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Books of Alexios #1-3
Alexios, Before Dying
1924. In New York City, an eleven year old girl with symptoms of synesthesia befriends a street performer. They dream of rivaling Houdini until the magician endangers them both by stealing wrist watches.
1984. In Mexico, a dying woman wanders lost in the desert. She encounters a shaman, a delirious New York artist, ransom-seeking desperadoes, an unlikely villain, a dolphin, and an Aboriginal spirit named Boonga.
2004. In Saudi Arabia, an American graduate student with schizophrenia forgoes medication so that she may use her ‘gift’ - the ability to experience historic events. Psychotic symptoms emerge as the man she loves lures her into the hands of slave traders.
Each story continues on a wild ride into afterlives, fraught with challenges both familiar and unexpected, such as a flying space turtle, a gigantic goddess, bickering angels, and a splintered ego. All threads lead to a monumental after-afterlife where questions are answered and the unity of existence is fulfilled.
1984. In Mexico, a dying woman wanders lost in the desert. She encounters a shaman, a delirious New York artist, ransom-seeking desperadoes, an unlikely villain, a dolphin, and an Aboriginal spirit named Boonga.
2004. In Saudi Arabia, an American graduate student with schizophrenia forgoes medication so that she may use her ‘gift’ - the ability to experience historic events. Psychotic symptoms emerge as the man she loves lures her into the hands of slave traders.
Each story continues on a wild ride into afterlives, fraught with challenges both familiar and unexpected, such as a flying space turtle, a gigantic goddess, bickering angels, and a splintered ego. All threads lead to a monumental after-afterlife where questions are answered and the unity of existence is fulfilled.
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First published December 12, 2011
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April 22, 2012
Alexios, Before Dying is a somewhat daunting book to review, as it borders on the experimental, setting up tangible connections between seemingly unconnected characters, then introducing a conclusion that is so utterly original as to be almost baffling.
It's a beautifully written book, a work of craft reminiscent of some of the best writing of Terry Southern or Ken Kesey.
Nonetheless, the lack of a defined and familiar conclusion is truly daunting. It's as if someone set up a plot where "A" led to "B", which led to a conclusion of ..."Q". You can't help but admit the final conclusion may be as correct as any of the myriad possible answers, but our natural instinct to expect "C" makes the sudden shift in perspective both fascinating and disturbing.
As an amateur student of human development and neuroscience, my rational side is bothered somewhat by the book; although author Chance Maree uses the backdoor "out" of noting that all metaphysical experience may simply be a consequence of brain chemistry, she also postulates that perhaps it is a matter of how we define our own perceptions, that even if we are just imagining things, it's how that perception affects us that is important, not the perception itself; perhaps the afterlife isn't at all what we imagine it to be but instead just a reflection of the unceasingly recycled nature of the energy that makes up the universe, a series of personalities occupying one "family tree" of experience, where the bonds of love are the only permanence.
Or, at least, that's what I got from it. It's the optimistic side of agnosticism's half-full glass of water, the idea that the manifestation in our world of things spiritual and magical is a consequence of us only seeing one small corner of our own existence. The world is relatively static; it's the people and perceptions recycled, reinvented by one generation after another, in part to tie them through the familiarity of community and ceremony.
It's also a brave book with respect to its fairly open contempt for the orthodoxies that bind human existence within man-made religions. It's not open contempt for religion, just for its use to repress. In fact, the book revels in the power of ceremony to open up our mind's eye to new perceptions; I imagine the author has gone through a number of types of spiritual soul-searching in her days.
Having gushed optimistically, I should also caution that, with respect to neuroscience, more is known about the biochemistry underpinning spiritualism than this book lets on, and there are much more pragmatic conclusions that can be reached about why we believe things and see things that are spiritual or magical.
We can be optimistic, and hope that spiritualism is part of some timeless continuum, in which we'll continue to play some role after this life ... or we can note that certain types of ceremony induce a self-hypnosis via the reduction of blood flow in the posterior parietal lobe, the part of the brain that controls time and space, and consequently we can become so comforted we go into a trance-like state of hallucination.
That's it. That's all. No magic, no purpose, just an element of survival instinct, a hard-coding in the brain that helps it detach from this reality when this reality becomes overwhelming -- and one that happens to play into the unanswerable questions we have about the nature of existence, answers we'll likely never attain, as existence is a constant, unbound by the anthropomorphized limitations of "beginning, middle and end."
For an explanation of the afterlife, we can consider that symptomatically, theories suggesting the pineal gland releases large quantities of dimethyltriptamine when the brain is about to shut down would explain our sense of being one with God, as it also shuts down the posterior parietal lobe right before death. With no ability to account for time and space, that shut down from this life could seem like an eternity in another realm, one made up of physical manifestations of our own thoughts, dreams and feelings.
But enough about biology. It's a fascinating, challenging book, beautifully written with attention to every line and spare word. It's beautifully crafted, if daunting for those not grounded in challenging their own perceptions, and well worth a read.
It's a beautifully written book, a work of craft reminiscent of some of the best writing of Terry Southern or Ken Kesey.
Nonetheless, the lack of a defined and familiar conclusion is truly daunting. It's as if someone set up a plot where "A" led to "B", which led to a conclusion of ..."Q". You can't help but admit the final conclusion may be as correct as any of the myriad possible answers, but our natural instinct to expect "C" makes the sudden shift in perspective both fascinating and disturbing.
As an amateur student of human development and neuroscience, my rational side is bothered somewhat by the book; although author Chance Maree uses the backdoor "out" of noting that all metaphysical experience may simply be a consequence of brain chemistry, she also postulates that perhaps it is a matter of how we define our own perceptions, that even if we are just imagining things, it's how that perception affects us that is important, not the perception itself; perhaps the afterlife isn't at all what we imagine it to be but instead just a reflection of the unceasingly recycled nature of the energy that makes up the universe, a series of personalities occupying one "family tree" of experience, where the bonds of love are the only permanence.
Or, at least, that's what I got from it. It's the optimistic side of agnosticism's half-full glass of water, the idea that the manifestation in our world of things spiritual and magical is a consequence of us only seeing one small corner of our own existence. The world is relatively static; it's the people and perceptions recycled, reinvented by one generation after another, in part to tie them through the familiarity of community and ceremony.
It's also a brave book with respect to its fairly open contempt for the orthodoxies that bind human existence within man-made religions. It's not open contempt for religion, just for its use to repress. In fact, the book revels in the power of ceremony to open up our mind's eye to new perceptions; I imagine the author has gone through a number of types of spiritual soul-searching in her days.
Having gushed optimistically, I should also caution that, with respect to neuroscience, more is known about the biochemistry underpinning spiritualism than this book lets on, and there are much more pragmatic conclusions that can be reached about why we believe things and see things that are spiritual or magical.
We can be optimistic, and hope that spiritualism is part of some timeless continuum, in which we'll continue to play some role after this life ... or we can note that certain types of ceremony induce a self-hypnosis via the reduction of blood flow in the posterior parietal lobe, the part of the brain that controls time and space, and consequently we can become so comforted we go into a trance-like state of hallucination.
That's it. That's all. No magic, no purpose, just an element of survival instinct, a hard-coding in the brain that helps it detach from this reality when this reality becomes overwhelming -- and one that happens to play into the unanswerable questions we have about the nature of existence, answers we'll likely never attain, as existence is a constant, unbound by the anthropomorphized limitations of "beginning, middle and end."
For an explanation of the afterlife, we can consider that symptomatically, theories suggesting the pineal gland releases large quantities of dimethyltriptamine when the brain is about to shut down would explain our sense of being one with God, as it also shuts down the posterior parietal lobe right before death. With no ability to account for time and space, that shut down from this life could seem like an eternity in another realm, one made up of physical manifestations of our own thoughts, dreams and feelings.
But enough about biology. It's a fascinating, challenging book, beautifully written with attention to every line and spare word. It's beautifully crafted, if daunting for those not grounded in challenging their own perceptions, and well worth a read.
January 16, 2012
4 Stars, I really liked it!
Alexios Before Dying is unlike any other book that I have read before. -And I mean that as a compliment. This book is the perfect example for why I love goodreads so much. Goodreads has introduced me to a lot of new books that I would have normally not picked up on my own, but now that I have, I am very glad that I did.
Alexios before Dying is, at times, a surprisingly cerebral book, in that it asks you to step outside of yourself and look at something that most people don’t spend much time contemplating – existence and the hereafter. I appreciated that the book kept its final agenda under lock and key until near the end. In addition to the completely original concept that is masterfully told here, I think the idea for this story was very well planned out and executed. I really enjoyed reading it.
Thank you Chance Maree for the free copy of this ebook.
Alexios Before Dying is unlike any other book that I have read before. -And I mean that as a compliment. This book is the perfect example for why I love goodreads so much. Goodreads has introduced me to a lot of new books that I would have normally not picked up on my own, but now that I have, I am very glad that I did.
Alexios before Dying is, at times, a surprisingly cerebral book, in that it asks you to step outside of yourself and look at something that most people don’t spend much time contemplating – existence and the hereafter. I appreciated that the book kept its final agenda under lock and key until near the end. In addition to the completely original concept that is masterfully told here, I think the idea for this story was very well planned out and executed. I really enjoyed reading it.
Thank you Chance Maree for the free copy of this ebook.
October 10, 2012
Books such as this one are hard to write reviews of. For one, there’s a real danger of giving away important plot elements. It’s not too much of a giveaway to state that one enters this book like a giant labyrinth, in which the way “forward” is anything but evident. Characters are thrown into the universe, and the link between them is initially unclear.
We start with Velia, a young black girl in 1924 New York City, who has a severe case of synesthesia. She becomes the apprentice of a street performer, The Magician, whose real name is not revealed and whose sexuality and lifestyle have held him on the fringes of society long enough to recognize a kindred soul in the misfit Velia.
Then, in a totally different setting, we encounter Kimi, a woman burying herself alone in the desert on a shamanic journey. She is shepherded by The Shaman (real name not given), an Australian exile whose choices (in this life and past ones) have trapped him in a relationship with a cruel woman.
Then, there’s Leta, a blue-eyed redhead with a gift for seeing scenes of the past and supernatural beings, visiting the muslim holy lands in the company of The Sufi (real name not given).
Just now realizing that the male characters are identified by their function (magician, shaman, sufi) and female characters by their name. Anyway.
As the story unfolds, it appears that these characters do not occupy the same time periods and the links from one to another slowly appear. It’s not until they actually die that the links become even more clear, and then not until the … sorry, can’t explain without spoiling.
The novel is focused on the transformations that the characters undergo personally and collectively. They enchant, beguile, cajole, sometimes brusque one another, and the accumulated momentum carries over into the afterlife.
I must admit I sometimes found the characters to overly virtuous. For instance, The Magician will sometimes steal a watch, but with his talent, the ease with which he does it and the economically difficult context in which he lives, you’d expect him to do a lot more of it. Similarly, Kimi shows herself to be laudable in thinking of her husband and handicapped step son even in the middle of her shamanic journey undertaken to wean meaning from her terminal illness.
The writing, nevertheless, is quite enjoyable. It skips merrily and never shies from going straight to the point. Here’s an example, in which Kimi has buried herself:
In certain moments, whole strands of existence are smartly captured.
I enjoyed the depictions of the afterlife and found they were treated with the required humour and distance. Overall, the novel is one of journeys undertaken, relationships forged and bonds made that have unsuspected weight.
We start with Velia, a young black girl in 1924 New York City, who has a severe case of synesthesia. She becomes the apprentice of a street performer, The Magician, whose real name is not revealed and whose sexuality and lifestyle have held him on the fringes of society long enough to recognize a kindred soul in the misfit Velia.
Then, in a totally different setting, we encounter Kimi, a woman burying herself alone in the desert on a shamanic journey. She is shepherded by The Shaman (real name not given), an Australian exile whose choices (in this life and past ones) have trapped him in a relationship with a cruel woman.
Then, there’s Leta, a blue-eyed redhead with a gift for seeing scenes of the past and supernatural beings, visiting the muslim holy lands in the company of The Sufi (real name not given).
Just now realizing that the male characters are identified by their function (magician, shaman, sufi) and female characters by their name. Anyway.
As the story unfolds, it appears that these characters do not occupy the same time periods and the links from one to another slowly appear. It’s not until they actually die that the links become even more clear, and then not until the … sorry, can’t explain without spoiling.
The novel is focused on the transformations that the characters undergo personally and collectively. They enchant, beguile, cajole, sometimes brusque one another, and the accumulated momentum carries over into the afterlife.
I must admit I sometimes found the characters to overly virtuous. For instance, The Magician will sometimes steal a watch, but with his talent, the ease with which he does it and the economically difficult context in which he lives, you’d expect him to do a lot more of it. Similarly, Kimi shows herself to be laudable in thinking of her husband and handicapped step son even in the middle of her shamanic journey undertaken to wean meaning from her terminal illness.
The writing, nevertheless, is quite enjoyable. It skips merrily and never shies from going straight to the point. Here’s an example, in which Kimi has buried herself:
“Here, in her grave, Kimi’s soul felt stripped bare; all that remained was flesh and whinning bones. She felt she were no longer either a wife or a step-mother. Not an in-law, employee, co-worker, citizen, consumer, friend, or even a woman. Only a body. A stray hman being planted in earth for safekeeping.
In certain moments, whole strands of existence are smartly captured.
“The boys adored their father and thought him the wisest man on Earth. He’d wink at them when their mother hauled them off to religious studies. The boys learned to wink, too.”
I enjoyed the depictions of the afterlife and found they were treated with the required humour and distance. Overall, the novel is one of journeys undertaken, relationships forged and bonds made that have unsuspected weight.
March 4, 2015
Right from the start, this novel hooked me. I loved Velia and The Magician and I found their story intriguing. Then the book switched gears and introduced us to Kimi in Mexico. Then again, she switched and introduced an American graduate student visiting Saudi Arabia.
At first, I was disappointed that the author jumped around so much. But once I started to make the connections between the three stories, I was hooked once again. The author impressed me with her ability to weave three stories together.
Unfortunately, the end took another turn and my mind wasn’t able to wrap around it. I don’t think it’s the story. I think it’s me. The author has some thought-provoking ideas and my lazy brain was having a hard time connecting the dots.
Interestingly enough, I still enjoyed the book quite a bit, even though I was completely baffled by the final chapters. Since finishing, I’ve been thinking about it on and off.
At first, I was disappointed that the author jumped around so much. But once I started to make the connections between the three stories, I was hooked once again. The author impressed me with her ability to weave three stories together.
Unfortunately, the end took another turn and my mind wasn’t able to wrap around it. I don’t think it’s the story. I think it’s me. The author has some thought-provoking ideas and my lazy brain was having a hard time connecting the dots.
Interestingly enough, I still enjoyed the book quite a bit, even though I was completely baffled by the final chapters. Since finishing, I’ve been thinking about it on and off.
May 30, 2012
At last! This review is the culmination of a long and tragic period during which I wanted to read on, but could only peel away time for it in frustrating slices. If my review is disjointed and nonsensical, I blame Time for its failure to properly encompass all my responsibilities and leave room for reading as well.
To start, I enjoyed Maree’s writing style. That’s actually a pretty big component to my enjoyment of a story. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a variety of styles, from the sparse and speedy style of Ernest Hemingway (though I didn’t so much enjoy his stories themselves) to the more elaborate and clever meanderings of a William Shakespeare, or the atypical writing of E Annie Proulx (The Shipping News).
Alexios has a nigh-formal descriptive style and characterization to it that, in the world of writing, tends to go one of two ways: bland and tediously overwritten, in the fashion of 18th and 19th century writers (not to short change contemporary pedants who are just as tedious); deep and meaningful in detail, as in the case of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (which, oddly enough, many found overwritten—that happens when your footnotes can fill a page—but I found mesmerizing in the stories in each detail and within stories). While Alexios doesn’t quite boast the mesmerizing features of Susanna Clarke’s masterful tome, it certainly doesn’t fall into the dull world of literature from the 1700s and 1800s (sorry, Leo Tolstoy, I did love War and Peace, but not every contemporary writer was as good at making huge stories interesting—some were just huge).
The story itself is one that tells multiple, seemingly unrelated tales, while pulling the bowstring more and more taut as we approach a final revelation. Though the tales of the individuals are interesting, and hint at structural ties (each seems to involve a kind of nameless mystic identified only by their title, each distinctly mystical, yet each with a different level of connection with the ethereal) that suggest the stories are somehow related as opposed to completely arbitrary, it is the promise of the coming reveal that invariably drives a reader on. Who is Alexios? How does it tie into the theme of DEATH/NEAR-DEATH???
The answer to that question is a pretty stunning swing into the surreal and ethereal that would be shameful and rude of me to spoil for you. I will tell you that you will likely view the ending in one of two fashions: fascinating or mind-breaking.
If I were to ask myself to find a weak point in the story (I am… right now), it would be to complain that it lacks a feature it isn’t necessarily supposed to have (What!? No Laser Dragon Ships? No Sentient Air Horses? No banana-powered submarines? Expectation Fail! No stars!). What seems to be lacking for the typical reader is a hint about what the payoff might be right away. In pulp fiction books, the conclusion is often easy to spot immediately in the summary or the opening chapter, so the reader knows exactly what they’re building toward:
“Johnny Jimson, long-haired rock god and private investigator, had to be on stage for his concert in 1 hour. But someone had kidnapped his Electric Trombonist. Oh Nohs! He must find his trombonist or all his fans will be sad.”
Oftentimes an author can get away with leaving out cardinal directions if the reader is confident the author knows what they’re doing, trusting the story won’t simply meander from place to place before slumping into an arbitrary conclusion that doesn’t tie anything together. My purpose in bringing this up, oh potentially mutually concerned reader, is to indicate that isn’t the case here—there’s an obvious relationship between the characters due to the similar structure of their adventures. And there’s certainly a payoff, so don’t be put out when it’s not immediately apparent where the story is headed because no one mentions a missing Trombonist right off the bat.
If you’re looking for a story to rank highly in terms of Strictly Plot-borne Gripping Adventure, this likely isn’t for you—that’s not how this story works, necessarily. Maree does a splendid job providing anxious moments to keep the reader engaged as we build toward the conclusion. Fortunately, different stories require different grading scales, and this story ranks pretty highly on the Thoughtful-Well-Written-Tale Scale, which, as you might have guessed from the score, and me being a reasonably sensible person, is the scale I decided to use.
UNRELATED SIDE NOTE
As a completely unrelated side note that is nonetheless integral to Chance’s success as a writer, I feel compelled to point out that the author’s name, if not contrived, could hardly have been better chosen as a Catchy Author Name. In my experience, I’ve known few people with better “writing names” (the champion, of course, goes to a classmate of mine from Bowling Green: Bradley Wolfenden III). It sounds good, and no doubt looks good on the spine of a book, on which, after reading this story, I believe it has earned a place.
To start, I enjoyed Maree’s writing style. That’s actually a pretty big component to my enjoyment of a story. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a variety of styles, from the sparse and speedy style of Ernest Hemingway (though I didn’t so much enjoy his stories themselves) to the more elaborate and clever meanderings of a William Shakespeare, or the atypical writing of E Annie Proulx (The Shipping News).
Alexios has a nigh-formal descriptive style and characterization to it that, in the world of writing, tends to go one of two ways: bland and tediously overwritten, in the fashion of 18th and 19th century writers (not to short change contemporary pedants who are just as tedious); deep and meaningful in detail, as in the case of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (which, oddly enough, many found overwritten—that happens when your footnotes can fill a page—but I found mesmerizing in the stories in each detail and within stories). While Alexios doesn’t quite boast the mesmerizing features of Susanna Clarke’s masterful tome, it certainly doesn’t fall into the dull world of literature from the 1700s and 1800s (sorry, Leo Tolstoy, I did love War and Peace, but not every contemporary writer was as good at making huge stories interesting—some were just huge).
The story itself is one that tells multiple, seemingly unrelated tales, while pulling the bowstring more and more taut as we approach a final revelation. Though the tales of the individuals are interesting, and hint at structural ties (each seems to involve a kind of nameless mystic identified only by their title, each distinctly mystical, yet each with a different level of connection with the ethereal) that suggest the stories are somehow related as opposed to completely arbitrary, it is the promise of the coming reveal that invariably drives a reader on. Who is Alexios? How does it tie into the theme of DEATH/NEAR-DEATH???
The answer to that question is a pretty stunning swing into the surreal and ethereal that would be shameful and rude of me to spoil for you. I will tell you that you will likely view the ending in one of two fashions: fascinating or mind-breaking.
If I were to ask myself to find a weak point in the story (I am… right now), it would be to complain that it lacks a feature it isn’t necessarily supposed to have (What!? No Laser Dragon Ships? No Sentient Air Horses? No banana-powered submarines? Expectation Fail! No stars!). What seems to be lacking for the typical reader is a hint about what the payoff might be right away. In pulp fiction books, the conclusion is often easy to spot immediately in the summary or the opening chapter, so the reader knows exactly what they’re building toward:
“Johnny Jimson, long-haired rock god and private investigator, had to be on stage for his concert in 1 hour. But someone had kidnapped his Electric Trombonist. Oh Nohs! He must find his trombonist or all his fans will be sad.”
Oftentimes an author can get away with leaving out cardinal directions if the reader is confident the author knows what they’re doing, trusting the story won’t simply meander from place to place before slumping into an arbitrary conclusion that doesn’t tie anything together. My purpose in bringing this up, oh potentially mutually concerned reader, is to indicate that isn’t the case here—there’s an obvious relationship between the characters due to the similar structure of their adventures. And there’s certainly a payoff, so don’t be put out when it’s not immediately apparent where the story is headed because no one mentions a missing Trombonist right off the bat.
If you’re looking for a story to rank highly in terms of Strictly Plot-borne Gripping Adventure, this likely isn’t for you—that’s not how this story works, necessarily. Maree does a splendid job providing anxious moments to keep the reader engaged as we build toward the conclusion. Fortunately, different stories require different grading scales, and this story ranks pretty highly on the Thoughtful-Well-Written-Tale Scale, which, as you might have guessed from the score, and me being a reasonably sensible person, is the scale I decided to use.
UNRELATED SIDE NOTE
As a completely unrelated side note that is nonetheless integral to Chance’s success as a writer, I feel compelled to point out that the author’s name, if not contrived, could hardly have been better chosen as a Catchy Author Name. In my experience, I’ve known few people with better “writing names” (the champion, of course, goes to a classmate of mine from Bowling Green: Bradley Wolfenden III). It sounds good, and no doubt looks good on the spine of a book, on which, after reading this story, I believe it has earned a place.
June 26, 2012
I want to avoid addressing issues of plot in this review, primarily because Alexios is a logic-puzzle without a solution.
This is one of the more literary novels I’ve read, and to be 100% honest it’s one of the very few non-genre works that I’ve actually enjoyed. I’m aware that some will think me shallow for saying so, but I don’t particularly mind. In truth, my stabs at post-modern literature have been largely abortive (Come Thou, Tortoise was the most recent) because the books either struck me as pretentious fluff or as a load of precious self-indulgence on the part of the author. I was beyond pleased to discover that Alexios was neither.
As I dove into the first section, what first struck me was the prose; it was lovely. Not overblown, not jackhammer-artsy, but just plain lovely. It flowed. It was rich with metaphor. The dialogue was utterly convincing and conveyed character. I’d just finished reading The Process Server by LH Thomson, so the bar was already high, and Ms. Maree surpassed my expectations.
So, Point One: If you enjoy excellent writing, I highly recommend this book. I refuse to gush or burble, so that’s all I’ll say about that.
As to the content of the novel, this is really a story about context. There are no genre-style antagonists, per se. Oh, sure, characters dressed as antagonists appear from time to time. They march onto the stage, expectations are established but, as with real life, the situations that cast them into these roles evolve and the demons pass like faces aboard an oncoming train. The real antagonists are the protagonists themselves; their perceptions, their expectations, their own personalities and situations.
Point Two: If you go into this novel with expectations insofar as story pattern or plot, set them aside. You’ll just gnaw your lip for nothing. The narrative wound its way through plenty of time-warping and head-jumping, but all of it is skillfully and artfully done. As I transitioned from the first section to the second, I had the impression that I’d stumbled into a collection of short stories, but this is not the case. Be patient and trust the author. You’re in good hands.
At the heart of the novel, there are some ideas that students of philosophy or world religions will recognize. I thought of the Hindu ideas concerning the fragmentation of deity, I thought of Kabbala, and I even thought of the Allegory of the Cave. There are images and ideas drawn from Sufism (now, I have an urge to read Rumi) as well as animism.
One thing I’ve learned during my time on Goodreads is that when different readers dive into a novel, they see it from different angles. They take away different ideas about what was inside, sometimes emerging with contradictory perceptions of what they've read. Life itself is like that, as any cop will tell you that when a group of people observe an event, many of them see slightly different (or completely different) things.
Point Three: This novel is wide, and this novel is deep. What you find, should you choose to enter, is going to depend largely on what you carry with you.
I don’t typically assign 5 star ratings. In my view, those belong to books with a potential to be important in the long term, or at least to a generation. I’m downright stingy with stars, really, and if I give a book 4 stars it means I thought it was excellent on several levels, but I’ve thought about it for days and I have to give this one 5.
This is one of the more literary novels I’ve read, and to be 100% honest it’s one of the very few non-genre works that I’ve actually enjoyed. I’m aware that some will think me shallow for saying so, but I don’t particularly mind. In truth, my stabs at post-modern literature have been largely abortive (Come Thou, Tortoise was the most recent) because the books either struck me as pretentious fluff or as a load of precious self-indulgence on the part of the author. I was beyond pleased to discover that Alexios was neither.
As I dove into the first section, what first struck me was the prose; it was lovely. Not overblown, not jackhammer-artsy, but just plain lovely. It flowed. It was rich with metaphor. The dialogue was utterly convincing and conveyed character. I’d just finished reading The Process Server by LH Thomson, so the bar was already high, and Ms. Maree surpassed my expectations.
So, Point One: If you enjoy excellent writing, I highly recommend this book. I refuse to gush or burble, so that’s all I’ll say about that.
As to the content of the novel, this is really a story about context. There are no genre-style antagonists, per se. Oh, sure, characters dressed as antagonists appear from time to time. They march onto the stage, expectations are established but, as with real life, the situations that cast them into these roles evolve and the demons pass like faces aboard an oncoming train. The real antagonists are the protagonists themselves; their perceptions, their expectations, their own personalities and situations.
Point Two: If you go into this novel with expectations insofar as story pattern or plot, set them aside. You’ll just gnaw your lip for nothing. The narrative wound its way through plenty of time-warping and head-jumping, but all of it is skillfully and artfully done. As I transitioned from the first section to the second, I had the impression that I’d stumbled into a collection of short stories, but this is not the case. Be patient and trust the author. You’re in good hands.
At the heart of the novel, there are some ideas that students of philosophy or world religions will recognize. I thought of the Hindu ideas concerning the fragmentation of deity, I thought of Kabbala, and I even thought of the Allegory of the Cave. There are images and ideas drawn from Sufism (now, I have an urge to read Rumi) as well as animism.
One thing I’ve learned during my time on Goodreads is that when different readers dive into a novel, they see it from different angles. They take away different ideas about what was inside, sometimes emerging with contradictory perceptions of what they've read. Life itself is like that, as any cop will tell you that when a group of people observe an event, many of them see slightly different (or completely different) things.
Point Three: This novel is wide, and this novel is deep. What you find, should you choose to enter, is going to depend largely on what you carry with you.
I don’t typically assign 5 star ratings. In my view, those belong to books with a potential to be important in the long term, or at least to a generation. I’m downright stingy with stars, really, and if I give a book 4 stars it means I thought it was excellent on several levels, but I’ve thought about it for days and I have to give this one 5.
May 12, 2013
Alexios, Before Dying
It is 1924. Velia is a little black girl who lives in New York who is harassed on her way to school by a pack of boys. The Magician watches her from his window and cares about her. When she is struck by a car, he is first on the scene and (being as how her injuries are not too severe) he becomes her deepest friend. Velia is not an ordinary little girl. She has the ability to know things others can’t.
It is 1984. Kimi is a second wife and the stepmother of a boy who must spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. When she learns that she will die from cancer, she tries to prepare herself by taking up with the Shaman in a desert area of Mexico. Much goes wrong. She is a witness and a participant in many adventures.
It is 2004. Leta is in the Middle East, visiting the sacred sites of the great religions. She is young, beautiful and obsessed with her vision of religion. She also believes that physical objects (especially rocks) are capable of carrying the imprints of the historical scenes they have ‘witnessed’, and that one who is sensitive enough may learn to read them. Apart from all that, she is pretty interested in a young man, Karim, who is a friend of her brother’s and who does not reciprocate the same kind of interest. The wise man here, the guide, is called the Sufi.
These are three separate threads of action, interwoven back and forth across eighty years in time. The connection between some of the characters emerges. There is no direct connection between the stories.
This is a remarkably well-written book. It made very absorbing reading almost to the end. The last part of the book was as well written as the first part, but the book morphed into something that didn’t hold my attention quite as well—call it ‘metaphysical fantasy’ I guess. It was still interesting, surprisingly so for me because I don’t care too much for pure fantasy, and a lot of it was quite funny toward the end. But the author’s imagination is more playful than my own and my attention strayed a bit. I’m not sure I even understood exactly what a few things quite meant toward the very end of the book. That is all that I can say that is not overwhelmingly positive. Because of my own confusion, I contemplated giving the book four stars instead of five, but after thinking about it I had to give it five. The writing is probably the best I have read in a long time.
It is 1924. Velia is a little black girl who lives in New York who is harassed on her way to school by a pack of boys. The Magician watches her from his window and cares about her. When she is struck by a car, he is first on the scene and (being as how her injuries are not too severe) he becomes her deepest friend. Velia is not an ordinary little girl. She has the ability to know things others can’t.
It is 1984. Kimi is a second wife and the stepmother of a boy who must spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. When she learns that she will die from cancer, she tries to prepare herself by taking up with the Shaman in a desert area of Mexico. Much goes wrong. She is a witness and a participant in many adventures.
It is 2004. Leta is in the Middle East, visiting the sacred sites of the great religions. She is young, beautiful and obsessed with her vision of religion. She also believes that physical objects (especially rocks) are capable of carrying the imprints of the historical scenes they have ‘witnessed’, and that one who is sensitive enough may learn to read them. Apart from all that, she is pretty interested in a young man, Karim, who is a friend of her brother’s and who does not reciprocate the same kind of interest. The wise man here, the guide, is called the Sufi.
These are three separate threads of action, interwoven back and forth across eighty years in time. The connection between some of the characters emerges. There is no direct connection between the stories.
This is a remarkably well-written book. It made very absorbing reading almost to the end. The last part of the book was as well written as the first part, but the book morphed into something that didn’t hold my attention quite as well—call it ‘metaphysical fantasy’ I guess. It was still interesting, surprisingly so for me because I don’t care too much for pure fantasy, and a lot of it was quite funny toward the end. But the author’s imagination is more playful than my own and my attention strayed a bit. I’m not sure I even understood exactly what a few things quite meant toward the very end of the book. That is all that I can say that is not overwhelmingly positive. Because of my own confusion, I contemplated giving the book four stars instead of five, but after thinking about it I had to give it five. The writing is probably the best I have read in a long time.
June 11, 2013
Alexios, Before Dying is a daring and successful attempt to explore the connections between people who live seemingly disparate lives. The author starts out telling little bits of each characters story chapter by chapter. The characters lives start to intersect in sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle ways. A common theme throughout all of these stories involves the different ways people experience their religions. From one characters fanatical belief in the Judeo-Christian-Muslim God to two other characters exploration of shamanistic spirit realms.
The characters are well drawn and show a good attempt by the author at following Hemingway's advice that writers create living people rather than characters.
The author avoids the use of adverbs and adjectives (which this reader always appreciates) instead relying on metaphors to paint a picture for the reader. Although some of the authors metaphors were a little on the heavy handed side they unfailingly convey the authors meaning.
My only real criticism to this book is that the point of view sometimes switches mid-scene. When a writer sticks to one point of view in a scene it creates greater depth because the reader is experiencing the same thing as the pov character. If for example in a particular scene Kimi does not know what's going on, then it suddenly switches to the Shaman who does know what's going on it ruins the effect of Kimi's confusion.
The reveal at the end is surprising and shows that that the author has a highly creative mind. There is an expository bit tacked on at the end that I did not feel was necessary, but perhaps other readers would appreciate it.
Recommended for anybody wanting a creative look at religion and spirituality.
The characters are well drawn and show a good attempt by the author at following Hemingway's advice that writers create living people rather than characters.
The author avoids the use of adverbs and adjectives (which this reader always appreciates) instead relying on metaphors to paint a picture for the reader. Although some of the authors metaphors were a little on the heavy handed side they unfailingly convey the authors meaning.
My only real criticism to this book is that the point of view sometimes switches mid-scene. When a writer sticks to one point of view in a scene it creates greater depth because the reader is experiencing the same thing as the pov character. If for example in a particular scene Kimi does not know what's going on, then it suddenly switches to the Shaman who does know what's going on it ruins the effect of Kimi's confusion.
The reveal at the end is surprising and shows that that the author has a highly creative mind. There is an expository bit tacked on at the end that I did not feel was necessary, but perhaps other readers would appreciate it.
Recommended for anybody wanting a creative look at religion and spirituality.
January 21, 2012
The blurb for this book doesn't do it justice. Actually, the blurb only has a passing resemblance to the story in terms of bookfeel (kinda like "mouthfeel" for foodstuffs). I especially enjoyed the characters and life stories of the first 3/4 of the book. The last quarter was a bit too surreal to mesh perfectly with the more realistic beginning so it took a bit of mental gear shifting on my part to link it all up, but the writing itself flowed seamlessly.
Won this as a Firstreads advance reader copy.
Potential spoiler: This is the book "Five People You Meet in Heaven" wishes it could have been.
Won this as a Firstreads advance reader copy.
Potential spoiler: This is the book "Five People You Meet in Heaven" wishes it could have been.
February 16, 2012
I was lucky enough to win a copy of Alexios, Before Dying through a Goodreads giveaway. I found it to be a unique and beautifully written novel. Each storyline was captivating and full of intriguing, original characters. A deep and fascinating read that lingers with you even after you've finished. It's clear that Chance Maree has a great talent and I am looking forward to reading more from her.
April 24, 2012
I was also lucky to win this book on Goodreads. It is not a book I would have normally read. The author, in my opinion, is talented beyond words. I think the average reader would have a hard time digesting her prose...she weaves her story and characters in such a clever way. A beautiful book.
June 30, 2012
First off, this is a very well written book, and a very good example of the sort of original work that self-publishing has saved from the traditional publishing houses waste-bins. Perhaps in more enlightened times, ones less focused on the bogey of profit before enterprise, Chance would have found a main stream publisher. Fortunately ePublishing allows inventive authors to ignore the traditional paths.
This is a thinker’s read, not a high-brow pretentious one, but definitely cerebral. Amongst my early thoughts was the idea that I was reading a selection of short stories. Particularly the first few chapters can be read as self-contained pieces. By the end of chapter four I realised there was a thread, one that I failed to really see until the very end. I became increasingly aware of a need to concentrate more fully.
I love the diversity of Chance’s characters, or partial characters might be a more accurate description. I think Chance has spent a lot of time people watching. The diversity of characters is only matched by the range of cultures, and philosophical ideas on which Chance draws. We see elements from many mystical, metaphysical and private insights in the building of Alexios.
There are problems. Chance runs the risk of losing some readers, by not having a rigid and clear plot line. We see the direction at the end, but the shallow reader that is me could have done with being better anchored. In other words, the story does ask a lot of the reader. Luckily her prose writing is so good that most are sure to be kept on-board.
I would have liked Chance to have majored on her brilliant story telling more than her philosophical conjuring. She doesn’t need to drop the intellectual content, far from it. Rather she needs to boost the story with even more gratuitous rewards for the reader along the speculative path.
Perhaps the real problem was manufactured by trying to write to concisely, by bowing too much to the modern clarion call to write short. Self-publishing allows a freedom which perhaps was compromised by early attempts to satisfy the short-sighted monster that is modern establishment publishing.
I will be looking out for Chance’s future works.
This is a thinker’s read, not a high-brow pretentious one, but definitely cerebral. Amongst my early thoughts was the idea that I was reading a selection of short stories. Particularly the first few chapters can be read as self-contained pieces. By the end of chapter four I realised there was a thread, one that I failed to really see until the very end. I became increasingly aware of a need to concentrate more fully.
I love the diversity of Chance’s characters, or partial characters might be a more accurate description. I think Chance has spent a lot of time people watching. The diversity of characters is only matched by the range of cultures, and philosophical ideas on which Chance draws. We see elements from many mystical, metaphysical and private insights in the building of Alexios.
There are problems. Chance runs the risk of losing some readers, by not having a rigid and clear plot line. We see the direction at the end, but the shallow reader that is me could have done with being better anchored. In other words, the story does ask a lot of the reader. Luckily her prose writing is so good that most are sure to be kept on-board.
I would have liked Chance to have majored on her brilliant story telling more than her philosophical conjuring. She doesn’t need to drop the intellectual content, far from it. Rather she needs to boost the story with even more gratuitous rewards for the reader along the speculative path.
Perhaps the real problem was manufactured by trying to write to concisely, by bowing too much to the modern clarion call to write short. Self-publishing allows a freedom which perhaps was compromised by early attempts to satisfy the short-sighted monster that is modern establishment publishing.
I will be looking out for Chance’s future works.
November 20, 2014
'Alexois, Before Dying' - which is a great title in itself: unique and intriguing - details seemingly disparate lives taking place in various countries in different times. In 1924, in New York, we are introduced to a remarkable girl Veila and the magician she befriends. In 1984, in Mexico, we meet Kimi who wanders the desert in search of meaning, encountering death and intrigue. In 2004, in Saudi Arabia, a graduate student, Leta, goes on a pilgrimage which puts her freedom and very life in danger.
All the characters are undertaking quests to understand their lives, as lensed through a particular belief system or spiritual standpoint. These journeys take on a doubly fascinating dimension when they actually experience the afterlives their respective belief systems offer.
As someone who majored in Philosophy at university (where I wondered if anyone knew anything with certainty!) I enjoyed the metaphysical overtones to the book. While gently censuring the more extreme aspects of religion, Maree seems to be on the whole presenting a kind of syncretism, a respect for all forms of belief. Although there are no didactic answers within its pages.
In terms of the individual sections, I especially liked the ones set in 1924, which really managed to convey a sepia-coloured world, and in 2004, which attains at times a real level of high wire tension. The three main threads could each be quite different novels in themselves, and made me think that Maree could pen straight historical fiction or thrillers if she wanted to. But the joy of books like this one is that they are uncategorizable.
'Alexois, Before Dying' is both sweeping and intimate, familiar and challenging. It is at times as confusing as life, but also exquisitely enlightening. A recommended read.
All the characters are undertaking quests to understand their lives, as lensed through a particular belief system or spiritual standpoint. These journeys take on a doubly fascinating dimension when they actually experience the afterlives their respective belief systems offer.
As someone who majored in Philosophy at university (where I wondered if anyone knew anything with certainty!) I enjoyed the metaphysical overtones to the book. While gently censuring the more extreme aspects of religion, Maree seems to be on the whole presenting a kind of syncretism, a respect for all forms of belief. Although there are no didactic answers within its pages.
In terms of the individual sections, I especially liked the ones set in 1924, which really managed to convey a sepia-coloured world, and in 2004, which attains at times a real level of high wire tension. The three main threads could each be quite different novels in themselves, and made me think that Maree could pen straight historical fiction or thrillers if she wanted to. But the joy of books like this one is that they are uncategorizable.
'Alexois, Before Dying' is both sweeping and intimate, familiar and challenging. It is at times as confusing as life, but also exquisitely enlightening. A recommended read.
January 23, 2012
This is a very interesting book -- a view of 'life' after life. The first
2/3 to 3/4 of the book could be considered a conventional story centered on
the lives of three women. there are hints of something else going on, but it is
not until the last 1/4 to 1/3 that the 'something else' becomes the story and
re-casts the first portion of the book into a different light. the author has
done a very good job of weaving the story together. i found it to be a
relatively fast, but good read. i recommend it.
2/3 to 3/4 of the book could be considered a conventional story centered on
the lives of three women. there are hints of something else going on, but it is
not until the last 1/4 to 1/3 that the 'something else' becomes the story and
re-casts the first portion of the book into a different light. the author has
done a very good job of weaving the story together. i found it to be a
relatively fast, but good read. i recommend it.
April 18, 2012
Full of rich vibrant characters and settings. because of the seemingly unrelated sequence of chapters I found this book to be hard to get into at first, but if the reader is patient and pays attention they will be rewarded with a unique and engrossing tale with very subtle links from one chapter to another that grow more obvious as the story develops. I very much enjoyed this unusual story and was glad I persisted past the first couple of chapters.
January 18, 2012
I don't do reviews, but I will say that I was suprised as to how smooth and flowing this book was to read. I've had a lot to deal with while reading this book and it was a nice get-away that actually made me think about; and appreciate, life's little secrets. Expertly written and definitely worth picking up.
October 3, 2012
I received this book for free through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. I really liked the way this book was written. Each chapter tells a story about a different character or set of characters and it all ties together in the end. I love the way the author connects everyone. This book is a delightful and enjoyable read.
March 11, 2012
I thought it developed well but then became almost another story with same characters. As a whole the book was enjoyable.
April 5, 2012
Review copy provided by Goodreads.com.
This was a very interesting and intriguing read. It is well written and quite thought provoking.
This was a very interesting and intriguing read. It is well written and quite thought provoking.
January 3, 2015
I was given a copy of this book by the author, Chance Maree, for an honest review. The very first page grabbed my attention and I liked the book from the start. The characters, a little girl, Velia Gray, and The Magician, were also likeable from the start. I enjoyed the first couple of chapters; the author does a good job with the way she writes of getting you sucked into the story. Then about half way, I started to lose some interest, then things got weird and by the end the story totally lost me. The only way to describe it is like a disjointed dream, you know the ones that get weirder as they go, but feels really real. If you like “New Age”, “Spirit Walking”, “Out of Body Experience”, or philosophy, you would probably like the story. I think it is for more “enlightened” minds than mine. I had originally offered to read a Sci Fi book that she had written and she thought I would enjoy this one better. I wish I had read her book description first. I give the book 3 stars because the book is well written. Just not my cup of tea.
August 18, 2016
What a wonderful little read this book was. The intricate way in which the stories came together, ending up as one, was a work of genius, tying up loose ends as it went on. You have to know that these stories are good as stand alone's as well.
The three stories, set in three different timelines, and a fourth story added in at the end for good measure: Velia and the Magician, Leta and the Sufi and Kimi and the Shaman, were told beautifully, and the narrative was very well executed. I'm not going to reveal too much of the plot, if any, as I want you to consider each aspect of this book, and see how it pulls together as one, without me giving away spoilers.
I think as a reader, this book made my brain work more than it ever had in the past. I loved that.
Anyway, I recommend this intelligent read to all.
*I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The three stories, set in three different timelines, and a fourth story added in at the end for good measure: Velia and the Magician, Leta and the Sufi and Kimi and the Shaman, were told beautifully, and the narrative was very well executed. I'm not going to reveal too much of the plot, if any, as I want you to consider each aspect of this book, and see how it pulls together as one, without me giving away spoilers.
I think as a reader, this book made my brain work more than it ever had in the past. I loved that.
Anyway, I recommend this intelligent read to all.
*I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
abandoned
September 1, 2013I had my eye on this book for some time so was very happy to get my hands on a copy shortly after it was published. The Goodreads' giveaway program is a nice way to get introduced to new authors but there is always the chance that I'll come upon a story that just doesn't click with me. This book has been languishing on my currently reading list for over a year now. Time to face the facts. I've lost complete interest in this story.
There are so many books I want to read, so many stories I want to experience. I can't seem to drum up the energy to power through a book I so obviously don't want to read.
There are so many books I want to read, so many stories I want to experience. I can't seem to drum up the energy to power through a book I so obviously don't want to read.
Want to read
August 11, 2016This novel sounds intriguing, with a fascinating cast of characters and issues.
My son is a synesthete (he hears colors in music), and I'd love to read this author's take on the subject.
My son is a synesthete (he hears colors in music), and I'd love to read this author's take on the subject.
Read
February 25, 2016kindle 252 (metaphysical)
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