The Grammar Architect

by Chris Eaton

In Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873), a man is hired to restore an old church tower and falls for a woman with a disapproving father. What's worse, she also falls for the man's best friend, and the ensuing love triangle inevitably leads to her death.
Enter the literary cover! Like its musical counterpart, Eaton begins with Hardy's basics and transforms it into something entirely his own. In Eaton's version, the man begins to believe he can erect a new tower made entirely of words. And the woman's father - a personified version of the tragedy that hangs over all Hardy novels - develops a taste for destruction and decides to stick it to everyone.
But in Eaton's magical realist version, like a pop culture Gabriel Garcia Marquez's work, it is the poet Burke who must try to make sense of it all, in hopes of somehow finding an explanation for his own confused life. But when the detective is more concerned with metaphorical implications than any sort of quantitative reality, does his version of the events trap them in Hardy's melodramatic consequences forever?

287 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Andrew Sare · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Life was not worth living because it didn't make a good story. It was either unbelievable, like her story. Or it was boring, like now."

Chris Eaton goes an avant-garde tear on sex, literature and scientific plotting. At first I was lulled into what I thought was a safe and boring chapter structure, but this fell away revealing very compelling writing.

This reminds me of our totally unsung hero of Cape Breton literature, the unbridled Ray Smith (this is a very high compliment). It's swing for the fences weird (see also reflections of Mark Leyner). Likewise Eaton's oeuvre, as represented on Goodreads, is very much like Smith's completely random list of books attributed. (likely many from other Chris Eatons but correct me if I'm wrong): from Letters to Thomas Pynchon, to The Commercial Lien Playbook, Third World Woman Sheet Music, to My Full Kundalini Awakening: I am God and So are You. Maybe I'll track down a website or other source to figure out what is actually by this Chris Eaton, because I will be reading more of him for sure.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

i've been thoroughly impressed with the music by chris eaton and his band, rock plaza central, and i purchased this book at one of his shows. having never read thomas hardy's version, i cannot draw comparisons between the two.

the plethora of interesting characters, bizarre circumstances, and humor will likely lead me to peruse eaton's other works.

[Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't like it.