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The Geographer's Library
The literary history suspense novel has long been a genre appreciated by a small subset of general readers. It is currently enjoying a new vogue and a wider readership with the publication of such novels as The Da Vinci Code, The Rule of Four, and Codex. What these books have in common, and what The Geographer's Library can also claim, is a set of characters in the here and now grappling with questions about things that went on a very long time ago. Another characteristic is the unearthing or explanation of objects of great value. The trick is to weave these two realities together in a compelling way, one that will keep the reader involved in both stories.
Jon Fasman has taken a big chance with The Geographer's Library, his debut novel, setting out a complicated scenario in which a collection of priceless objects is stolen from the titular library and, eventually, scattered and re-collected a thousand years later--with very bad results for the final collector. The geographer is a real person, Al-Idrisi, a Spanish-Muslim philosopher, cartographer, linguist, and scholar who served in the court of King Roger of Sicily in Palermo in the year 1154. For the most part, Fasman's risk pays off, although there is a lot of meandering before we finally get to the final revelation.
The "wraparound" story is about a young journalist, Paul Tomm, who sets out to write a simple obituary about a professor who died in his office at Paul's Alma Mater. The man is Jaan Puhapaev, an Estonian perhaps, who is a terrible teacher, fires his gun out his office window twice, is odd, unavailable, and reclusive and yet is allowed to stay on for unknown reasons. He also collects only $1.00 a year in salary and has no other visible means of support. The core narrative is a description of the provenance and travels of each of the 15 objects--some or all of which may hold the secret of eternal life--stolen from Al-Idrisi.
A professor friend of Paul's, a policemen and a curious editor all get an investigation rolling regarding what really happened to Jaan, who is he, and is he perhaps much, much older than they think? Paul meets and falls for a neighbor and putative friend of Jaan's, a music teacher named Hannah Rowe, which moves the information curve upward. This is the least believable part of the story: it's easier to accept the alchemical power of the Emerald Tablet of Hermes than Hannah. That said, Fasman does bring it all home at the end with an expository chapter and two letters. A bit of a cheat, but at least the reader is neatly taken off the literary hook he has dangled on for 380 pages. --Valerie Ryan
384 pages, Paperback
First published February 3, 2005
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About the author
Jon Fasman
8 books25 followersI am the author of "The Geographer's Library" (2005) and "The Unpossessed City" (2008), both published by The Penguin Press.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 490 reviews
February 8, 2017
Way back when, before Grandpa was a boy (1154 AD to be precise), an Arab geographer assembled a collection of jewels, rocks, scientific instruments and tiny art objects, which he kept in a strongbox. Some items even had magical properties. The box was stolen, also way back then, and each item went its separate way. Surprisingly, almost all the objects ended up in the hands of the Russian mob. (Could Putin be involved in this?)
An obscure New England professor of obscure Eastern European origin is trying to reassemble the collection through dirty dealings with this crowd. A rookie newspaper reporter in a small New England town stumbles into the plot.
The plot is a bit formulaic, moving somewhat predictably, beginning with an inventory of each item, its history, and how it ended up in this particular mobster's hands, usually preliminary to setting up a killing to get it back. At times the killings seem like they were scripted for a Friday the 13th movie sequel. And other than the jewels, the reader starts to wonder who really wants all this crap anyway?
But the rookie reporter gets a love interest and the plot keeps moving. The novel has strong New England local color and is generally a fun read.
(Revised 1/21/2017)
An obscure New England professor of obscure Eastern European origin is trying to reassemble the collection through dirty dealings with this crowd. A rookie newspaper reporter in a small New England town stumbles into the plot.
The plot is a bit formulaic, moving somewhat predictably, beginning with an inventory of each item, its history, and how it ended up in this particular mobster's hands, usually preliminary to setting up a killing to get it back. At times the killings seem like they were scripted for a Friday the 13th movie sequel. And other than the jewels, the reader starts to wonder who really wants all this crap anyway?
But the rookie reporter gets a love interest and the plot keeps moving. The novel has strong New England local color and is generally a fun read.
(Revised 1/21/2017)
December 11, 2025
A puzzling and ultimately unsatisfying ending!
THE GEOGRAPHER'S LIBRARY has aspirations to that lofty genre, the literary thriller, which is attracting so many hopeful authors and readers of late. For a debut novel, Fasman's efforts come very, very close indeed to success but ultimately a puzzling and cryptic ending left me feeling like I had just dined on that proverbial gourmet Chinese food - you know that old one about eating lots and enjoying it but, when the ending arrives, you're not really satisfied and a few minutes later you're hungry!
The story begins as Paul Tomm, reporter for a small town Connecticut weekly, is assigned to write the obituary for Jaan Puhapaev, an Estonian professor of Baltic history at the local college, who died alone in his rooms. Tomm's questions, initially aimed only at fleshing out the bones on the life of an old man that nobody really knew, quickly began to disclose a much more shadowy past.
Fasman ekes outs the details of Puhapaev's shadowy past and its mystical connection to the shadowy arcane science of alchemy by interweaving a series of fourteen thoroughly entertaining historical vignettes with the main body of the plot. Each story tracks the life line of a different artifact, some now priceless and others barely distinguishable from garage sale junk, all stolen in antiquity from the collection of twelfth century geographer Al-Idris to their resting places in the modern era.
The writing was sharp; the malevolent and stomach-churning plot-line of the thriller was well-paced and compelling; the historical asides were entertaining and informative; the characterization was enjoyable; and the stereotypes - the tweedy college don, small town cops, the laid back weekly newspaper editor, the church-going music teacher and even a Russian mobster - were all spot on and used with wonderful effect. But when the climax arrived and it was time to resolve the thriller and tie the present to the past that magic dissolved in a puff of smoke.
I'm a reader that needs a little more resolution in a novel's ending and this one is anything but - puzzling, cryptic and unresolved with entire futures and relationships left hanging in the balance! I enjoyed the book but I was certainly left with the feeling that it could have been so much more.
Paul Weiss
THE GEOGRAPHER'S LIBRARY has aspirations to that lofty genre, the literary thriller, which is attracting so many hopeful authors and readers of late. For a debut novel, Fasman's efforts come very, very close indeed to success but ultimately a puzzling and cryptic ending left me feeling like I had just dined on that proverbial gourmet Chinese food - you know that old one about eating lots and enjoying it but, when the ending arrives, you're not really satisfied and a few minutes later you're hungry!
The story begins as Paul Tomm, reporter for a small town Connecticut weekly, is assigned to write the obituary for Jaan Puhapaev, an Estonian professor of Baltic history at the local college, who died alone in his rooms. Tomm's questions, initially aimed only at fleshing out the bones on the life of an old man that nobody really knew, quickly began to disclose a much more shadowy past.
Fasman ekes outs the details of Puhapaev's shadowy past and its mystical connection to the shadowy arcane science of alchemy by interweaving a series of fourteen thoroughly entertaining historical vignettes with the main body of the plot. Each story tracks the life line of a different artifact, some now priceless and others barely distinguishable from garage sale junk, all stolen in antiquity from the collection of twelfth century geographer Al-Idris to their resting places in the modern era.
The writing was sharp; the malevolent and stomach-churning plot-line of the thriller was well-paced and compelling; the historical asides were entertaining and informative; the characterization was enjoyable; and the stereotypes - the tweedy college don, small town cops, the laid back weekly newspaper editor, the church-going music teacher and even a Russian mobster - were all spot on and used with wonderful effect. But when the climax arrived and it was time to resolve the thriller and tie the present to the past that magic dissolved in a puff of smoke.
I'm a reader that needs a little more resolution in a novel's ending and this one is anything but - puzzling, cryptic and unresolved with entire futures and relationships left hanging in the balance! I enjoyed the book but I was certainly left with the feeling that it could have been so much more.
Paul Weiss
July 4, 2007
I thought this book would be an intellectual thriller, but it turned out not to be much of either. The interesting part of the narrative are the short descriptions of the 15 objects that make up the geographer's library. These brief but vivid stand-alone chapters kept me reading this book through the first 200 pages where nothing much happens. I kept waiting for someone in the frame narrative to discover one of the objects, or to make some connection to the library, but that didn't happen until the last 50 pages.
The frame narrative is downright boring - although the narrator (Paul) is ostensibly investigating a professor's mysterious death, we learn nothing suspicious about the man until the last 100 pages out of nearly 400. Paul is a recent college grad who sounds much older - and all the other characters fall into neat, undeveloped stereotypes. (Cranky boss with a heart of gold? Check. Pretty love interest who's hiding something? Check. Rogue cop who just wants to do a thousand favors that could get him fired and ask nothing in return? 3 Checks.) Paul has a series of vaguely threatening experiences, most of which go nowhere. (Is the priest really corrupt? What's up with the Portuguese Men's Club? Who were the teens who threatened Paul in Clougham?)
Then, after 300+ pages of intermittently interesting back-story, a minor character spends a chapter explaining the whole mystery, and the book is over.
It's a quick read, seems well-researched, and the stand-alone chapters are interesting, but overall, kind of disappointing.
The frame narrative is downright boring - although the narrator (Paul) is ostensibly investigating a professor's mysterious death, we learn nothing suspicious about the man until the last 100 pages out of nearly 400. Paul is a recent college grad who sounds much older - and all the other characters fall into neat, undeveloped stereotypes. (Cranky boss with a heart of gold? Check. Pretty love interest who's hiding something? Check. Rogue cop who just wants to do a thousand favors that could get him fired and ask nothing in return? 3 Checks.) Paul has a series of vaguely threatening experiences, most of which go nowhere. (Is the priest really corrupt? What's up with the Portuguese Men's Club? Who were the teens who threatened Paul in Clougham?)
Then, after 300+ pages of intermittently interesting back-story, a minor character spends a chapter explaining the whole mystery, and the book is over.
It's a quick read, seems well-researched, and the stand-alone chapters are interesting, but overall, kind of disappointing.
July 9, 2015
The Geographer's Library is a novel with two threads. Every other chapter follows the story of Paul Tomm, a newspaper reporter in modern-day America investigating the mysterious death of an old university professor; the alternate chapters describe the origins of fifteen arcane objects thought to hold the key to eternal life. So this is a present-day adventure with strong historical influences, and as such has inevitably attracted comparisons with best-sellers like The Da Vinci Code. These associations are largely misplaced; this story is not what I would call a thriller, nor is it especially adventurous. Rather, it is a sophisticated and placid tale designed to appeal more to the reader's intelligence than the senses.
I wouldn't describe Fasman as an outstanding writer, and some of the exposition feels a little clumsy; but once the introductions are out of the way, the prose boasts some uncommonly beautiful descriptions which seem demonstrative of incredible skill. The characterisation, structure and dialogue are, for the most part, impossible to fault. The author is excellent at evoking atmospheres and emotions with just a few sentences. The obvious criticism is that relatively little actually happens. There are no exhilarating chases and few violent scenes; even the central romance between Paul and a local schoolteacher, Hannah, comes to little more than a kiss. Despite this, I never found myself losing interest in the story; the final third, in particular, had me anxiously turning the pages to reach the conclusion.
The novel is thoughtful rather than thrilling, intellectual rather than action-packed; but I certainly wouldn't say this makes it uninteresting, and the gradually revealed twist in the tail means it would easily warrant a re-reading. If you're after lots of action, violence and continuous twists and turns, you probably won't find this book particularly satisfying - but I thought it was captivating.
I wouldn't describe Fasman as an outstanding writer, and some of the exposition feels a little clumsy; but once the introductions are out of the way, the prose boasts some uncommonly beautiful descriptions which seem demonstrative of incredible skill. The characterisation, structure and dialogue are, for the most part, impossible to fault. The author is excellent at evoking atmospheres and emotions with just a few sentences. The obvious criticism is that relatively little actually happens. There are no exhilarating chases and few violent scenes; even the central romance between Paul and a local schoolteacher, Hannah, comes to little more than a kiss. Despite this, I never found myself losing interest in the story; the final third, in particular, had me anxiously turning the pages to reach the conclusion.
The novel is thoughtful rather than thrilling, intellectual rather than action-packed; but I certainly wouldn't say this makes it uninteresting, and the gradually revealed twist in the tail means it would easily warrant a re-reading. If you're after lots of action, violence and continuous twists and turns, you probably won't find this book particularly satisfying - but I thought it was captivating.
July 15, 2008
I bought this book filled with high hopes, since I am a lover of historical fiction. My hopes were dashed and all I came away with were the following observations/complaints.
Complaint #1: Okay, I suppose this book was supposed to be "brainy" with the in-depth descriptions of nine hundred year old stolen artifacts and the fate of the people who had owned them. Personally, I found myself skipping over the descriptions by the time I got to "Ferahid's Silver Ney". What did all of those disjointed facts contribute to the advancement of the story? Not a thing as far as I could ascertain.
Complaint #2: By the time Hannah appears, you already know what the outcome of her relationship with Paul will be because the author told you on page one with his "Dear H" letter.
The only mildly interesting character in this entire novel was Paul Tomm and for a supposidly intelligent, educated man, he was amazingly dense and relatively unmotivated.
My final observation: Life is too short to be spent reading boring fiction. You can find other ways to fall asleep.
Complaint #1: Okay, I suppose this book was supposed to be "brainy" with the in-depth descriptions of nine hundred year old stolen artifacts and the fate of the people who had owned them. Personally, I found myself skipping over the descriptions by the time I got to "Ferahid's Silver Ney". What did all of those disjointed facts contribute to the advancement of the story? Not a thing as far as I could ascertain.
Complaint #2: By the time Hannah appears, you already know what the outcome of her relationship with Paul will be because the author told you on page one with his "Dear H" letter.
The only mildly interesting character in this entire novel was Paul Tomm and for a supposidly intelligent, educated man, he was amazingly dense and relatively unmotivated.
My final observation: Life is too short to be spent reading boring fiction. You can find other ways to fall asleep.
July 7, 2013
Definitely one of the shittiest books i have ever read. One interesting thing is that the review on the back of the book says that the main character and his girlfriend start searching for artefacts.. By page 328 that still hadn't happened, do you want to guess if it happened afterwards..?
After reading less than half i already knew this was to be one of the worst books i've ever read - so i decided to stick with it just to see how bad it gets. Exceeded any of my expectations for that, really.
After reading less than half i already knew this was to be one of the worst books i've ever read - so i decided to stick with it just to see how bad it gets. Exceeded any of my expectations for that, really.
September 28, 2020
“The Geographer’s Library” is a mixed bag that I strain to explain why it went from delighting me, down to three stars. It was like Jon Fasman had superb ideas and well-stocked ingredients for a cake but did not use the right quantity or order of those of quality. He checked off originality, the most important box for me, humorous personal narration, and great dialogue. We are intrigued by a mystery in modern 2005 but wade through sixteen histories, interrupting it. It was at first compelling, to depict the bloodshed provenance of artifacts but they bogged the main story down. The present day should have been given a lot of ground first. The detail that the victim had an illogically young body and old age, was presented first. It was pointless to drag out journalist Paul and his intelligent professor hitting upon this until the end, nor for a loveable coroner to die.
We hate all the thieves or murderers who commandeered the artifacts and were made irrevocably invincible against the dear artifact holders, whom we do like. Almost none of the personages of those histories are in the mystery, which makes elaborating upon them superfluous. I am against uncreative minds whining that books aren’t what they expected. That is different from a book not matching its synopsis of the elements that intrigued us.
We are almost never with the titular geographer nor his library, which I imagine lured us. It is a weak link: merely the place from which the artifacts were stolen. How boring! We see almost none of the artifacts or magic in present day: how unrewarding! Jon’s novel shifted late and sharply to a motive I would have loved: mysticism guarded by an ancient society. There were three story tones. My two favourites received short shrift.
We hate all the thieves or murderers who commandeered the artifacts and were made irrevocably invincible against the dear artifact holders, whom we do like. Almost none of the personages of those histories are in the mystery, which makes elaborating upon them superfluous. I am against uncreative minds whining that books aren’t what they expected. That is different from a book not matching its synopsis of the elements that intrigued us.
We are almost never with the titular geographer nor his library, which I imagine lured us. It is a weak link: merely the place from which the artifacts were stolen. How boring! We see almost none of the artifacts or magic in present day: how unrewarding! Jon’s novel shifted late and sharply to a motive I would have loved: mysticism guarded by an ancient society. There were three story tones. My two favourites received short shrift.
June 3, 2025
Occult, mystery, conspiracy, thriller crossover. A rookie reporter working for the local Shopping News, stumbles upon a 900-year-old, occult, conspiracy when writing the obituary for the mysterious passing of an eccentric, Soviet émigré, academic.
Alchemical accoutrements.
My dead tree copy was a modest 374-pages long. It had a 2005 US copyright.
Jon Fasman , is an expat, American journalist and writer living in the UK. He is the author of two novels and one book of non-fiction. This is the first book I’ve read by the author. This is also the author’s first book of fiction.
Paul Tomm was a recent, non-Journalism, graduate of a: tony, New England, private, university. He was Aimlessly Seeking Happiness , but had bills to pay. He fell into a job writing for the local Shopping News of a small, rural Connecticut town in leu of either law or graduate school. His editor threw him a bone to write the obit for the ambiguous, passing of an Estonian, tenured professor who lived in and recently passed in town. The professor, had been employed by Tomm's alma mater. More folks start dying, the dead professor wasn’t who he appeared to be, peculiar smuggled antiquities were involved, and before he knew it, Tomm was Going for the Big Scoop .
This story had good bones. It was literate, but was a first novel. It started out strong, and then nearly collapsed beneath the weight of its artifice. That included: historical flashbacks, occasional flashforwards, traditional and Epistolary narrative, and alchemy-related vignettes.
The epistolary component was significant and unevenly applied. In addition, there were both noir-ish and occult plot elements. I saw what he did there, but only approved of some of it. Finally, to ensure the reader gets it, Fasman wraps-up with both an Epilogue Letter and an Internal Reveal . The last 25-pages felt like a literary crumple zone .
The Review
Why read a 20-year old thriller? I found this book in an awesome used bookstore, that sent me into an avaricious, book buying frenzy. I was thinking I should purchase ‘some’ fiction, to balance the armfuls of non-fiction piling-up on the counter, as I shuttled from floor-to-floor. This book’s title and cover-blubs spoke to me. Likely because I graduated from uni as a geographer?
Fasman is a proficient, experienced journo. (He knows how to write.) In addition, his publisher’s ( Penguin Books ) copyeditor, 20-years ago, produced pristine text. I found no errors, and no unwanted repetition. I did find one continuity error. I always find this a bit eerie when I encounter it. In the great majority of contemporary shlock fictional prose being churned out today, I’ve learned to tolerate: typographical errors, misspellings, misused words, and peculiar punctuation.
Both dialog and descriptive prose were good. They used the then contemporary and now 20-year-old vernacular. I noted that Fasman’s prose bore all the signs of the Economist style-guide, the news magazine he works for, and which I subscribed to in a past life. However, in places the vocabulary was out-of-character for the audience. For example, crepuscular , avuncular , and oudist (player of the oud ) brought my reading to a screeching halt, breaking my concentration. Flaunting your vocabulary is a rookie author error. Dialog was otherwise good. The descriptive narrative was likewise good. Fasman is a creative literary writer. Be prepared to linger over it. For example, the description of the love-interest:
Fasman’s story was a very ambitious first novel. It had a lot of moving parts, many of them were very precise, whilst others were a lash-up. He used a number of literary techniques, not all successfully.
Between the: flashing back and forward, epistolatory writing, and the expository writing on the 15 featured alchemic antiquities-- the pacing of this short book (375-pages) suffered. The story was “folded” up using too many writing techniques for the narrative to unfold in an engaging fashion. The usage of both an Epilogue Letter and Internal Reveal to perform a quick, unambiguous ending was just a further example of the too many techniques, used at once, flawing in this story’s construction.
There were multiple POVs, although Paul Tomm was the nominal protagonist. Tomm was a smart enough, well educated, presentable, young man that could have done anything, but did nothing. He drifted into the easy work of small-town journalism. He got lucky with his first boss being the right mentor. While he wasn’t terribly ambitious, he had had the curiosity, and fearlessness to be an investigative journalist. That is, despite working on the Shopping News.
The other POVs were a mishmash. The story’s flashbacks ranging from Roger II’s Kingdom of Sicily , the the waning years of the Soviet Union , and several early ought’s international locations, as well as letters sent by the characters to each other during all those eras. Through the more recent flashbacks and letters, both the Vic’s (the Estonian, professor Jaan Pühapäev) and the antagonist(s) were slowly revealed. In addition, Tomm’s love interest, Hannah Rowe: a slightly older, private school music teacher, and a friend of the vic eventually contributes her POV only by letter. Tomm’s unwise decision to ignore the reporter’s prohibition of sleeping with your source introduces the most noirish aspects to the story.
The story also contained a host of supporting characters with some artful, modern riffs on noir arch-types. Tomm quickly connects with Professor Anton Jadid: his old uni mentor, head of the university department which had employed the vic, and a scholar of languages and antiquities. Jadid "knew a guy, or about a subject", for everything that was needed to move the plot along. He also provided the crucial law enforcement connection with Joey Jadid: his nephew, a detective, loose cannon, and font of knowledge on all things involving the criminal justice system. (IRL no cop would have abetted Tomm’s investigation, like Joey did.) There were also the: the femme fatale, "good" Girl, Good Cops, Bad Cops, Bent lawyers, Grifters, Medical Examiner, Soviet Apparatchiks, Scholars of Antiquities, Drunks, Thieves, Assassins, Smugglers, thugs of several nationalities, etc.
The story contained: sex, drugs, no Rock ‘n Roll and violence.
Tomm and Rowe had consensual sex. All sex was of the fade to black type with only a vague pre-amble. Tobacco products were consumed. Scholars, Baltic, Russian, Arab and Finnic folks smoked pipes or cigarettes in all time periods. Contemporary cops and thugs also smoked cigarettes. Alcohol, was consumed, sometimes in excess. Folks drank beer, wine, and straight liquor in bars and at home. Sometimes craft beer was drunk out of the can. The beer consumed in Connecticut was regionally correct. There was no Rock ‘n Roll, but Rowe listened to and performed classical music on several instruments.
Violence was moderate. It was: physical, vehicular assault, edged weapons and firearms related. Tomm was a lover and not a fighter. Although he managed to kick-ass when provoked or cornered. He survived the story unscathed, which felt peculiar? Body count was low to moderate, as a result of life being cheap in Soviet Russia and early history.
The main location of the story was the fabricated, bucolic, village of Lincoln, Connecticut in northeastern CT, just below the Massachusetts border. I’ve lived and worked in north central CT in the past. I suspect Woodstock, CT or a similar village was the model? Wickenden with its Wickenden University (Tomm’s alma mater, and the vic’s employer), was a thinly disguised New Haven, CT with its Yale University. International locations included: Moscow, Oxford in the UK, New York, Tallinn, Estonia, Soviet gulags in the Russian East, and Soviet Caucasian backwaters. The book was written 20-years after the fall of the Soviet Union. Fasman showed his journo chops by providing a lot of Soviet-era colour to the Soviet Russian locations.
Technology was sparse on the ground in this 2000's set story. The epistolary sections in the present, were all pen to paper or typewritten prose. That a payphone was a key plot element seemed terribly old-fashioned to me?
Tomm had a desktop computer in the office, but it was used solely for word processing. Missing were: mobile phone usage, email, computer-based research, and laptops. (All that tech was long in-use in the early 2000's.) I would have thought a recent graduate of a thoroughly modern, well-heeled university and an "on the go" journalist, and the seemingly very well-financed conspirators would have been using those then common technologies? Being a journalist himself, the author would have been using them? I also noted that law enforcement in the story was effectively using the available computer-based, identification and records retrieval technology in the story.
Summary
This story was a noir-ish, occult, conspiracy thriller. It held true to the conspiracy thriller, whilst keeping the occult in the shadows. In most places Fasman’s writing was notable. There were more red herrings than expected. However, I called “Foul”, on a couple of them. The flashing back and the two types of exposition obfuscated the reason for the murder until the near end. However, there were too many, alchemic antiquities, each with its own: long passage of exposition, flashback, and sometimes epistolatory narrative. Not all felt needed. The level of technical detail was good, with the right amount of hand waving needed to make the occult appear credible within the story. Fasman didn't understand, that less [world building] can be more?) The ending was also problematic.
Finally, readers should note the Foodie plot elements inserted into the story. (This was popular in the 2000’s.) In particular, the Professor Jadid character's, insistence on a meal before the pivoting reveal that led to the climax. It was a bizarre element. It did however, at that point have me craving Sicilian Lamb Spezzatino with Saffron and Marjoram. Note the cuisine connection with Roger II?
This book would be a good beach read for a History post doc. Otherwise, readers should have at least a passing interest in life in the Soviet Union, medieval Sicily and the middle east, and 2000’s Yale and environs to get the most out of this novel. I suspect, that if I knew more about alchemy, I could pick-out the myths that were woven into the story? Also, the prose was quite sophisticated, within the confines of the book’s construction. I stayed with the book to see what Fasman ‘would do there’. There were a great many well-wrought passages, but not all. This book was also short at 375-pages in comparison it to the current bloated 500–800 page thrillers commonly available. That was a relief.
However, this was a first novel. The author despite having considerable experience as a writer, and no small amount of ability overreached. He had a good copyeditor. What he didn’t have was a stern editor advising on simplifying their work of “narrative fiction” to make a better story vs. an attempted master work.
Alchemical accoutrements.
My dead tree copy was a modest 374-pages long. It had a 2005 US copyright.
Jon Fasman , is an expat, American journalist and writer living in the UK. He is the author of two novels and one book of non-fiction. This is the first book I’ve read by the author. This is also the author’s first book of fiction.
This is what a smuggling ring does: it gets things safely from one place to another.TL;DR Review
Paul Tomm was a recent, non-Journalism, graduate of a: tony, New England, private, university. He was Aimlessly Seeking Happiness , but had bills to pay. He fell into a job writing for the local Shopping News of a small, rural Connecticut town in leu of either law or graduate school. His editor threw him a bone to write the obit for the ambiguous, passing of an Estonian, tenured professor who lived in and recently passed in town. The professor, had been employed by Tomm's alma mater. More folks start dying, the dead professor wasn’t who he appeared to be, peculiar smuggled antiquities were involved, and before he knew it, Tomm was Going for the Big Scoop .
This story had good bones. It was literate, but was a first novel. It started out strong, and then nearly collapsed beneath the weight of its artifice. That included: historical flashbacks, occasional flashforwards, traditional and Epistolary narrative, and alchemy-related vignettes.
The epistolary component was significant and unevenly applied. In addition, there were both noir-ish and occult plot elements. I saw what he did there, but only approved of some of it. Finally, to ensure the reader gets it, Fasman wraps-up with both an Epilogue Letter and an Internal Reveal . The last 25-pages felt like a literary crumple zone .
The Review
Why read a 20-year old thriller? I found this book in an awesome used bookstore, that sent me into an avaricious, book buying frenzy. I was thinking I should purchase ‘some’ fiction, to balance the armfuls of non-fiction piling-up on the counter, as I shuttled from floor-to-floor. This book’s title and cover-blubs spoke to me. Likely because I graduated from uni as a geographer?
Fasman is a proficient, experienced journo. (He knows how to write.) In addition, his publisher’s ( Penguin Books ) copyeditor, 20-years ago, produced pristine text. I found no errors, and no unwanted repetition. I did find one continuity error. I always find this a bit eerie when I encounter it. In the great majority of contemporary shlock fictional prose being churned out today, I’ve learned to tolerate: typographical errors, misspellings, misused words, and peculiar punctuation.
Both dialog and descriptive prose were good. They used the then contemporary and now 20-year-old vernacular. I noted that Fasman’s prose bore all the signs of the Economist style-guide, the news magazine he works for, and which I subscribed to in a past life. However, in places the vocabulary was out-of-character for the audience. For example, crepuscular , avuncular , and oudist (player of the oud ) brought my reading to a screeching halt, breaking my concentration. Flaunting your vocabulary is a rookie author error. Dialog was otherwise good. The descriptive narrative was likewise good. Fasman is a creative literary writer. Be prepared to linger over it. For example, the description of the love-interest:
She was smaller than Mrs. Rolen had led me to expect—an inch or two taller than me, but her thinness and long hair made her seem taller still-- and she had light brown hair, gray eyes, and sharp, clear features. It was a face just on the perfect side of plain, one that grew deeper. I always found it unreadable: changes of mood and thought swept across it like water and just as quickly sank beneath the surface.Note that Tomm’s inner dialog occasionally used the past tense in a scene beginning in the present. This felt like the use of a flashforward? I was torn between that being artfully intentional or a continuity error. (I went with misplaced artful.)
Fasman’s story was a very ambitious first novel. It had a lot of moving parts, many of them were very precise, whilst others were a lash-up. He used a number of literary techniques, not all successfully.
Between the: flashing back and forward, epistolatory writing, and the expository writing on the 15 featured alchemic antiquities-- the pacing of this short book (375-pages) suffered. The story was “folded” up using too many writing techniques for the narrative to unfold in an engaging fashion. The usage of both an Epilogue Letter and Internal Reveal to perform a quick, unambiguous ending was just a further example of the too many techniques, used at once, flawing in this story’s construction.
There were multiple POVs, although Paul Tomm was the nominal protagonist. Tomm was a smart enough, well educated, presentable, young man that could have done anything, but did nothing. He drifted into the easy work of small-town journalism. He got lucky with his first boss being the right mentor. While he wasn’t terribly ambitious, he had had the curiosity, and fearlessness to be an investigative journalist. That is, despite working on the Shopping News.
The other POVs were a mishmash. The story’s flashbacks ranging from Roger II’s Kingdom of Sicily , the the waning years of the Soviet Union , and several early ought’s international locations, as well as letters sent by the characters to each other during all those eras. Through the more recent flashbacks and letters, both the Vic’s (the Estonian, professor Jaan Pühapäev) and the antagonist(s) were slowly revealed. In addition, Tomm’s love interest, Hannah Rowe: a slightly older, private school music teacher, and a friend of the vic eventually contributes her POV only by letter. Tomm’s unwise decision to ignore the reporter’s prohibition of sleeping with your source introduces the most noirish aspects to the story.
The story also contained a host of supporting characters with some artful, modern riffs on noir arch-types. Tomm quickly connects with Professor Anton Jadid: his old uni mentor, head of the university department which had employed the vic, and a scholar of languages and antiquities. Jadid "knew a guy, or about a subject", for everything that was needed to move the plot along. He also provided the crucial law enforcement connection with Joey Jadid: his nephew, a detective, loose cannon, and font of knowledge on all things involving the criminal justice system. (IRL no cop would have abetted Tomm’s investigation, like Joey did.) There were also the: the femme fatale, "good" Girl, Good Cops, Bad Cops, Bent lawyers, Grifters, Medical Examiner, Soviet Apparatchiks, Scholars of Antiquities, Drunks, Thieves, Assassins, Smugglers, thugs of several nationalities, etc.
The story contained: sex, drugs, no Rock ‘n Roll and violence.
Tomm and Rowe had consensual sex. All sex was of the fade to black type with only a vague pre-amble. Tobacco products were consumed. Scholars, Baltic, Russian, Arab and Finnic folks smoked pipes or cigarettes in all time periods. Contemporary cops and thugs also smoked cigarettes. Alcohol, was consumed, sometimes in excess. Folks drank beer, wine, and straight liquor in bars and at home. Sometimes craft beer was drunk out of the can. The beer consumed in Connecticut was regionally correct. There was no Rock ‘n Roll, but Rowe listened to and performed classical music on several instruments.
Violence was moderate. It was: physical, vehicular assault, edged weapons and firearms related. Tomm was a lover and not a fighter. Although he managed to kick-ass when provoked or cornered. He survived the story unscathed, which felt peculiar? Body count was low to moderate, as a result of life being cheap in Soviet Russia and early history.
The main location of the story was the fabricated, bucolic, village of Lincoln, Connecticut in northeastern CT, just below the Massachusetts border. I’ve lived and worked in north central CT in the past. I suspect Woodstock, CT or a similar village was the model? Wickenden with its Wickenden University (Tomm’s alma mater, and the vic’s employer), was a thinly disguised New Haven, CT with its Yale University. International locations included: Moscow, Oxford in the UK, New York, Tallinn, Estonia, Soviet gulags in the Russian East, and Soviet Caucasian backwaters. The book was written 20-years after the fall of the Soviet Union. Fasman showed his journo chops by providing a lot of Soviet-era colour to the Soviet Russian locations.
Technology was sparse on the ground in this 2000's set story. The epistolary sections in the present, were all pen to paper or typewritten prose. That a payphone was a key plot element seemed terribly old-fashioned to me?
Tomm had a desktop computer in the office, but it was used solely for word processing. Missing were: mobile phone usage, email, computer-based research, and laptops. (All that tech was long in-use in the early 2000's.) I would have thought a recent graduate of a thoroughly modern, well-heeled university and an "on the go" journalist, and the seemingly very well-financed conspirators would have been using those then common technologies? Being a journalist himself, the author would have been using them? I also noted that law enforcement in the story was effectively using the available computer-based, identification and records retrieval technology in the story.
Summary
This story was a noir-ish, occult, conspiracy thriller. It held true to the conspiracy thriller, whilst keeping the occult in the shadows. In most places Fasman’s writing was notable. There were more red herrings than expected. However, I called “Foul”, on a couple of them. The flashing back and the two types of exposition obfuscated the reason for the murder until the near end. However, there were too many, alchemic antiquities, each with its own: long passage of exposition, flashback, and sometimes epistolatory narrative. Not all felt needed. The level of technical detail was good, with the right amount of hand waving needed to make the occult appear credible within the story. Fasman didn't understand, that less [world building] can be more?) The ending was also problematic.
Finally, readers should note the Foodie plot elements inserted into the story. (This was popular in the 2000’s.) In particular, the Professor Jadid character's, insistence on a meal before the pivoting reveal that led to the climax. It was a bizarre element. It did however, at that point have me craving Sicilian Lamb Spezzatino with Saffron and Marjoram. Note the cuisine connection with Roger II?
This book would be a good beach read for a History post doc. Otherwise, readers should have at least a passing interest in life in the Soviet Union, medieval Sicily and the middle east, and 2000’s Yale and environs to get the most out of this novel. I suspect, that if I knew more about alchemy, I could pick-out the myths that were woven into the story? Also, the prose was quite sophisticated, within the confines of the book’s construction. I stayed with the book to see what Fasman ‘would do there’. There were a great many well-wrought passages, but not all. This book was also short at 375-pages in comparison it to the current bloated 500–800 page thrillers commonly available. That was a relief.
However, this was a first novel. The author despite having considerable experience as a writer, and no small amount of ability overreached. He had a good copyeditor. What he didn’t have was a stern editor advising on simplifying their work of “narrative fiction” to make a better story vs. an attempted master work.
January 9, 2013
Ugh. Honestly not sure how this got published. I really like one character but mostly because she reminded me a woman I used to date (everything is more interesting and appealing in the rear-view mirror). The story doesn't come together at all, the characters aren't believable or interesting and the resolution is laughable. Glad I'm done.
April 10, 2009
Smart, laid-back,, almost to the point of lazy recent college grad reporter, Paul Tomm, meets Russian/Albanian/Estonian jewel thieves, keepers of a secret, alchemy magicians, thugs and murderers. Not the kind of book that I usually read, but the title drew me in, I thought for sure it was some sort of book about a guy's library. Not quite. Paul is a self-deprecating anti-hero who gets curious after a professor at his old college shows up dead. He's supposed to write an obituary, but when he can not verify simple facts such as name, date of birth, next of kin, things start to get dicey. Interwoven chapter by chapter is a bit of an overlong explanation of artifacts belonging at one time to a georgrapher of the 12th century and now much in demand on the black market. These artifacts were all central to the science of alchemy. These chapters were a bit long winded and didn't add much to the story, perhaps detracted some, although the current location of each item was very cleverly added.
The humor within the story and the characters drove the story along for me, keeping me awake at night to get to the next chapter. The female character in the story was one though, that didn't ring true to me, especially towards the end -- but all in all I enjoyed the book, and I'm probably the one person on the planet who thought the ending was perfect!
The humor within the story and the characters drove the story along for me, keeping me awake at night to get to the next chapter. The female character in the story was one though, that didn't ring true to me, especially towards the end -- but all in all I enjoyed the book, and I'm probably the one person on the planet who thought the ending was perfect!
April 15, 2009
This is a book I salivated over before reading. In the event I enjoyed it quite a lot, though it didn't fully live up to my probably somewhat overinflated expectations. Paul Tomm is a junior reporter for and in fact almost the entire reportorial staff of a small-town Connecticut newspaper. He's told to do an obituary when reclusive and distinctly odd local university professor Jaan Puhapaev dies, and his nascent journalistic antenna goes into overdrive -- or whatever it is journalistic antennae do when their owners get suspicious -- especially when the pathologist who was examining the body dies in a mysterious hit-and-run. In his efforts to show both prof and pathologist were murdered, Paul sort of halfway unravels the mystery in the midst of a brief but torrid love affair with the dead prof's next-door neighbour. Interspersed within the main tale are shortish sections tracing the histories of a "library" of alchemical artefacts which, together, drive an enormous backstory of which Paul, and the reader, will only ever be able to discover a small part.
This is a very well told book, and for the most part I was turning the pages steadily (although I confess I skipped occasional pages where the author was essentially listing, catalogue-style, the alchemical attributes of the artefacts). Trouble is, I've read quite a few books written with this general structure over the past few years, and far too few of them seem to do anything with the juxtaposition they present of ancient and modern, as it were. The Geographer's Library really doesn't stand up as a mystery novel, and I'm not sure it does either as the intellectual exercise we're supposed to think it is. Certainly it's worth the time of reading, but it's not the humdinger I'd hoped for.
This is a very well told book, and for the most part I was turning the pages steadily (although I confess I skipped occasional pages where the author was essentially listing, catalogue-style, the alchemical attributes of the artefacts). Trouble is, I've read quite a few books written with this general structure over the past few years, and far too few of them seem to do anything with the juxtaposition they present of ancient and modern, as it were. The Geographer's Library really doesn't stand up as a mystery novel, and I'm not sure it does either as the intellectual exercise we're supposed to think it is. Certainly it's worth the time of reading, but it's not the humdinger I'd hoped for.
February 21, 2009
Very interesting book. I really liked the main character-he just seemed completely real somehow. The dialog was very down to earth and smart w/ a little sarcasm thrown in-very much my taste. I know that some readers would probably find these parts a little boring, but I actually really enjoyed reading about the different and strange objects listed throughout the book. Even though the plot line was slowed a little by the many little storylines connected with these objects, I found it fascinating. Like going to a museum and reading the stories behind each of the items you see-kinda cool.The author's insight on people and nationalities seems very truthful-at least from my view.
November 3, 2013
I fell in love at the first sentence of this book. I'm a huge Terry Pratchett fan, and one of his quirks is the use of capitals to add grandeur to an otherwise ordinary event. So when Fasman had his journalist refer to printing day as "The Day the Paper Comes Out"(3) I was certain this was going to be the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship. Turns out I was wrong. The first couple of chapters were pretty good, but once the honeymoon phase wore off the relationship soured quickly. Quirks that were endearing for the first hundred pages became niggling irritations. Fasman's sense of humour started to remind me of Stephen Leacock. And while Leacock's jokes work in a fully comedic piece, I had difficulty integrating them in a mystery when they only cropped up once in a while. I came to dislike his only supporting female character, Hannah Rowe. Either she had serious emotional issues (that never get mentioned), or Fasman had a tough time writing an enigmatic but realistic love interest for his leading man. As if he was thinking to himself, "Well I don't understand women, so it won't matter if no one understands Hannah." The last chapter is told from her point of view. It answered a few questions, but the answers were so unsatisfying and shallow I cringed while I read it. I also don't understand the importance of the items taken from al-Idrisi's library at the beginning of the book. They are all historically important alchemical items, but there doesn't seem to be any reason for their history to be included in the book. Or for people to be searching for most of them. Some of them have special powers, but most of them are just antiques. Why go to all the trouble to collect them? Some of them are valuable or powerful, but it seems like most of them are just old. An interesting but distracting subplot? By the time we're halfway down the list, I wanted a flow chart to keep track of who owned what when, who stole it, and for whom. It does add depth to some of the characters. Being distracting isn't quite enough reason to justify taking the history of the library out, although maybe it could have been integrated better. Maybe I was hoping for more out of this book than it was able to provide. I think with time we'll be able to have a stable and satisfying relationship. But for now I just need some time apart. I think it's time we read other books.
December 10, 2008
I need to read something else, not a mystery, by this author. I was pleasantly surprised when bits of his writing were clever and slyly funny, especially in the main character's first person assessment of himself. But the mystery aspects of this book were not great. The first couple hundred pages are slow going, though interspersed with interesting vignettes about various alchemy-related antiquities. At first, these side stories are the most engaging part of the book, but the early stages of the plot are stretched pretty thin to accommodate so many artifact chapters.
But then, once the story begins to take shape, the intercalary chapters become disjointed and distracting to the unfolding drama. I started skimming as it became clear that the objects weren't going to play an important part in the resolution of the story. I was kind of hoping for an action scene that involved all the antiquities - and the ancient chess piece goes up his nose! And he gets a paper cut from the ancient playing cards! (Okay, that would have been silly. But after so much time talking about the objects, the main character definitely needed to interact with them.)
And the book ends with a minor character holding the hero at gunpoint while leisurely explaining the crime, plus several hundred years of back story. I understand that it must be difficult for a mystery writer to weave the explanations into the narrative in a creative way, but really, Jon Fasman didn't try any harder than putting two guys in a room together and having them talk about the plot for a few hours.
So some odd stumbling blocks for an otherwise interesting and well researched premise.
But then, once the story begins to take shape, the intercalary chapters become disjointed and distracting to the unfolding drama. I started skimming as it became clear that the objects weren't going to play an important part in the resolution of the story. I was kind of hoping for an action scene that involved all the antiquities - and the ancient chess piece goes up his nose! And he gets a paper cut from the ancient playing cards! (Okay, that would have been silly. But after so much time talking about the objects, the main character definitely needed to interact with them.)
And the book ends with a minor character holding the hero at gunpoint while leisurely explaining the crime, plus several hundred years of back story. I understand that it must be difficult for a mystery writer to weave the explanations into the narrative in a creative way, but really, Jon Fasman didn't try any harder than putting two guys in a room together and having them talk about the plot for a few hours.
So some odd stumbling blocks for an otherwise interesting and well researched premise.
March 12, 2011
Very good premise but ultimately doesn't really go anywhere...
October 14, 2017
I think this is a great example of wonderful concept and an execution that didn't quite match. The idea is intriguing-- a story split between a small town newspaper reporter covering the increasingly odd death of a local college professor, and chapters about mysterious objects being collected from hiding spots all around the world, mostly in Europe.
The reporter stumbles into intrigue and mystery as he researches what starts off as a simple obituary. Who was this professor really? Where was he born? When? No one can answer even these simple questions, and things get weirder as he goes. Paul, the reporter, ends up in a strange world of neighborhood bars that are members only, a college professor who may know more than it seems, a cop on suspension, and a lovely music teacher.
The alternating chapters skip around Europe, a bit in Russia, as a seemingly random array of mystical artifacts. There's clearly some kind of secret group doing the collecting, and they're ruthless in getting what they wand and covering their tracks. Many, although not all, of these chapters have a few pages of description and history of the objects.
I'm not sure why this didn't click better with me. Possibly the sandwich story of the first page and last chapter, which I found a bit annoying honestly. The character this story is "sent" to is someone I started to like and then really couldn't stand as I learned more about them. The main character ended up giving up a bit too easily for my tastes on several things.
Like I said, great idea, I'm just not sure it got to where it could have been.
The reporter stumbles into intrigue and mystery as he researches what starts off as a simple obituary. Who was this professor really? Where was he born? When? No one can answer even these simple questions, and things get weirder as he goes. Paul, the reporter, ends up in a strange world of neighborhood bars that are members only, a college professor who may know more than it seems, a cop on suspension, and a lovely music teacher.
The alternating chapters skip around Europe, a bit in Russia, as a seemingly random array of mystical artifacts. There's clearly some kind of secret group doing the collecting, and they're ruthless in getting what they wand and covering their tracks. Many, although not all, of these chapters have a few pages of description and history of the objects.
I'm not sure why this didn't click better with me. Possibly the sandwich story of the first page and last chapter, which I found a bit annoying honestly. The character this story is "sent" to is someone I started to like and then really couldn't stand as I learned more about them. The main character ended up giving up a bit too easily for my tastes on several things.
Like I said, great idea, I'm just not sure it got to where it could have been.
July 29, 2024
"What did you think?" Goodreads asks me. What did I think? I thought of many, many things while reading this. That it's an uncommon and fascinating story. That it kept me interested. That it perplexed me at first and drifted into stories that initially seemed irrelevant, without warning. That I understood the pattern it would follow and looked forward to the interruptions. So many things. That I hoped for a happy ending, which increasingly looked dubious. That I hoped for a resolution. That good would win over evil. That I would know which is which. Perhaps I do. Do I recommend it? Of course. But not if all you want is a quick mystery fable. It doesn't take long to read, so I say it's a quick read. Not in the sense that you'll forget it quickly. Perhaps never. But reading is one thing. Understanding another. This is a work of fiction, but when it comes down to descriptions of real life and real people, it is accurate. That is what will stay with you.
October 15, 2011
Just out of a prestigious (and fictional) New England college, but without a girlfriend or a life plan, Paul takes a job as a writer for a biweekly paper in a sleepy Connecticut town. When a reclusive professor from his alma mater dies, Paul is assigned his obituary and soon discovers that the professor's life--and the manner of his death--were not as ordinary as they seemed.
The chapters alternate between telling the story of Paul's investigation and recounting the history of artifacts that once belonged to Al-Idrisi, a 12th century geographer from Baghdad. I loved the book's New-England-autumn-mystery feel (reminding me of Donna Tartt's The Secret History) and I was impressed by how many cultures and national histories that the writer was able to write about with (from my limited view, anyway) an air of authenticity.
I was underwhelmed by the ending--"That's it?" I thought--until I got to the final page and saw how it resonated with a previous passage, and decided that the ending was satisfying after all. So the pay-off is really all through the book, not in a grand climax at the end.
I came out of this book just really liking Jon Fasman. Maybe because the book could be so easily shrugged off as just another Da Vinci Code imitator, but it was evident to me that Fasman put a lot of care and skill into his work--Fasman pays serious attention to his writing, which stands head and shoulders above Dan Brown's--in spite of the fact that it did, in many ways, read like a first novel. I feel like Fasman could just get better and better as he continues to write, and I hope that he does.
The chapters alternate between telling the story of Paul's investigation and recounting the history of artifacts that once belonged to Al-Idrisi, a 12th century geographer from Baghdad. I loved the book's New-England-autumn-mystery feel (reminding me of Donna Tartt's The Secret History) and I was impressed by how many cultures and national histories that the writer was able to write about with (from my limited view, anyway) an air of authenticity.
I was underwhelmed by the ending--"That's it?" I thought--until I got to the final page and saw how it resonated with a previous passage, and decided that the ending was satisfying after all. So the pay-off is really all through the book, not in a grand climax at the end.
I came out of this book just really liking Jon Fasman. Maybe because the book could be so easily shrugged off as just another Da Vinci Code imitator, but it was evident to me that Fasman put a lot of care and skill into his work--Fasman pays serious attention to his writing, which stands head and shoulders above Dan Brown's--in spite of the fact that it did, in many ways, read like a first novel. I feel like Fasman could just get better and better as he continues to write, and I hope that he does.
February 21, 2014
This is a story of a young reporter who, while writing an obituary for an elderly professor, stumbles on to something bigger. In the course of investigating, of course a beautiful woman becomes involved, vague threats are made, and creepy mobster-types lurk all over the place. Every other chapter leaves the main narrative and tells the history of an object once belonging to an Arabian geographer in the service of a king.
This is a really interesting premise but I think the book on the whole is fairly weak. I seem to have found a rash of books narrated in the first person by a twenty-something male... and they all seem to be the same boring, vague, unambitious guy who has a hard time coming to grips with the real world. Every other character in this book was WAY more interesting than the narrator. If that was the author's point, he'd have done well not to narrate in the first person.
I enjoyed the "side-trips" telling the history of the objects, but the relevance of the objects individually to the story was never really explained. All of the alchemical aspects of the story seemed to be tangential in retrospect, which was a shame. Up until the end I was pretty involved, but the end of the story to me was a real let-down.
This is a really interesting premise but I think the book on the whole is fairly weak. I seem to have found a rash of books narrated in the first person by a twenty-something male... and they all seem to be the same boring, vague, unambitious guy who has a hard time coming to grips with the real world. Every other character in this book was WAY more interesting than the narrator. If that was the author's point, he'd have done well not to narrate in the first person.
I enjoyed the "side-trips" telling the history of the objects, but the relevance of the objects individually to the story was never really explained. All of the alchemical aspects of the story seemed to be tangential in retrospect, which was a shame. Up until the end I was pretty involved, but the end of the story to me was a real let-down.
December 19, 2007
Anyone who expects a grand work of literature with a mystery like this will be disappointed. This is a light read, an airport book, albeit one that has high pretensions, written by a skilled magician who conveys the excitement of the chase. The faults of the main character are a little overexpressed, especially as most of the book is supposedly written from Paul's perspective. The narrative layers and the brief dossiers on each of the artifacts are excellent, as are the interposed memories which take a bland journalistic romance and flavor it with disparate settings and intriguing, mysterious powers. Books like this are a pleasure akin to an action movie, which has to be appreciated for what it is: a great ride, nothing more. Don't expect great things from a Michael Bay film; it won't change your life, you won't experience any sort of deep emotion, but the explosions will be really cool and, hopefully, the script will keep you glued to your seat. This is a delightful mystery, well-written by a verbose young writer. Fasman creates cops that are interesting, individual and freshly characterized. This one's not getting in the canon but it deserves a home in a vacation house.
August 27, 2007
THE GEOGRAPHER'S LIBRARY (Amateur Sleuth-International-Multiple Periods) – Poor
Fasman, Jon – Standalone
The Penguin Press, 2005- Hardcover
Paul Tomm is a young reporter in a small Connecticut town. When a local professor dies, Paul is asked to write his obituary. What starts as a simple assignment, leads to more than expected and others who die. Somehow tied into this are 15 priceless artifacts scattered throughout the world.
*** What started as an interesting plot, with a appealing, guileless protagonist just never went anywhere for me. The premise seemed less "Da Vinci Code" and more "The Eight," but this book was nowhere near either. The hook of the artifacts was never realized in the story, and I found myself skimming huge sections trying to find out the point of it all. Unfortunately, there never really was one. Worst of all, not only did the protagonist now grow with the story, but he regressed. I basically couldn't wait for the book to end, even with it's very disappointing ending, so I could get on to something else. I'd say to give this one a miss.
Fasman, Jon – Standalone
The Penguin Press, 2005- Hardcover
Paul Tomm is a young reporter in a small Connecticut town. When a local professor dies, Paul is asked to write his obituary. What starts as a simple assignment, leads to more than expected and others who die. Somehow tied into this are 15 priceless artifacts scattered throughout the world.
*** What started as an interesting plot, with a appealing, guileless protagonist just never went anywhere for me. The premise seemed less "Da Vinci Code" and more "The Eight," but this book was nowhere near either. The hook of the artifacts was never realized in the story, and I found myself skimming huge sections trying to find out the point of it all. Unfortunately, there never really was one. Worst of all, not only did the protagonist now grow with the story, but he regressed. I basically couldn't wait for the book to end, even with it's very disappointing ending, so I could get on to something else. I'd say to give this one a miss.
August 5, 2009
When this was returned to me, I had forgotten I read this already. Partly because I read rather quite a bit of it when drunk, and partly because despite the semiplausible magical realism of the alchemy theme, it was still sort of forgettable. And weird in an ordinary way.
So it's a do-over.
If you're looking for magical realism, try A Trip to the Stars, by Nicholas Christopher (I think; can't be bothered to fact-check). That one is pretty darn awesome despite its near-equal implausibility. Come on, echolalia AND spider bites as plot devices? Egregious descriptions of hot weather, damp and dry? It's so fun. I could never get through his other books, but I've reread this one too many times.
Why do all my reviews end up as recommendations for other books?
So it's a do-over.
If you're looking for magical realism, try A Trip to the Stars, by Nicholas Christopher (I think; can't be bothered to fact-check). That one is pretty darn awesome despite its near-equal implausibility. Come on, echolalia AND spider bites as plot devices? Egregious descriptions of hot weather, damp and dry? It's so fun. I could never get through his other books, but I've reread this one too many times.
Why do all my reviews end up as recommendations for other books?
June 30, 2011
Every other chapter was irrelevant (at least to me) and it was difficult to switch from present to past. The main characters were weak and underdeveloped. The ending was boring. BUT, it is "historical fiction-ish" and I liked that. The basis for the story was great but it could have been more developed. I didn't love the book but I'm glad I read it.
February 9, 2023
A little confusing at the beginning but as the reader gets involved in the double plot the story comes together. I found the historical notes on the artifacts very interesting but a little unbelievable too.
March 7, 2021
Não é uma escrita brilhante mas gostei de ler a história e todos os seus contornos.
August 4, 2025
The alternating chapters about a collection of objects and about an investigator’s probe of a man’s death seemed disparate at first but the ending tied things together well.
February 25, 2022
I stuck it to the end, which was a complete anticlimax. I'd recommend it to insomniacs.
October 23, 2017
Strong beginning and steady development but rather lackluster towards the end.
June 30, 2023
TL;DR: Dear Jon Fasman: please write more books. I don't even care what they're about, really, just please write more books.
That's kind of not fair, so: this book was enjoyable as a story, although I didn't care about the protagonist. The magic/myth/fantasy elements are based on history, or at least legend, and as far as I know, anyway, all the details track.
4 Stars:
Because (1) I didn't care at all about the protagonist, and (2) there are a few loose ends, it feels like. Almost as though Fasman intends to write another book. hint hint
Why I Read It
Because sometimes I'm incredibly predictable, and it has the word "library" in the title. I only sort of wish I was joking.
What I Liked
Fasman does the every-other-chapter POV well: we toggle between the historical account, recounting the collection of items that comprise the eponymous Geographer's Library catalog, and the modern-day story of quasi-discovery by our sort-of-hero, a journalist whose commitment to his career is lackluster until he's assigned the obituary of an old local man.
What I Loved
Fasman's writing style. The secondary characters - particularly the out-of-town detectives - absolutely shine. I love detective stories, and I would devour a series with them as the protagonists. (Hint hint hint, if you're reading this, Jon.)
What I Disliked
Hannah. Just... no. Which I think was the point of her character.
You Should Read It If You Like:
Mysteries, multiple POV stories, historical fiction, arcana, magic/myth history, witty dialogue, generally excellent writing.
That's kind of not fair, so: this book was enjoyable as a story, although I didn't care about the protagonist. The magic/myth/fantasy elements are based on history, or at least legend, and as far as I know, anyway, all the details track.
4 Stars:
Because (1) I didn't care at all about the protagonist, and (2) there are a few loose ends, it feels like. Almost as though Fasman intends to write another book. hint hint
Why I Read It
Because sometimes I'm incredibly predictable, and it has the word "library" in the title. I only sort of wish I was joking.
What I Liked
Fasman does the every-other-chapter POV well: we toggle between the historical account, recounting the collection of items that comprise the eponymous Geographer's Library catalog, and the modern-day story of quasi-discovery by our sort-of-hero, a journalist whose commitment to his career is lackluster until he's assigned the obituary of an old local man.
What I Loved
Fasman's writing style. The secondary characters - particularly the out-of-town detectives - absolutely shine. I love detective stories, and I would devour a series with them as the protagonists. (Hint hint hint, if you're reading this, Jon.)
What I Disliked
Hannah. Just... no. Which I think was the point of her character.
You Should Read It If You Like:
Mysteries, multiple POV stories, historical fiction, arcana, magic/myth history, witty dialogue, generally excellent writing.
November 14, 2010
There are still seven good reading weeks left before the end of the year, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is my favorite read of 2010. This is a strange mystery about a collection of objects all pertaining to alchemy, and collected hundreds of years ago, only to be stolen, sold-off, or otherwise lost to history. Fasman gives some historical background of the objects and then intersperses tales throughout the book of each individual piece, it's use, value, and known whereabouts. The rest of the book takes place in present day where a reclusive college professor has just died, seemingly under mysterious circumstances. Paul Tomm, a young cub reporter for a small Connecticut newspaper is assigned to write an obituary. But, instead of the usual straightforward story, he finds himself on a wild goose-chase to figure out who this professor really was and why anyone would want him dead. Given the alchemy angle, there's definitely a little mumbo-jumbo thrown into the mix, but mostly it was just good old-fashioned suspense. Paul does find himself in a little romance that is incredibly suspicious, and he behaves a bit too naively at times. But, all in all, I thought this was an incredibly well-written and fun mystery. One of those books that got me excited about reading all over again.
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