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The Shadow Catcher
Following her National Book Award finalist, Evidence of Things Unseen, Marianne Wiggins turns her extraordinary literary imagination to the American West, where the life of legendary photographer Edward S. Curtis is the basis for a resonant exploration of history and family, landscape and legacy.
The Shadow Catcher dramatically inhabits the space where past and present intersect, seamlessly interweaving narratives from two different eras: the first fraught passion between turn-of-the-twentieth-century icon Edward Curtis (1868-1952) and his muse-wife, Clara; and a twenty-first-century journey of redemption.
Narrated in the first person by a reimagined writer named Marianne Wiggins, the novel begins in Hollywood, where top producers are eager to sentimentalize the complicated life of Edward Curtis as a sunny biopic: "It's got the outdoors. It's got adventure. It's got the do-good element." Yet, contrary to Curtis's esteemed public reputation as servant to his nation, the artist was an absent husband and disappearing father. Jump to the next generation, when Marianne's own father, John Wiggins (1920-1970), would live and die in equal thrall to the impulse of wanderlust.
Were the two men running from or running to? Dodging the false beacons of memory and legend, Marianne amasses disparate clues -- photographs and hospital records, newspaper clippings and a rare white turquoise bracelet -- to recover those moments that went unrecorded, "to hear the words only the silent ones can speak." The Shadow Catcher, fueled by the great American passions for love and land and family, chases the silhouettes of our collective history into the bright light of the present.
323 pages, Hardcover
First published June 5, 2007
44 people are currently reading
968 people want to read
About the author
Marianne Wiggins
16 books289 followersMarianne Wiggins is the author of seven books of fiction including John Dollar and Evidence of Things Unseen. She has won an NEA grant, the Whiting Writers' Award, and the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and she was a National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-finalist in fiction for Evidence of Things Unseen.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 302 reviews
April 22, 2023
4.5🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷
Two things compelled me to read this book. The author’s recent work which I devoured and loved and that cover on my edition. The striking photograph is one I had seen and admired but I knew nothing about its creator.
That would be Edward S. Curtis, whose all in passion for photography chronicling Native American culture would bring first fame, then loss of family, money, and health.
Marianne Wiggins tells two stories which intersect. One inspired by Edward’s early life with wife Clara, the second, a modern day tale of a woman, our author as fictional main character, researching and writing about him, who goes on a westward road trip looking for answers about her deceased father after learning someone has perhaps stolen his identity. Both men had a habit of disappearing, leaving their families to figure out their own paths forward.
While not as beloved as her Properties of Thirst, she had my attention and appreciation from start to finish, and I was sad when it was over, quickly missing these richly drawn characters.
I myself would get in the car with either of these two authors and go wherever the spirit leads them.
When you read as much as I do, writers like Wiggins are the Domaine Leroy Pinot Noirs in the world of authors but you don’t have to pay over $40,000 to read their books. Such a deal.
I was inspired to find out more about Curtis and image searched of course, and like many brilliant artists, Curtis would become desperate for cash, selling the rights to his work, ending up forgotten by the end of his life. It is estimated that producing his epic The North American Indian today would cost more than $35 million. My glass is raised.
Two things compelled me to read this book. The author’s recent work which I devoured and loved and that cover on my edition. The striking photograph is one I had seen and admired but I knew nothing about its creator.
That would be Edward S. Curtis, whose all in passion for photography chronicling Native American culture would bring first fame, then loss of family, money, and health.
Marianne Wiggins tells two stories which intersect. One inspired by Edward’s early life with wife Clara, the second, a modern day tale of a woman, our author as fictional main character, researching and writing about him, who goes on a westward road trip looking for answers about her deceased father after learning someone has perhaps stolen his identity. Both men had a habit of disappearing, leaving their families to figure out their own paths forward.
While not as beloved as her Properties of Thirst, she had my attention and appreciation from start to finish, and I was sad when it was over, quickly missing these richly drawn characters.
I myself would get in the car with either of these two authors and go wherever the spirit leads them.
When you read as much as I do, writers like Wiggins are the Domaine Leroy Pinot Noirs in the world of authors but you don’t have to pay over $40,000 to read their books. Such a deal.
I was inspired to find out more about Curtis and image searched of course, and like many brilliant artists, Curtis would become desperate for cash, selling the rights to his work, ending up forgotten by the end of his life. It is estimated that producing his epic The North American Indian today would cost more than $35 million. My glass is raised.
May 4, 2023
It took a while to get into this one, especially on audio, as it shifted from one narrative to another (back in the day with Edward Curtis, and current day with the "author as character" in LA)--admittedly, I've been easily distracted recently. Once I did get hooked, I enjoyed the trail, and the inner musings.
A bit of history, a bit of family drama, a bit of mystery, and a lot of searching....for our missing peeps, for our history, for our destiny, for our purpose, for our place. An interesting dissection of how our pursuit of passions can upend our lives and the lives of those we care about.
I was inspired to go looking for the photographs as character in this saga to see the place as character represented by them. Stunning work. It adds to the experience to see them, life carved into the landscape of the environment and the faces.
Worth listening to, but I realize this one might have been better consumed in print.
A bit of history, a bit of family drama, a bit of mystery, and a lot of searching....for our missing peeps, for our history, for our destiny, for our purpose, for our place. An interesting dissection of how our pursuit of passions can upend our lives and the lives of those we care about.
I was inspired to go looking for the photographs as character in this saga to see the place as character represented by them. Stunning work. It adds to the experience to see them, life carved into the landscape of the environment and the faces.
Worth listening to, but I realize this one might have been better consumed in print.
April 26, 2012
Both postmodern and post-9/11, this enjoyable novel covers a lot of different ground, mixes genres and happily writes its own author in as a central character. Fortunately for us, Marianne Wiggins (the character) is one heck of a travel companion, paying a cross-desert visit to Las Vegas that evokes droll memories of the high spirits still echoing there from Hunter Thompson's drug-addled visit more than 35 years ago. I speak here of the novel as it "lights out for the territory" on page 155. Before that, it's chiefly a fictionalized history of a young woman's cross-country trip to 19th-century Seattle, where she has the misfortune (there's no other word for it) of crossing paths with renowned Western photographer Edward S. Curtis - not just crossing paths but marrying him for better or worse (mostly worse). Without giving too much away, it can be said that the novel accounts in this way for the appeal of "go west, young man" for a certain breed of men with a specific sort of impatience for civilization and its discontents.
I admit, I was ready to write off this novel at p. 155 for its slow pace and the funny but facile observartions about life in LA common to those who come here from somewhere else - turgid freeway traffic, fault lines, vapid movie people. But, hold onto your hat, the book takes off like a firecracker after that. I don't know if this helps, but I was reminded of my gleeful reaction to David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive," with its crazy but inevitable turns of plot. And while multiple interlinking plots do provide the framework for the narrative such as it is, Wiggins' own ruminations on the American experience of the West are really at the core of the novel, especially as she keeps connecting dots and pulling together loose ends, sometimes bringing the threads of several independent streams of conscious together into a single paragraph. Suspend your disbelief at the door and plunge in. This one is a treat.
I admit, I was ready to write off this novel at p. 155 for its slow pace and the funny but facile observartions about life in LA common to those who come here from somewhere else - turgid freeway traffic, fault lines, vapid movie people. But, hold onto your hat, the book takes off like a firecracker after that. I don't know if this helps, but I was reminded of my gleeful reaction to David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive," with its crazy but inevitable turns of plot. And while multiple interlinking plots do provide the framework for the narrative such as it is, Wiggins' own ruminations on the American experience of the West are really at the core of the novel, especially as she keeps connecting dots and pulling together loose ends, sometimes bringing the threads of several independent streams of conscious together into a single paragraph. Suspend your disbelief at the door and plunge in. This one is a treat.
October 4, 2009
The opening chapter of this book may be the single most moving and beautiful first chapter I have ever read, bar none! And now that I have finished the book this evening, I can honestly say the entire book is a beautiful creation by the author. It may be fiction but it rings true to the human heart and soul.
Many authors I have read make me "think". Others "move me" from time to time. Still others "touch" sentiments that are seldom approached in my everyday traipse through life. For whatever reason, this book touched my core which has rarely happened through the written word.
I don't expect everyone will have the same experience as I have had with this read but, whether you do or not does not diminish the gifts with which this author is blessed. If for no other reason than curiosity, everyone should read this book.
Many authors I have read make me "think". Others "move me" from time to time. Still others "touch" sentiments that are seldom approached in my everyday traipse through life. For whatever reason, this book touched my core which has rarely happened through the written word.
I don't expect everyone will have the same experience as I have had with this read but, whether you do or not does not diminish the gifts with which this author is blessed. If for no other reason than curiosity, everyone should read this book.
July 31, 2010
If you are a big reader, do you remember when you were a teenager or a young adult and you first discovered classics and well-known authors that were new and amazing to you? How you were thrilled to realize when a new (to you) author had written 5 MORE BOOKS, or 10 more, that you could look forward to plundering? When you went to sleep vibrating with the memory of your favorite parts of the book? It was a similar feeling for me to falling in love for the first time. As I got older, and had plumbed the classics shelves and found most of the modern authors I love, I had fewer and fewer of these moments. Reading The Shadow Catcher brought it back. And then I saw how many more books Marianne Wiggins has written! I am ridiculously excited.
This book is part autobiography, part history and, in the end, fiction. The author, who is at one level the main character of her own book, is writing a book about a famous photographer of Indians in the Old West. That photographer, Edward Curtis, took many iconic photographs and led a colorful life, but Wiggins' character is conflicted about him as a subject because he basically abandoned his wife and family. Her father, too, disappeared when she was young -- he killed himself rather publically. But an old man claiming his identity decades later is admitted to a hospital in Las Vegas, and she has to go figure out whether her father is truly dead. The stories of the photographer and her own life (and her father's) run parallel in the book, with the photographer's told through the perspective of his wife. When Wiggins arrives at the hospital, she joins forces with an obscure Indian to unravel the mystery of the man claiming to be her father, and his distant relationship to Curtis. The mystery keeps you hooked, but the soul of the book is in its struggle to understand missing fathers -- why they leave, what it means to those they leave behind. At its most basic level, this extends generally to the struggle most adults experience to some extent once their parents have died and they realize: I never asked the right questions. I never understood this or that about them. And without this information, how do I make peace with them? How do I understand myself? The book is gripping and beautifully written. What else can I say? It fills me with hope that there are still authors out there for me to find who can make me stay awake with butterflies.
This book is part autobiography, part history and, in the end, fiction. The author, who is at one level the main character of her own book, is writing a book about a famous photographer of Indians in the Old West. That photographer, Edward Curtis, took many iconic photographs and led a colorful life, but Wiggins' character is conflicted about him as a subject because he basically abandoned his wife and family. Her father, too, disappeared when she was young -- he killed himself rather publically. But an old man claiming his identity decades later is admitted to a hospital in Las Vegas, and she has to go figure out whether her father is truly dead. The stories of the photographer and her own life (and her father's) run parallel in the book, with the photographer's told through the perspective of his wife. When Wiggins arrives at the hospital, she joins forces with an obscure Indian to unravel the mystery of the man claiming to be her father, and his distant relationship to Curtis. The mystery keeps you hooked, but the soul of the book is in its struggle to understand missing fathers -- why they leave, what it means to those they leave behind. At its most basic level, this extends generally to the struggle most adults experience to some extent once their parents have died and they realize: I never asked the right questions. I never understood this or that about them. And without this information, how do I make peace with them? How do I understand myself? The book is gripping and beautifully written. What else can I say? It fills me with hope that there are still authors out there for me to find who can make me stay awake with butterflies.
July 15, 2009
This is an amazing novel. Wiggins writes about, well, Wiggins researching and writing about Edward Curtis, 20th century photographer of landscapes and Native Americans. Wiggins the character wants to tell (or at least know) an honest story, one that is in rather direct conflict with the "official" story. Really, though, she writes about identity and about "lighting out" (sometimes for, sometimes from). The novel interweaves the stories of Curtis & his wife, Clara, Wiggins' own parents, and Wiggins' herself.
The novel has a few non-standard elements that I thought might drive me crazy but did not at all; in fact, they were fundamental to the pleasure I took in reading the book. First, at least in the hard-cover edition, there are the prints. These are mostly, though not entirely, from Curtis. Probably readers will recognize at least some of these. They include portraits of Native Americans, a group shot of adventurers, and dramatic western landscapes; the photos build or layer into the pictures Wiggins paints in words, enriching the novel tremendously. Then there are all the capitalized words, phrases, even sentences. I generally detest this in novels, where is smacks of the use of technique over substance; I knew these would really be distracting. I was wrong. I'm thinking that this might be a literary parallel to power-point presentations; everyone uses them and almost no one knows how to do so effectively. Wiggins knows how. As with the photographs, I found myself looking forward to these snippets, as the technique was blended seamlessly into the story, used to enhance, almost as a sort of printed multi-media device. Finally, there is all Wiggins' interior talk--about herself, her family, writing, etc. Again, this sort of thing is often over-the-top self-indulgent. But not here. It is part and parcel of the story.
Characters are wonderfully drawn here, major and minor both, as is the land itself. In fact, more than any other novel I've read involving that part of the country, this book shows that there could be reasons to spend some time in the West. In fact, Wiggins even makes a solitary drive in the middle of nowhere sound desirable to me, a city-girl who dislikes driving almost as much as two-lane, country roads. This is a beautiful book.
The novel has a few non-standard elements that I thought might drive me crazy but did not at all; in fact, they were fundamental to the pleasure I took in reading the book. First, at least in the hard-cover edition, there are the prints. These are mostly, though not entirely, from Curtis. Probably readers will recognize at least some of these. They include portraits of Native Americans, a group shot of adventurers, and dramatic western landscapes; the photos build or layer into the pictures Wiggins paints in words, enriching the novel tremendously. Then there are all the capitalized words, phrases, even sentences. I generally detest this in novels, where is smacks of the use of technique over substance; I knew these would really be distracting. I was wrong. I'm thinking that this might be a literary parallel to power-point presentations; everyone uses them and almost no one knows how to do so effectively. Wiggins knows how. As with the photographs, I found myself looking forward to these snippets, as the technique was blended seamlessly into the story, used to enhance, almost as a sort of printed multi-media device. Finally, there is all Wiggins' interior talk--about herself, her family, writing, etc. Again, this sort of thing is often over-the-top self-indulgent. But not here. It is part and parcel of the story.
Characters are wonderfully drawn here, major and minor both, as is the land itself. In fact, more than any other novel I've read involving that part of the country, this book shows that there could be reasons to spend some time in the West. In fact, Wiggins even makes a solitary drive in the middle of nowhere sound desirable to me, a city-girl who dislikes driving almost as much as two-lane, country roads. This is a beautiful book.
January 17, 2008
(audio) - Ok, I'm not sure what to say about this one. I was a bit distracted while listening so I'm not sure if I heard everything fully. I found the details of Clara and Edward's young life intriguing but once they were married the book seemed to skip ahead too quickly. But here's my real concern: this book is a novel but it is based on historical fact ... so where does truth end and imagination begin? Did Edward Curtis, famous photographer of reservation Indians, actually spend much of his later life as an openly gay man? Did the author really come across a man who had stolen the identity of her late father? In books like this, I really love when the author includes a Forward or an Afterword that explains things. In his Alfred the Great series, author Bernard Cornwell ends each book with a clear explanation of the facts in the story as well as the liberties he took with them while writing. I would have appreciated that here.
April 2, 2008
I loved this book...one of the best I've read in a long time. The modern day chapters get your blood pumping and your mind racing as you try to keep up with Wiggins ideas about place and history and follow the character Marianne's journey. The imagery is poetry and even though you want to linger on her words...the prose is like the moving train she so eloquently references throughout. I don't think I will ever fly again without thinking about the passages on DaVinci and aerial perspective...wow!
The chapters on Clara and Edward Curtis are slow and reflective and very revealing. Although I wanted more of Clara's story, given the ending, I think it was best to skim over her tragic years...the reader can remember her in a more postive light. I've been familiar with Curtis' photography for a long time but am now really interested in finding a good biography of him.
Truly, I think this book is a great AMERICAN novel...I wish I were back in high school and had to write a good old fashioned essay on the themes, the symbolism, place as character...instead, I'll just reread it until it is due back at the library.
The chapters on Clara and Edward Curtis are slow and reflective and very revealing. Although I wanted more of Clara's story, given the ending, I think it was best to skim over her tragic years...the reader can remember her in a more postive light. I've been familiar with Curtis' photography for a long time but am now really interested in finding a good biography of him.
Truly, I think this book is a great AMERICAN novel...I wish I were back in high school and had to write a good old fashioned essay on the themes, the symbolism, place as character...instead, I'll just reread it until it is due back at the library.
November 5, 2013
I think Wiggins is a top-notch writer. She researches her projects thoroughly. The details she includes give the novel a reality and substance, but the eseence of poetry is completely lacking in this one.
I did not have any kind of empathy or compassion for these characters. They seemed almost too well plotted to me. With the exception of The Orchid Thief, I abhor novels where the writer writes him/herself into the story. I didn't think that method was necessary to this story even though I could see the reflections and connections she was attempting to make with her own family history to this other family's history. I thought it would have been enough to simply tell the story of Edward and Clara. I would've actually liked the novel had it gone that route.
It didn't. I felt it was bogged down by the contemporary story, which I mostly ended up skimming through.
No doubt, this woman can write. She's an intellectual and her subject matter is compelling and engrossing, but overall I didn't like this one.
I did not have any kind of empathy or compassion for these characters. They seemed almost too well plotted to me. With the exception of The Orchid Thief, I abhor novels where the writer writes him/herself into the story. I didn't think that method was necessary to this story even though I could see the reflections and connections she was attempting to make with her own family history to this other family's history. I thought it would have been enough to simply tell the story of Edward and Clara. I would've actually liked the novel had it gone that route.
It didn't. I felt it was bogged down by the contemporary story, which I mostly ended up skimming through.
No doubt, this woman can write. She's an intellectual and her subject matter is compelling and engrossing, but overall I didn't like this one.
July 23, 2008
In an effort to be a supportive Library Spouse I am reading this book for Mat's (La Canada) One City One Book program. So far, I am enjoying it but that comes largely as a result of the feeling of in-ness I get when reading about LA, and the foibles there of.
I have now finished the book and find myself wanting to break the rating systems down by story-line. I enjoyed the historical fiction bits quite a bit and SOME of the long stretches of random musings by the author but parts of the modern story-line, in particular the way it wraps up were irritatingly far-fetched. I found myself raising a skeptical eyebrow on several occasions as bizarre bits of the story fell magically into coincidental place, creating an ending couple of chapters that nearly overcame my enjoyment of the rest of the book.
I have now finished the book and find myself wanting to break the rating systems down by story-line. I enjoyed the historical fiction bits quite a bit and SOME of the long stretches of random musings by the author but parts of the modern story-line, in particular the way it wraps up were irritatingly far-fetched. I found myself raising a skeptical eyebrow on several occasions as bizarre bits of the story fell magically into coincidental place, creating an ending couple of chapters that nearly overcame my enjoyment of the rest of the book.
July 28, 2008
I was a little frustrated in the early chapters since the "voice" changes didn't move well for me, but I ended up really enjoying this novel. It is based on the actual life of Edward Curtis, famous Western photographer from early 1900s. But this biographical narrative is wrapped by a fictional story of a novelist screenwriter who has written the biography.
Marianne Wiggins, who is not a Westerner, seems to be gifted at describing the geography of the west.
Marianne Wiggins, who is not a Westerner, seems to be gifted at describing the geography of the west.
August 9, 2024
If you are looking for a biography of Edward S. Curtis, this isn't it. The book just isn't about Curtis. Readers become far better acquainted with his wife, Clara, and his brother-in-law, Hercules, than they do with "The Shadow Catcher". Marianne Wiggins is an excellent writer, but this conglomeration of genres and time periods wasn't what I was hoping for.
May 31, 2021
Sentence structure is exhaustingly long and confusing. The book failed to capture my attention, and I wasn’t a fan of the semi-nonfiction writing style. This one just didn’t do it for me, DNF and no plans to.
December 7, 2010
This book so enchanted me, I hardly know how to praise it. Many things I consider nearly personal symbols appear: Red Cloud, Dante, the Ghost Dance, Seattle, Los Angeles, driving in the desert, and appear in a way that summons up the feelings that made them memorable to me in the first place. I found the linked stories odd at first, then fascinating, and finally haunting. I think it would have been a better book without the last chapter, but it is still pretty wonderful.
The photographs also bothered me when I began, except her daughter's shadow on the cover (in the Panamints?), but I finally discovered their thread in the story as well. All I can really do are repeat some quotations that moved me:
"That's the game The West invites, the game everybody plays out West: pretending we can see he past, here, in the present. Pretending we can call down the impossible, invalidate the present, and convince ourselves we're in another time, another century. The West -- true West -- attaches to you like a shadow...You can see iot from the windows of your car without leaving L.A. County. Drive out to Red Rock Canyon or the Vasquez Rocks or take a hike up Mt. Calabasas and you're in the wild, in another time, entirely. There are places, here, in the valley, where you can go, where there's not a building or another person within sight." (p. 13-14)
"When we talked about those figures facing inward toward the canvas -- how unknowable and mysterious they are -- father said perhaps Giotto painted them that way to depict the route of possibility. Not, as I thought, taht they are looking at the past, but that they are looking at the other side of time, the time of possibilities, the time of things that might have happened but did not. The bright back of time, not the dark one. The bright one, of hope. Not the one of shadows. The back of time that is all futures. Endless possibilities. Not only the remembered past." (p. 121)
"We're not taught to look for loneliness, so it passes, like a shadow, over dinners, over evenings watching the TV, between married couples, between parents and their children. The silence that was probably a kind of dull ache in my father emanated to me on those car rides as a kind of comfort. He was very good behind the wheel, very capable and uncomplaining, and that communicated to me as a confidence that we were safe, cocooned in a closed environment, he and I up front, mom and J.J in the back, moving through the known and unknown, navigating life together." (p. 157)
"A train at rest is just another big machine but a train moving through a landscape is a process, and it carries with it al teh mystery of journey, like a promise." (p. 313)
The photographs also bothered me when I began, except her daughter's shadow on the cover (in the Panamints?), but I finally discovered their thread in the story as well. All I can really do are repeat some quotations that moved me:
"That's the game The West invites, the game everybody plays out West: pretending we can see he past, here, in the present. Pretending we can call down the impossible, invalidate the present, and convince ourselves we're in another time, another century. The West -- true West -- attaches to you like a shadow...You can see iot from the windows of your car without leaving L.A. County. Drive out to Red Rock Canyon or the Vasquez Rocks or take a hike up Mt. Calabasas and you're in the wild, in another time, entirely. There are places, here, in the valley, where you can go, where there's not a building or another person within sight." (p. 13-14)
"When we talked about those figures facing inward toward the canvas -- how unknowable and mysterious they are -- father said perhaps Giotto painted them that way to depict the route of possibility. Not, as I thought, taht they are looking at the past, but that they are looking at the other side of time, the time of possibilities, the time of things that might have happened but did not. The bright back of time, not the dark one. The bright one, of hope. Not the one of shadows. The back of time that is all futures. Endless possibilities. Not only the remembered past." (p. 121)
"We're not taught to look for loneliness, so it passes, like a shadow, over dinners, over evenings watching the TV, between married couples, between parents and their children. The silence that was probably a kind of dull ache in my father emanated to me on those car rides as a kind of comfort. He was very good behind the wheel, very capable and uncomplaining, and that communicated to me as a confidence that we were safe, cocooned in a closed environment, he and I up front, mom and J.J in the back, moving through the known and unknown, navigating life together." (p. 157)
"A train at rest is just another big machine but a train moving through a landscape is a process, and it carries with it al teh mystery of journey, like a promise." (p. 313)
November 10, 2010
"The Shadow Catcher dramatically inhabits the space where past and present intersect, seamlessly interweaving narratives from two different eras: the first fraught passion between turn-of-the-twentieth-century icon Edward Curtis (1868-1952) and his muse-wife, Clara; and a twenty-first-century journey of redemption.
Narrated in the first person by a reimagined writer named Marianne Wiggins, the novel begins in Hollywood, where top producers are eager to sentimentalize the complicated life of Edward Curtis as a sunny biopic: "It's got the outdoors. It's got adventure. It's got the do-good element." Yet, contrary to Curtis's esteemed public reputation as servant to his nation, the artist was an absent husband and disappearing father. Jump to the next generation, when Marianne's own father, John Wiggins (1920-1970), would live and die in equal thrall to the impulse of wanderlust.
Were the two men running from or running to? Dodging the false beacons of memory and legend, Marianne amasses disparate clues -- photographs and hospital records, newspaper clippings and a rare white turquoise bracelet -- to recover those moments that went unrecorded, "to hear the words only the silent ones can speak." The Shadow Catcher, fueled by the great American passions for love and land and family, chases the silhouettes of our collective history into the bright light of the present."
I found this book confusing -- maybe I'm just not mentally equipped to bounce back & forth between centuries and people. The beginning was fine: the tale of how Clara and her little brother came to live with the Curtises outside Seattle, and how she fell in love with Edward.
The story then veered off into Edward's compulsion to be gone for long stretches of time, but didn't talk much about what he was doing or how Clara managed to run the photographic studio without him.
I found the interweaving of the two stories of the two men at the end confusing and not very conducive to understanding anything about either except their propensities to abandon their families for long periods of time. Was that what I wanted to know about Edward Curtis? No, I wanted to know about his photographic trips, where he went, who he photographed, why he photographed. Perhaps that's all available in some other book. It certainly isn't available in this one.
Narrated in the first person by a reimagined writer named Marianne Wiggins, the novel begins in Hollywood, where top producers are eager to sentimentalize the complicated life of Edward Curtis as a sunny biopic: "It's got the outdoors. It's got adventure. It's got the do-good element." Yet, contrary to Curtis's esteemed public reputation as servant to his nation, the artist was an absent husband and disappearing father. Jump to the next generation, when Marianne's own father, John Wiggins (1920-1970), would live and die in equal thrall to the impulse of wanderlust.
Were the two men running from or running to? Dodging the false beacons of memory and legend, Marianne amasses disparate clues -- photographs and hospital records, newspaper clippings and a rare white turquoise bracelet -- to recover those moments that went unrecorded, "to hear the words only the silent ones can speak." The Shadow Catcher, fueled by the great American passions for love and land and family, chases the silhouettes of our collective history into the bright light of the present."
I found this book confusing -- maybe I'm just not mentally equipped to bounce back & forth between centuries and people. The beginning was fine: the tale of how Clara and her little brother came to live with the Curtises outside Seattle, and how she fell in love with Edward.
The story then veered off into Edward's compulsion to be gone for long stretches of time, but didn't talk much about what he was doing or how Clara managed to run the photographic studio without him.
I found the interweaving of the two stories of the two men at the end confusing and not very conducive to understanding anything about either except their propensities to abandon their families for long periods of time. Was that what I wanted to know about Edward Curtis? No, I wanted to know about his photographic trips, where he went, who he photographed, why he photographed. Perhaps that's all available in some other book. It certainly isn't available in this one.
January 31, 2015
At first, I was charmed by this quirky book. But after a short while, several things began to annoy me. 1) The totally random manner in which Wiggins (the author, as opposed to the protagonist) handled dialog. Sometimes she used quotation marks, sometimes italics, sometimes both, possibly sometimes neither, and sometimes starting with a dash as though the character had been interrupted (when she hadn't). I felt like I was reading the first draft of a book written by a seventh grader. 2) The going-on-way-too-long stream-of-consciousness descriptions that were sooooooo boring. Just pages and pages and pages of nothing happening, except the protagonist (who is also the author) making random connections about trains, the west, geography, etc. Booooooooring. I got to the point where I would just skim that stuff and I got so into the practice of skimming that even when real action showed up, I skimmed that, too, until I caught myself.
The sections on Clara and Edward were interesting, especially after Clara goes out to live with the Curtises in the sticks outside of Seattle and develops a massive crush on Edward. But that section was pretty short and we were never again treated to such an in-depth, descriptive and interesting look at those characters again.
The rest of the novel (or autobiography?) was not interesting, not until Marianne goes to Las Vegas to check on whether the old man dying in the hospital is truly her own father (whom she had always understood to have committed suicide in the 1970s). But even that section is just the last 1/3 or so of the book, and was so interspersed with boring and long-winded passages on boringness, that it was a chore to find these jewel-like bits. And, the connections between Marianne, Lester, and the dying old man (and the man's son) were far too coincidental to be at all believable.
I feel that with some very hard pruning and major editing, Wiggins could write a whole novel (maybe a novella?) that have interesting, touching, beautiful passages on every page.
The sections on Clara and Edward were interesting, especially after Clara goes out to live with the Curtises in the sticks outside of Seattle and develops a massive crush on Edward. But that section was pretty short and we were never again treated to such an in-depth, descriptive and interesting look at those characters again.
The rest of the novel (or autobiography?) was not interesting, not until Marianne goes to Las Vegas to check on whether the old man dying in the hospital is truly her own father (whom she had always understood to have committed suicide in the 1970s). But even that section is just the last 1/3 or so of the book, and was so interspersed with boring and long-winded passages on boringness, that it was a chore to find these jewel-like bits. And, the connections between Marianne, Lester, and the dying old man (and the man's son) were far too coincidental to be at all believable.
I feel that with some very hard pruning and major editing, Wiggins could write a whole novel (maybe a novella?) that have interesting, touching, beautiful passages on every page.
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August 26, 2023 Some writers go for the tried and true. Marianne Wiggins doesn't in The Shadow Catcher and maybe that is why the paperback book cover is able to sport the attention grabbing line "A Best Book of the Year" with a list including National Book Critics Circle, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and others. Wiggins is the author of multiple books of fiction and has been a National Book Award and Pulitzer finalist. These awards don't add to the pleasure of reading a book unless the match with the reader is good, but when the reader connects with the subject, as I did with this one about the photographer Edward S Curtis, the West, and more, then turning page after page becomes an absorbing joy.
I stumbled upon this book in a used bookshop -- a hobby that I share with many other readers, I presume, and without the benefit of internet research, I risked a purchase and I am glad I did. Small photos intersperse with writing that refers to the photos themselves-- an unusual writing approach embedded in intertwining lives-- the contemporary narrator's (Marianne) and the historic Edward S Curtis's and his wife Clara's.
While the famed photographer is perhpas best remembered for his Native American photo portraits, the book is clearly fictionalized and explores his complex personal life. The author's social commentary adds a richness to the stories. Readers should be prepared that there is a theme of father absence/loss weaving through several characters' lives, but the impact proves more complex than negative. There is a bit of romance and mystery mixed into the fictionalized biography and history, so that for me this book is not easy to categorize except to proclaim it worth contemplating after the last page has been turned.
I stumbled upon this book in a used bookshop -- a hobby that I share with many other readers, I presume, and without the benefit of internet research, I risked a purchase and I am glad I did. Small photos intersperse with writing that refers to the photos themselves-- an unusual writing approach embedded in intertwining lives-- the contemporary narrator's (Marianne) and the historic Edward S Curtis's and his wife Clara's.
While the famed photographer is perhpas best remembered for his Native American photo portraits, the book is clearly fictionalized and explores his complex personal life. The author's social commentary adds a richness to the stories. Readers should be prepared that there is a theme of father absence/loss weaving through several characters' lives, but the impact proves more complex than negative. There is a bit of romance and mystery mixed into the fictionalized biography and history, so that for me this book is not easy to categorize except to proclaim it worth contemplating after the last page has been turned.
November 29, 2019
Don't waste your time reading this book by Marianne Wiggins - "The Shadow Catcher", published 2007.
It is a STORY about Edward Curtis, that interweaves his novelized life with "that of a woman named "Marianne Wiggins."- "The book opens as Wiggins presents her newly completed Curtis novel to a Hollywood agent." (Publishers Weekly)
It is a concocted story with Edward Curtis as a part time character.
I had it a week, and gave up - could not finish it. It is not well written either.
Instead - read the REAL - Shadow Catcher - book on the life on Edward S. Curtis
titled ,"Short nights of the Shadow Catcher : the epic life and immortal photographs of Edward Curtis" that is written by Timothy Egan -Publication date 2012.
“A vivid exploration of one man's lifelong obsession with an idea . . . Egan’s spirited BIOGRAPHY might just bring [Curtis] the recognition that eluded him in life.” — Washington Post.
Where you learn about the real man, and his real life.
Author - TIMOTHY EGAN is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and the author of nine books, including the forthcoming, A PILGRIMAGE TO ETERNITY, which will be released on Oct. 15. His most recent book, THE IMMORTAL IRISHMAN, was a New York Times Bestseller. His book on the Dust Bowl, THE WORST HARD TIME, won a National Book Award for nonfiction. His book on photographer Edward Curtis, SHORT NIGHTS OF THE SHADOW CATCHER, was awarded the Carnegie Medal for nonfiction. He writes a bi-weekly opinion column for the New York Times.
It is a STORY about Edward Curtis, that interweaves his novelized life with "that of a woman named "Marianne Wiggins."- "The book opens as Wiggins presents her newly completed Curtis novel to a Hollywood agent." (Publishers Weekly)
It is a concocted story with Edward Curtis as a part time character.
I had it a week, and gave up - could not finish it. It is not well written either.
Instead - read the REAL - Shadow Catcher - book on the life on Edward S. Curtis
titled ,"Short nights of the Shadow Catcher : the epic life and immortal photographs of Edward Curtis" that is written by Timothy Egan -Publication date 2012.
“A vivid exploration of one man's lifelong obsession with an idea . . . Egan’s spirited BIOGRAPHY might just bring [Curtis] the recognition that eluded him in life.” — Washington Post.
Where you learn about the real man, and his real life.
Author - TIMOTHY EGAN is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and the author of nine books, including the forthcoming, A PILGRIMAGE TO ETERNITY, which will be released on Oct. 15. His most recent book, THE IMMORTAL IRISHMAN, was a New York Times Bestseller. His book on the Dust Bowl, THE WORST HARD TIME, won a National Book Award for nonfiction. His book on photographer Edward Curtis, SHORT NIGHTS OF THE SHADOW CATCHER, was awarded the Carnegie Medal for nonfiction. He writes a bi-weekly opinion column for the New York Times.
February 4, 2008
Several stories of loss and abandonment converge in this novel based loosely on the life of Indian photographer Edward Curtis: his loss of his childhood as he was dragged around the country by his itinerant preacher father; his wife Clara's loss of her parent's and home at a young age; her loss of him as his extended journeys photographing Indians took him away for longer and longer periods of time; and the loss of her children's love when she divorced him. Additionally there is the loss to suicide of the father of author Wiggins, who has inserted herself as a character in the novel, and the loss of another child's father, the son of the man who found Wiggins' father hanging from a tree. Two mysteries arise and are solved in the novel: the purported "lost years" of Curtis' life, and the reason another man has taken on Wiggins' father's identity.
The insertion of author as character is an annoying conceit, and the present day stories would make an interesting novel of their own, but don't add to the story of Curtis.
The insertion of author as character is an annoying conceit, and the present day stories would make an interesting novel of their own, but don't add to the story of Curtis.
April 19, 2012
This book is constructed very differently. A large part of it reads as ruminations on a road trip in the author's voice. She's driving to Las Vegas. She rather bounces from one topic to another like stream of consciousness. Some of this bored me, but I must say that I did find some real thought-provoking gems in these ruminations, too. These are gems that will stay with me for a very long time.
It's also historical fiction about Edward Curtis--the photographer who took the famous photos of native Americans.
A bit of a mystery develops near the end of the book that had me much more intrigued. The pace of my reading picked up in order to see this mystery unraveled. It was at the end that the whole impact of this book hit me. It's very multilayered, spiritual in a subtle way, and the stories are entwined, as are our human lives in ways we sometimes don't recognize. I thought it would be a mediocre book that didn't impress me much when I was halfway through, but at the end, I was indeed very impressed. I may just recommend it for my reading group.
It's also historical fiction about Edward Curtis--the photographer who took the famous photos of native Americans.
A bit of a mystery develops near the end of the book that had me much more intrigued. The pace of my reading picked up in order to see this mystery unraveled. It was at the end that the whole impact of this book hit me. It's very multilayered, spiritual in a subtle way, and the stories are entwined, as are our human lives in ways we sometimes don't recognize. I thought it would be a mediocre book that didn't impress me much when I was halfway through, but at the end, I was indeed very impressed. I may just recommend it for my reading group.
October 2, 2011
This book has one of the more unique writing styles I've seen for awhile. There are two different story lines. One of the "author" herself as well as the story of the wife of Edward Curtis who is a famous photographer of Indians from the early 1900's. The book begins with the author describing an amusing meeting with some movie producers who want to draw from the "author's" biography of Curtis, takes you to the story of Clara (the wife) and then intersects back and forth from that to the author's trip to Las Vegas to follow up a call from a hospital that a man with her deceased father's papers is there and dying. It veers from conventional story to Wiggins thoughts on fatherhood, the American West landscape and its' Indians, to photography and beyond. My only regret is that I had to read it to finish it for a book club discussion and couldn's savor some of the last part of the book. I rarely reread books, but I may have to go bakc to this one.
May 7, 2009
I am going through this book much too quickly. In reading it, I have the strange sense that the author and I are friends in some parallel universe. Like her I am drawn to the west and to the native cultures that flourished there. Like her, I react in much the same way to our modern world. I like her humour. I like her offhand observations which are part of the book but more like asides to the reader as she takes a break from the narrative of her story, or stories. It is at once a biographyh of Edward Curtis, famous for his photographs of Native American Indians, and the story of hte narrator, who wrote a book about Curtis which is possibly going to be made into a movie. I am in the middle, where an odd case of mistaken identity is bringing an element of mystery to the book. What am I doing typing here when I'm dying to pick that book back up again? MOre later...
December 29, 2012
Books like this are a major reason why I would not want to be a writer. It received all sorts of great reviews (and I got the book because one review also said it was a detective story which I suppose it was toward the end in an off-hand way), but I did not like it and would not want to write a book like this. Strangely, even though I read a lot of books, I do not like words. I like a plot. I do not like long rambling reflections (which this book had) such as Proust nor do I like playing with words such as in Joyce. Give me enough words to enable me to follow the plot and see the scenery, but don't let the words get in the way. This book had way too many unnecessary words where nothing seems to be happening. She had long jags about trains and geography and roadside attractions. Ugh.
March 11, 2009
Enh. The prose style was expository, hurried, full of factoids about LA, Vegas, and parts in between. The quality of the writing, the story, and the characterization was very spotty. There were probably 75 pages of really good, interesting story--and the rest of the book I could really have done without. Mostly a 2 star book, but one extra for the interest of early photography in the West and a little well-drawn human drama and mystery toward the end. I don't understand how this book made it onto so many 10-best lists.
June 6, 2011
I was up and down on this one. There's a wicked little mystery woven into this novel, and a great scene early on featuring a clueless Hollywood producer. But there's also a mildly interesting historical narrative and a great deal of tedious philosophical noodling. In the end the parts come together impressively, but I can't help but feel that it could've been better constructed.
I'm a big fan of Wiggins' earlier novel, John Dollar, a "Lord of the Flies" that would scare the ever-loving s*** out of 8th graders. That one had a lean, menacing beauty. This one sags.
I'm a big fan of Wiggins' earlier novel, John Dollar, a "Lord of the Flies" that would scare the ever-loving s*** out of 8th graders. That one had a lean, menacing beauty. This one sags.
August 25, 2008
i'm not sure how much i liked this book, although the writing seems skillful enough. in the end, the disparate elements didn't come together to *make* much, at least for me. i admire the taste for boldness that would lead a writer to this kind of effort, but i kept waiting for the bits to fit together in a way they never really did. sorry, marianne wiggins. i hope we can still be pals; i think you're very smart and talented, i just don't want to take your book to the prom.
November 26, 2012
This book is billed as a novel about early 20th Century photographer, Edward Curtis. Instead, it reads more like a mixed up memoir. Instead of focusing on Curtis, or even on his long-suffering wife, Clara, the narrative is interrupted by lengthy musings on the author's background and family structure. A more appropriate title might be My Decade of Chasing the Shadow Catcher. Perhaps then a reader might get what they expect.
June 7, 2013
I'm giving this three stars because Wiggins is such a fantastic writer and there are wonderful passages in the book that I never want to forget. Admittedly, I was extremely frustrated with her endless navel-gazing at the expense of Edward's & Clara's stories. Whole chunks of this book weren't pertinent to the parallel stories and should have been edited out. If you like Sebald, give it a read! Otherwise, it will probably just frustrate you!
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December 12, 2013Glorifying your heros. Look at their work: infatuation. Further research on the person, you are hooked. Find out too much about them, you are morally confused. Everyone is human. Flashes of genius, flashes of weakness and humanity. Does the good outweigh the bad? Can you separate an artist's life details from their work?
July 4, 2018
Confusing
I had to give up halfway through. So many characters with the same name, I lost track of what was happening. The time jumps, a device I normally find interesting, only added to the confusion. Especially disappointing because I loved her earlier novel, Evidence of Things Unseen.
I had to give up halfway through. So many characters with the same name, I lost track of what was happening. The time jumps, a device I normally find interesting, only added to the confusion. Especially disappointing because I loved her earlier novel, Evidence of Things Unseen.
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