diferentes escenarios adversos, algunos fuera del contexto de esta historia y que no tenían absolutamente nada que aportar a lo que sería el tema central del libro: la desaparición de Celia.
Siento que la realidad psicológica en este libro faltó. Me hubiera gustado que el padre expresara abiertamente y con mayor frecuencia las trampas que su propia mente realizaba, como pasa en el capitulo "Teléfonos". Pero siento que el resto del libro son solo descripciones de la escena, de la ciudad, de cómo "ya nada es lo mismo pero sigue siéndolo" y es agoviante.
PEQUEÑO SPOILER
Ni siquiera al final del libro terminamos conociendo la verdad sobre Celia. Y en un momento cuando parece que vislumbramos parte de su futuro, esa visión termina al instante de forma repentina y sin ningun final que no sea abierto. Son solo teorías que se alternan y te dejan la libre elección de elejir cuál te gustó más.
Para una persona como yo, que casi nunca puede dejar algo inconcluso, este libro me colmó de ansiedad y nerviosismo.
Y la forma en la que está redactado es como si las líneas de tiempo no existiesen, lo cual da una sensación de que nada está ocurriendo, de que no hay avances en la historia. Esta bien, yo tampoco esperaba un policial, pero quería saber detalles concretos y sucesivos sobre la desaparición de Celia + cómo esto habría perturbado psicológicamente al padre de ella, y eso fue exactamente lo que este libro no me dio.
August 11, 2008
I loved this book! It's a book of short stories, supposedly written by Christopher Brooks, the father of a girl who disappeared from her yard when she was seven. Brooks doesn't move on or get over his daughter's disappearance: he is haunted by it. The only way for him to keep writing, it seems, is to write stories about what might have happened to her and about his experiences as her father. I loved the portrait of the small Massachusetts town where the Brookses live, the mother's obsession with movies as an escape, and the fanciful histories her father makes up for Celia. In my favorite story, it is revealed that Celia runs away with a ghost. There is an absolutely true-life moment in that story that is very well-written. Celia has had a dream about a boy in her class and wants to tell her best friend about it. She's holding onto her secret with glee, looking forward to revealing it to her friend and talking and maybe dreaming a little more of the dream with her friend. But when the friend finally arrives at the house, she has two other girls with her. Brockmeier doesn't write anything about Celia's disappointment, but you can feel what a betrayal it is. I was really struck by this little detail and how well it seems to capture the pain of school social life. Overall, I thought the writing was beautiful and evocative, and I didn't even mind that much that you didn't ever figure out what "really" happened to Celia.
February 2, 2011
Devastating and dazzling; in its painful fusion of pathos, fantasy – ultimately- realism, Brockmeier’s heartbreaking book is reminiscent on The Lovely Bones” so says Time Out.
I’d agree with the first bit of this assessment of Kevin Brockmeier’s book, but not with the second - this book is nothing like The Lovely Bones a book which I admired the heck out of for the first 100 pages and was then incredibly disappointed with.
Other than a few rave reviews, I knew nothing about this book or its author. The book’s cover is disconcertingly like The Time Traveler’s Wife (a book I love to bits) but there are no other similarities. Brockmeier’s book is an incredible journey into the devastating grief that grips fantasy writer, Christopher Brooks, and his wife Janet, after their seven year old daughter, Celia, goes missing from their back yard.
The book consists of several short stories, all written by Christopher as he attempts to come to terms with Celia’s disappearance; he imagines (and writes about) her living in different worlds and he also addresses his own grief - and the grief of his wife - in these stories.
There is nothing linear about this book…and there is no resolution- and the mystery of Celia’s disappearance is never solved and none of that matters one bit. The Truth About Celia is luminous, heartbreaking and utterly beautiful. I highly recommend it.
I’d agree with the first bit of this assessment of Kevin Brockmeier’s book, but not with the second - this book is nothing like The Lovely Bones a book which I admired the heck out of for the first 100 pages and was then incredibly disappointed with.
Other than a few rave reviews, I knew nothing about this book or its author. The book’s cover is disconcertingly like The Time Traveler’s Wife (a book I love to bits) but there are no other similarities. Brockmeier’s book is an incredible journey into the devastating grief that grips fantasy writer, Christopher Brooks, and his wife Janet, after their seven year old daughter, Celia, goes missing from their back yard.
The book consists of several short stories, all written by Christopher as he attempts to come to terms with Celia’s disappearance; he imagines (and writes about) her living in different worlds and he also addresses his own grief - and the grief of his wife - in these stories.
There is nothing linear about this book…and there is no resolution- and the mystery of Celia’s disappearance is never solved and none of that matters one bit. The Truth About Celia is luminous, heartbreaking and utterly beautiful. I highly recommend it.
April 25, 2009
Kevin Brockmeier is one of the authors concerning whom I have made it my duty to read every possible published work. With this one complete, I only have one to go, and like everything else he's written, The Truth About Celia is incredible.
Concerning, as a brief glance at the back cover would reveal, the disappearance of the title character when she was seven, the book chronicles the lives of her parents in the aftermath. Brockmeier utilizes an author-construct in the form of Celia's bereaved father to "write" the novel, which consists of his recordings of what might have happened to Celia, and what has happened to him and his wife.
In doing so, Brokemeier is a quintessential possibilitist, if that is a word, working on the edges of things, ever providing tangible answers. This works both structurally and thematically: if someone's daughter went missing and never returned, all they would have would be imaginings of what could have happened to her.
Further, Brockmeier uses, primarily, declaratives to get his points across. Instead of examining specific thoughts of the characters in detail, he describes their actions, what they see and do in their shattered lives, to convey the extent of their grief.
Highly recommended.
Concerning, as a brief glance at the back cover would reveal, the disappearance of the title character when she was seven, the book chronicles the lives of her parents in the aftermath. Brockmeier utilizes an author-construct in the form of Celia's bereaved father to "write" the novel, which consists of his recordings of what might have happened to Celia, and what has happened to him and his wife.
In doing so, Brokemeier is a quintessential possibilitist, if that is a word, working on the edges of things, ever providing tangible answers. This works both structurally and thematically: if someone's daughter went missing and never returned, all they would have would be imaginings of what could have happened to her.
Further, Brockmeier uses, primarily, declaratives to get his points across. Instead of examining specific thoughts of the characters in detail, he describes their actions, what they see and do in their shattered lives, to convey the extent of their grief.
Highly recommended.
May 19, 2010
This book was pretty good. No doubt that it was well-written. The beginning, I thought, was the best bit. He writes remarkably well. However, sometimes he seemed to get lost within his own words, saying stuff for no reason.
I would have given it four stars and HIGHLY recommended it if not for one thing: *SPOILER ALERT* he never tells what happened to Celia. I understand that this was 'realistic', as most missing children are never found, but this is a novel, and I expect it to have a proper ending. Furthermore, Brockmeier built it up so much and made it seem like such a mystery as to why Celia disappeared that one cannot be blamed for expecting him to have a solution. It felt like he couldn't come up with one himself, so just hoped that everyone would think that his lack of an idea was actually some sort 'artistic' sort of thing.
Anyway, recommended, but I would read The Brief History of the Dead first if I were you.
I would have given it four stars and HIGHLY recommended it if not for one thing: *SPOILER ALERT* he never tells what happened to Celia. I understand that this was 'realistic', as most missing children are never found, but this is a novel, and I expect it to have a proper ending. Furthermore, Brockmeier built it up so much and made it seem like such a mystery as to why Celia disappeared that one cannot be blamed for expecting him to have a solution. It felt like he couldn't come up with one himself, so just hoped that everyone would think that his lack of an idea was actually some sort 'artistic' sort of thing.
Anyway, recommended, but I would read The Brief History of the Dead first if I were you.
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