Wave Theory of Angels

by Alison MacLeod

EVERY STORY IS THE STORY OF A SECRET This is a story that unfolds across two far-flung centuries, across two worlds. In each, the lives of a father and his two daughters are about to be catapulted into crisis.

France. 1284. In the heat of an August night, Christina-sister of Marguerite, daughter of the heretic sculptor Giles of Beauvais-struggles to keep a secret. The year is also 2001. We're in Chicago, where Christina Carver, daughter of rebel physicist Dr Giles Carver, also keeps a secret, even from her sister Maggie. When a bell rings for matins-when a telephone rings in the middle of the night-Christina will fail to wake and all six lives will change forever.

The Wave Theory of Angels is a story of attractions, both cosmic and earthly. The riddles of magic, metaphysics and modern-day science transport the reader from the enchantment of the thirteenth century to the disenchantment of the twenty-first and back again. Through it all, one question persists: What is the real force of the imagination?

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Canada, Historical Fiction

292 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Alison MacLeod is a novelist and short story writer. Her latest novel is TENDERNESS (2021/22), a Book of the Year for The New York Times, The Spectator, and The Hindustan Times. and a Best Paperback of 2022 for the Sunday Times. Her novel UNEXPLODED was long-listed for the Man-Booker Prize for Fiction, adapted for BBC Radio 4, and named one of the Observer‘s ‘Books of the Year’. Her short story collection ALL THE BELOVED GHOSTS was shortlisted for The Edge Hill Prize for best story collection in the UK and Ireland. It was a 'Best Book of 2017' for the Guardian, and a finalist for Canada’s 2017 Governor General’s Award for Fiction.

MacLeod was born in Montreal, Quebec of Nova Scotian parents and was raised in both Canada and the States. She is a citizen of both Canada and the U.K., and has lived in England since 1987. Brighton is her adopted home; she has lived in the city since 2000.

alison-macleod.com

Reviews

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a rather unusual and complex book.

Every once in a while I really try to push myself to read outside my comfort zone. By that I mean moving to different authors, different subject matter and different types of literature. I think that is how you become a well read person, not just by reading your usual favorites. So it is with that thinking in mind that I picked up this book.

The story revolves around two families, each with a father and two daughters, one in France in 1284 and the second in Chicago in 2001. In each the eldest daughter dies and the father refuses to accept that she is dead. It is a story of love and loss between a father and his daughter and also between sisters.

The novel explores the nature and boundaries of our secular knowledge of the world and ponders whether we will ever discover other dimensions of time and space. There are fragments of fiction, mystery, science, physics, myths, angels, magic and string theory dotted throughout the narrative. You need patience to focus on it all and sometimes it can lose you. I think the author is really quite unique and inventive, and the material she had to research and master to put this volume together is considerable.

I really wanted to like it but I can’t actually say that I did. I don’t think the problem is with the author though. I think it was with me. There were parts of it I did not completely understand. Many times I wanted to put the book down and not finish it. But I did not want to give up.

One theme it confirms for the reader is the innate complexity of our world and the fact we will probably never really be able to analyze and completely understand it. It will always be full of mystery.

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusual tale based on the principles of quantum entanglement and Heisenberg Uncertainty (I kid you not!) - two sets of characters (chiefly a father and his two daughters) in two time periods (13th century France and early 21st century USA) with eerie parallels/connections in their (troubled) lives. Told in dizzying fragmentary montage, which made it very page-turnery but which was somewhat unnecessary/distracting to what could've been a much better novel if the writer had just calmed down a bit and concentrated on the core positive aspects, rather than just beggaring about with the structure. 3.5 stars but rounding up to 4 cos think I'll enjoy a re-read when I might make notes on the storylines/parallels!

[Nora · Rating 1 out of 5]

A self-pitying railroad worker called Angel rapes a catatonic patient, which brings her back to life. Also, his sperm is called rain.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The daughter of Giles, an heretical 13th century sculptor, fails to wake up one morning, yet her father will not believe that she is dead. He believes in the "Imaginal World" of the Persian polymath Avecinna, a place between the heavens and the earth which we can access through desire and use to create marvels, where we can even resurrect the dead.

Christina does indeed come back to life at her funeral, but the Bishop takes her and Giles into exile. Eerily, the same thing appears to happen in a parallel story, to the daughter of Dr. Giles Carver, a modern day renegade physicist and advocate of a new kind of heresy, the M-theory of space-time. She gets taken by the scientists, which is every bit as much an awkward anomaly.

The Wave Theory of Angels is exactly the kind of modern fiction I like. Full of intelligent speculations and narrative structures, MacLeod finds all sorts of counterparts across the centuries, adroitly comparing esoteric concepts of religion with science, such as the medieval concept of the incubus with the 20th century symptoms of parasomnia.

Not only that, she has a selective eye for detail, the book is full of worthwhile research: i.e Giles and his brethren were called L'ymagier (Imaginator) in their time -not a sculptor- which illustrates how potent the craftsman's creations were in the medieval mind.

Although about rather a lot, the book seems essentially to be about the difference and similarities between simple magic and the miracles of science at the quantum level. Seemingly pessimistic on the surface, Macleod may also be suggesting that targeted thought and prayer, steadfast observation and measurement, could possibly hold the secret to yielding desired outcomes.

Or maybe not. As one of MacLeod's characters suggests, "maybe everything the physicist, the priest, the mathematician or the imam knows is always only a description - no, not even a description - a metaphor...for something we'll never hold in our hands".

From an internet search I have noticed that Alison MacLeod has not done a whole lot of writing since. Pick up your pen woman, research some more arcana, or write whatever trips off the tongue. You certainly have talent.

[Linda W · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. It is very confusing at times because it keeps jumping from character to character as well as from timeline to timeline. I do find the concept of entanglement very interesting however, I think it could have executed a lot better. I almost didn't finish this book because of how confusing it was, especially in the beginning. One thing that was intriguing is how the novel interacted with the reader and included us in the story as an observer of the events because that is really what we are in this story.

[Jack Coleman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Incomprehensible not science not religion occult crap.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel did not really work for me. I cannot actually remember why it was on my to read list; according to amazon I’d been intending to read it since 2009. The plot never really came together. I kept reading in the hope that it would, that the sections in the second person would be explained, and that the significance of events would become clear. This unfortunately never occurred. It seemed to me that the writing style was trying too hard to be mysterious, to the point where it became tiresomely opaque. The concept of analogising 9/11 and the collapse of a Mediaeval cathedral was a nice one, it just did not seem to be terribly well executed. The parallel stories, separated by the Atlantic Ocean and about 800 year, did not lead anywhere. The characters were not especially well developed, either. I was intrigued by the women, although the lack of interaction between the sisters annoyed me, but the men ranged from insensitive and tiresome to incredibly creepy. This novel did not give me anything to latch onto, it just seemed to drift by in a puff of etiolated language.

[Echo Rune]

The book is a beautifully written meditation on faith, loss, consciousness, and quantum physics, with an interesting style and structure, but although I felt compelled to read it through to discover the outcome, I never felt emotionally attached to any of the characters, and indeed felt the fathers were distinctly unsympathetic.

Because of that, had the plot been handled with less competence, or the prose handled with less deftness and elegance, I'd have thrown in the towel, as these days I generally find myself unable to finish books with whose characters I remain uninvolved. But this book's other, good, qualities, kept me reading.

Regardless of the lack of attractive characters, however, I'd recommend it, especially for anyone who was interested in the movie What The Bleep Do We Know?.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars overall, but the writing flashed five star brilliance in places, with its difficult multi-stranded narrative and deftly handled technical detail in a range of disciplines. MacLeod is a master of editing. In the reading, the abruptly cropped strands mimicked the concept of entanglement - both in quantum theory and in overlapping life stories. The novel concept was ambitious - risky - so deserves applause simply for that accomplishment. Few writers could have managed to pull it off. The overall rating is tempered for me by the loss of emotional and contextual engagement in the complex and sometimes confusing plot and my ultimate lukewarm satisfaction with the resolution, where I felt the use of quantum theory was extended too far and too thin. But how could one finish this without killing the cat?

[Sorrel · Rating 1 out of 5]

In a word: unconvincing. The story and its various consituent themes are a confusing, self-indulgent assembly of bits and pieces lifted from popular science and classic literature. The author has attempted to disguise this fact with a flaky, inelegant style of prose that they have no doubt convinced themself is very clever and original. I'm not convinced it was either of those things. What's more, it is very unsatisfying to finish a book having had pretty good indications along the way of which books the author has got their ideas from. At one point I thought I saw the faint outline of an original insight, but the signal-to-noise ratio was much too low to leave any lasting impression (and that last comment gives you just a sniff of the scientific metaphor that this book is dripping with).

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this at all, and surprised I got past the first fifty pages. Actually, I was holed up in a hotel and this was all I had. The early part of the book is quite impenetrable, full of what I take to be Latin or made up stuff. I can't say it is implausible, just quite unbelievable. I had no interest in the characters, little idea of what was supposed to be going on, and little care about what did. I think someone must have thought this clever, possibly the author. I must admit I was daft to bother, but someone gave it to me and I felt obliged.

[Janet Berkman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have long been intrigued by quantum physics and the possibilities that it engenders in everyday experience. I loved the writing in this novel, and I think I understand what the author was trying to do, but I'm not sure that she was completely successful. Suffice to say that we are linked in what would have been considered inexplicable prior to this deeper understanding of the power of particles.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Poetic writing"

Addictively beautiful - this is how I would describe the writing of "Wave Theory Of Angels". It felt like reading a poem more so than a novel. Sadly, I would have to admit that I had fallen into a bit of a love-hate relationship with this book. The narrative does seem to jump around a lot. I had to work extra hard in order to follow the flow of the story. Although the deficit is greatly compensated by penmanship, it fell short in giving the perfect impression.

[J. Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting parallel stories of thirteenth-century and twenty-first-century Christina who both fall into what appear to be comas. Interesting technique and format. Giles, the father, is both a sculptor (13th) and a physicist (21st). I came to understand some readers' negative reactions to encountering science and technology terminology and description in novels.

[Rachel C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The execution fell far short of the ambition. A pretentious and often nonsensical read.