The Origin of Species

by Nino Ricci

The crater held a circle of stars above them as if they were closed up in a snow globe, a private cosmos. He thought of Darwin sleeping out on the pampas during his Beagle trip, a middle-class white kid traveling the world, the first of the backpackers. It was only afterwards, really, that he had made any sense of what he had seen. Alex wondered what, in the fullness of time, he himself would make sense of, what small, crucial detail might be lodging itself in his brain that would shake his life to its foundations. (p 286)


Montreal during the turbulent mid-1980’s: Chernobyl has set geiger counters thrumming across the globe, HIV/AIDS is cutting a deadly swath through the gay population worldwide, and locally, tempers are flaring over the language laws of Bill 101. Hiding out in a seedy apartment near the Concordia campus is Alex Fratarcangeli (“Don’t worry… I can’t even pronounce it myself”), a somewhat oafish 30-something grad student. Though tender and generous at heart, Alex leads a life devoid of healthy relationships, ashamed in particular of the damage he has done to the women with whom he has been romantically entangled. Plagued by the sensation that his entire life is a fraud, Alex attends daily sessions with a lackluster psychoanalyst in an attempt to shake off the demon of depression (and the cigarette-tinged voice of Peter Gzowski in his ear). Scarred by a distant father and a dangerous relationship with his ex Liz, and consumed by a floundering dissertation linking Darwin’s theory of evolution with the history of human narrative, Alex has come to view love and other human emotions as “evolutionary surplus, haphazard neural responses that nature had latched onto for its own insidious purposes.”

Then a convergence of brave souls enter Alex’s life, forcing him to recognize the possibility of meaningful connections. There is his neighbour Esther, whose multiple sclerosis is progressing rapidly, yet who gamely attacks every day she has left. There is the elegant Félix, an older gay man whose own health status is in question yet who remains resolutely generous,and María, returning to fight for human rights in her native El Salvador, knowing she will face certain peril. Along the way Alex meets others whose struggles with their own demons are not so successful, and sometimes tragic. When he receives a letter from Ingrid, the beautiful woman he knew years ago in Sweden, notifying him of the existence of his five year old son. Alex is gripped by a paralytic terror.

Whenever Alex’s thoughts grow darkest, he is compelled to recall Desmond, the British professor with dubious credentials whom he met years ago in the Galapagos. Treacherous and despicable, wearing his ignominy like his rumpled jacket, Desmond nonetheless caught Alex in his thrall and led him to some life-altering truths during their weeks exploring Darwin’s islands together. It is only now that Alex can begin to comprehend these unlikely life lessons, and see a glimmer of hope shining through what he had thought was meaninglessness.

Funny, poignant and visceral, Nino Ricci’s most recent masterpiece The Origin of Species will remind you of the wonder of life, the beauty of existence and the great gift that is our connection to the universe and all that is.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Book Club, Unfinished, Novels

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Nino Ricci’s first novel was the internationally acclaimed Lives of the Saints. It spent 75 weeks on the Globe and Mail‘s bestseller list and was the winner of the F.G. Bressani Prize, the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. In England it won Betty Trask Award and Winnifred Holtby Prize, in the U.S. was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and in France was an Oiel de la lettre Selection of the National Libraries Association.

Published in seventeen countries, Lives of the Saints was the first volume of a trilogy that continued with In a Glass House, hailed as a “genuine achievement” by The New York Times, and Where She Has Gone, nominated for the Giller Prize. The Lives of the Saints trilogy was adapted for a television miniseries starring Sophia Loren and Kris Kristofferson.

Books in Canada commented that Ricci’s trilogy “so amply demonstrates the author’s tremendous talents that we would be foolish as readers not to follow him down whatever road he next chooses to follow.” That road led him to Testament, a fictional retelling of the life of Jesus. Hailed as a “masterpiece” by Saturday Night, Testament was a Booklist Choice for the Top Ten Historical Novels of the Year and a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year. It was shortlisted for a Commonwealth Prize and for the Roger’s Writers’ Trust Award for Fiction and was a winner of the Trillium Award.

Ricci’s national bestseller The Origin of Species earned him the Canadian Authors Association Fiction Award as well as his second Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Set in Montreal in 1980s, the novel casts a Darwinian eye on the life of Alex Fratarcangeli, who is torn between his baser impulses and his pursuit of the Good. “This novel does so well, on so many levels,” wrote the Toronto Star, “that it’s hard to know where to begin tallying up the riches.”

Ricci is also the author of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, a short biography that forms part of Penguin’s Extraordinary Canadians series, edited by John Ralston Saul. Ricci’s biography, according to HistoryWire, “provides the best, and best written, perspective on Trudeau there is.”

Ricci's newest novel is Sleep, out in the fall of 2015.

Reviews

[C · Rating 1 out of 5]

Long. Mildly interesting and I'm surprised I finished it.

Could not relate to the characters. I don't enjoy books where I can't relate or understand where the characters are coming from and I definitely could not understand this one.

The main character, Alex, is probably best summed up by one of the other characters in the book, Maria - one of Alex's long-shot love interests - when she tells him that he isn't a real man (or something like that) because he can't decide what he wants and act on it. He's both at the same time - yes and no - black and white. He's just a big walking, talking, gray maybe. Never anything really definite about him. I seriously disliked him and found it hard to read about his every waking moment and thought.

The book was too long. The more that was written about Alex, the more I disliked him. The constant references to Chernobyl were weird. The Darwin info and background was somewhat interesting, but as a whole - Not worth the 7 month wait on the library waiting list I had to wait to read this one.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not an easy read and at 472 pages, it isn't a quick read either. The author examines Darwin's theory of evolution and considers how it is evidenced in the complex life history of his protagonist, Alex Fratarcangeli, and the various characters that enter and leave his world. The story is set in the mid 80's, and takes us from Montreal to the Galapagos, to Sweden, to small town Leamington - the hometown of the main character, and of the author. The descriptions of setting sometimes became wordy (I found the Galapagos section perhaps excessively lengthy), but were effective in bringing the reader into the various places the protagonist found himself. There are references to particular 80's phenomena - Chernobyl, Reaganomics, Trudeaumania, Peter Gzowski, the French-English divide in Quebec - which perhaps require some understanding of the period to fully appreciate their significance to the mood and angst of the protagonist. There are also references to Freud, Jung, and several literary figures (including some pointed references to Margaret Atwood), which may be lost on some readers. The author has called this a semi-autobiographical work - and as I am familiar with Leamington, and know the author's family quite well, I was caught up in his descriptions of places and people and in trying to discern which parts were fiction and which were fact (though most readers probably wouldn't be distracted by this!). This is not a book to try to get through just before falling asleep, but it does offer an intriguing look at the human condition and the significance of a life in the greater scheme of things.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monumental. For disgruntled graduate students (or the “doctoral damned” as Alex Fratarcangeli refers to himself), disillusioned leftists, Trudeaumaniacs, CanLit heads, evolutionary biologists, Freudians, Quebec separatists, federalists, Italian-Canadians of Molisane heritage, Catholics, Jews, atheists, gays, and the guilt-ridden.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Far too long for its own good, The Origin of Species seems to have one goal: destroy any last shred of sympathy the reader might have for the protagonist, Alex Fratarcangeli.

Part of my trouble with this book is a defect of self. I'm too young to have lived through the 1980s, and I've never been to Montreal. Thus, it's difficult for me to comprehend Alex's preoccupation with Pierre Trudeau, Bill 101, and tension among immigrant populations. Someone more attuned to the zeitgeist of 1980s Canada or Quebec will likely find it easier to relate to The Origin of Species than I did. Perhaps Alex's infantile helplessness is a metaphor for that era, as Canada sat by and watched the United States ascend out of the Cold War toward its eventual spot as sole global superpower.

The pacing of the book could be improved. Its length alone is unwieldy. The middle section, which tells of Alex's adventure and mishaps in the Galapagos Islands, is entirely too long. That section also cemented my dislike of Alex. I'll set aside the question of the extent to which Alex's helplessness is intentional, however; it's largely academic.

Despite its length, the major plot takes place over only a year in Alex's life. However, Nino Ricci also includes major events from Alex's past, including the Galapagos trip. Often I found myself struggling to figure out where a flashback begins and the "present" of the narrative picks up again. It took me a while to figure out when Alex knew about his illegitimate Swedish son and when he was still ignorant (or had not yet conceived) said progeny.

Amid the jumbles of flashbacks, I get glimpses of interesting observations about growing up that I'm sure are deliberate on Ricci's part. It's not that the writing or the story are bad. Rather, it feels hopelessly overburdened with subtext, a problem made evident in the scenes between Alex and his Freudian psychiatrist, Dr. Klein.

As much as I enjoyed these occasional observations, they were too few and too far between. In his attempt to cover both a snapshot (a year) in Alex's life and summarize the totality of Alex's existence, Ricci fails to accurately portray the importance of either. Conversely, Fall on Your Knees takes place over several generations, yet it manages to capture the gravity of life and the importance of family.

The Origin of Species does have redeeming qualities. On the subject of Dr. Klein and other minor characters: Alex has a tendency to be quite judgemental, and he doesn't seem to like very many of his acquaintances or even his friends. That is, until he discovers something about them, a secret they fail to tell him but that he learns through a third party. Then he revises his opinion. In this way, Ricci reminds us that even the people we ardently dislike are people too, people who face problems similar to the ones we grapple with each day.

The Origin of Species has vexing glimmers of promise. Overall, it gropes blindly in the dark, trying to grasp at its theme and never quite getting a secure grip.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I feel like I missed some of its deeper points, I couldn't warm up to the main character at all. At almost 500 pages I am happy I finished it. What a slog.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will not finish this book...too long. The August selection for my book club proved to be mildly interesting during the first part; however, there were far too many references to cultural events and people of the Montreal 80's that it would be dificult for someone younger or from elsewhere to understand or appreciate. I have abandoned this book at the halfway point in the Galapagos. I simply don't care anymore about Alex. It's been too hot a summer for such a heavy read and it dosen't go well with the beer and the beach. It is not likely that I will pick it up again. Perhaps if you are a 30-something struggling with Life's decisions, you might like to spend a few months plowing through this book.

[Lisa Poeltl · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've ever read. I thought deeply throughout. It was a great combination of an excellent read which keeps you coming back for more, and a book laden with subtext. I was deeply moved at the end.

[Steven Teasdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Origin of Species captured the 2008 Governor Generals Literary Award for fiction (the second such win for Ricci, the first being his 1993 debut Lives of the Saints). It was a well-deserved honour. This dense, multi-faceted, sprawling, and thought-provoking tome explores the ideas of evolution, love, ruthlessness, human nature, relationships, nature, fatherhood, higher education, and postmodernism, among many others, in a provocative, humorous, and often moving fashion.

The primary story concerns the emotional and intellectual maturation of one Alex Fratarcangeli, a graduate student in literary studies at Concordia University in Montréal, during the mid-1980s. As the novel begins, he is emotionally and intellectually adrift, grappling with his unfinished thesis and its seemingly hopeless attempt to connect (post-)modern literary criticism and Darwinism, trying to make sense of his personal life and continued failed relationships, and dismaying at the encroaching materialism of the era. It is at this point that he meets a remarkable individual who will forever change the trajectory of his life: a young woman who will provide the spark that allows Alex to release the emotional weights of the past and allow him to see the world in a new and clear way.

The novel is divided into three sections: the first and third sections follow Alex’s adventures in the environs of mid-1980s Montreal, with flashbacks to 1970s Sweden and 1980s Ontario. The middle section is an unbroken narrative of a surreal Galapagos adventure with a disastrous outcome that provides the clues to Alex’s rebirth.

In the first and third parts, Ricci vividly captures the social and political environment of mid-1980s Montreal: its post-referendum hangover, its under-acknowledged immigrant population (the third solitude, to expand upon McLennan’s metaphor), the newly imposed language laws, and the emerging awareness of large-scale environmental issues. This was also the era in which our current unhealthy and spiritually bereft focus on economic materialism began to emerge: a phenomenon Ricci likely views as the rebirth of some form of social Darwinism.

Much of the novel deals with Alex’s wanderings around Montreal and his interactions with a fascinating cast of secondary characters: the upbeat Esther, a tenant in his apartment building; his thesis supervisor, a cynical and lecherous Eastern European émigré; a group of El Salvador émigrés living on the fringes of Quebecois society; his disinterested psychologist; an ongoing imaginary dialogue with Peter Gzowski; and, obliquely, Pierre Eliot Trudeau.

From this Montreal basis, much of the story is also told in flashbacks: to Sweden, where Alex has an affair with an older woman; to small-town southern Ontario, where Alex grew up and where his family still lives; and to the Galapagos Islands.

Initially, Alex is a difficult character to admire. His personality alternates between narcissistic self-importance and neurotic self-loathing. Yet there are glimpses of a good side that slowly emerges as the novel progresses and he begins his personal redemption.

The counterpoint to Alex pettiness and cynicism is provided in the character of Esther, an effervescent young woman who lives in his apartment building. Her exuberant and relentlessly positive view on life is tempered by a vigorous case of multiple sclerosis, which gets progressively worse as the novel progresses. Esther’s physical decline is contrasted by Alex’s emotional maturation: her deteriorating state profoundly affects Alex, making him a better person and awakening him to the arbitrary cruelness of the natural world. In a way, her decline can also be seen as a metaphor for the eclipse of goodness by 1980s era materialism. Ricci reflects this by documenting the intrusion of neo-conservative metaphors taken from the arenas of business and commerce into everyday discourse, which has ultimately culminated in the current irrational celebration of immoral and cerebrally-challenged CEOs

If Esther represents goodness, then Desmond, Alex’s partner in his Galapagos misadventure, is her exact opposite. Desmond is a vividly-drawn, despicable, amoral, self-important academic of middling reputation. Rude, ribald, and recklessly funny, Desmond takes the young Alex, who is vacationing in the Galapagos, under his wing and into a bizarre and dangerous adventure. Unbeknownst to Alex, he becomes involved a scheme to exact revenge on Desmond’s former mentor by introducing foreign species of hybrid plants into the ecosystem, a scheme that ultimately ends in tragedy.

Ricci has stated that part of the novel can be seen as a repudiation of social construction. Although social construction is a vague term that is used (and abused) in many ways, in its most strict sense it implies the uniqueness of humanity by viewing the world and its creative mechanisms as edifices based on conventional agreement rather than any notion of reality… knowledge, essentially, as a show of hands. In this view, humans stand apart from nature, but what Ricci demonstrates is that humanity is symbiotically linked with the natural world – it is an unseparable part of nature, red in tooth and claw, and to think otherwise is nothing more than self-important anthropocentrism.

Thus the incident in the Galapagos can be read as a critique of social construction. Desmond’s scheme to surreptitiously introduce a species of hybrid plants in the Galapagos and later claim them as an important discovery can be seen as a allegory of social construction, and the subsequent discovery of a similar adapted plant as an allegory of evolution. The self-centered and excessively narcissistic Desmond aptly reflects the anthropocentric conceit of social constructivism. Ricci succeeds with this rich and vivid characterization of a truly despicable individual.

This critique of social construction is highlighted by an incident with the Galapagos boody, the bird pictured on the cover of the novel. While exploring the Galapagos with Desmond, Alex sees two birds using sticks to tell stories, an incident which will have a profound effect on his thinking:

In the Galapagos Islands, the masked booby performs an elabourate mating ritual. The male approaches the female and after a series of gestures aimed at attracting her attention … he pushes before he an assortment of offerings. A stick, perhaps. A blade of dried grass. A stone. These items, there is no other way to see them, are metaphors: of food, of home, of fecundity. With them, the booby is telling his prosepective mate a story. “Come with me” he is saying, “and we will have children and live in abundance.” This strange collection of all the essential elements of narrative at the most basic level of nature suggests that this oldest of stories, the happily-ever-after of fairy tales, may be older even than we have ever imagined.

Thus narrative is not socially constructed, but is something that precedes humankind. Stories exist in nature, waiting to be told: an almost Neoplatonic conception of narrative.

And thus the title of the novel. Alex, like Darwin, introduces an innovative and audacious theory based on experiences in the Galapagos. During the voyage of the Beagle, Darwin witnessed evolution around him, inferred something important was happening, but was initially unable to recognize it as such, just as Alex was initally unable to recognize the incident with the birds. This is just one of many sublime parallels between Alex and Darwin in the novel.

Although Ricci addresses many important and varied themes, they ultimately converge on the need for love and the cruelness and arbitrariness of nature. The book is, ultimately, an homage to the remarkable character of Esther.

The Origin of Species is a tour-de-force by Ricci, and one of the finest pieces of fiction I have read in a long time. It is a dense, chaotic, and thrilling intellectual voyage can be enjoyed on many levels, will reward re-reading, and is destined to become a classic in the canon of Canadian literature. Simply put, a masterpiece.

[Raman K · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had read Nino Ricci's Lives of the Saints and it was a really good read, however i did not enjoy the origin of species. I thought the book was too long and the main character was someone i didnt really connect with.

[Will Ansbacher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well I finished it but nearly didn’t. Although well-written, it is much, much too long for a novel about a year in the life of a young man (Alex) with a bad case of neurotic introspection and a life that holds little interest for himself, let alone the reader. Too long, that is, even without the social commentary.

It starts out well enough when he meets Esther, a woman with MS and an attitude who may be the one to jolt Alex out of himself, but by chapter 2 we are sidetracked into the minutiae of life in Montreal in the eighties. If there was something social or political that was left out, or Alex failed to comment on, then it must never have made the news. And this is a real problem, because if it’s all so central to the story, then only Quebecers could really appreciate the significance. Living on the Other Side Of Canada, I barely understood or remembered half the references - so what would a reader outside Canada make of it all? But if the flood of real events is not so critical – which it is not – Bill 101, the immigrants, ambivalence toward Trudeau, etc, etc., then it all starts to feel out of place. More than that however, it seems like Ricci added this background to give the novel a degree of authenticity - you could practically navigate downtown Montreal with it – but that’s a problem because it just emphasizes the level of unreality and introversion in Alex’s life. Or perhaps the contrast is Ricci’s intention – but at any rate, it doesn’t work and the novel is excessively long.

In addition, too many incidents in Alex’s own life are developed at length but he doesn’t seem to incorporate them into his life, although they are supposed to be life-altering events. For example, the trip to Galapagos is a long, tedious, repetitive and unbelievable account, even for what Alex regards as his “worst journey in the world”. (Cherry-Garrard he is not.) Yet nothing before or after in the novel indicates how this allegedly shattering event actually affected his life. He had a bad trip and the researcher he was with, whom he couldn’t stand, died. So?
Again, a woman he once slept with commits suicide; Alex seems sad (I think, or is he just a bit more angst-ridden?). Then there is the socially-conscious episode with the Salvadoreans – going nowhere; wrangling with his PhD supervisor over the significance of his (Alex’s) obsession with Darwin; unfinished business with his ex-girlfriend leading to sessions with a psychiatrist – (surely those will reveal something? No, the sessions just peter out); even an extended run-in with his building manager and the Regie, the Quebec organization that arbitrates such things. (I didn’t know about the Regie, and nor do I care as I may never rent an apartment in Montreal). Alex relates these scenes from his past, but seems to take nothing from them.

Underlying all this is his on-again-off-again affair with Ingrid in Sweden. It extended over 10 years and he has recently discovered that he has a son, now 5 years old. Again this is told in flashback and is of course contributing to his angst. Alex’s one significant relationship in the present is with Esther, and we hope she will be the one who draws Alex out of himself. But no, after moping around for most of the book, Alex is last seen at Esther’s bedside in hospital where she is close to death, as he prepares to depart forever to make a new life with Ingrid and as a father. We know how badly that’s going to turn out, but Alex clearly does not and is hoping for the best: and perhaps that is the rather dispiriting message of this book - that self-knowledge and searching for the truth is not enough.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable ride.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to Nino Ricci reading at the Lunenburg (NS, Canada) Literary Festival last fall, and was quite taken with him, his seeming sincerity, and sensitive reading, so I bought this book, though it's one of his older ones, because I wanted to read him and I've been to the Galapagos. Unfortunately I haven't enjoyed the book as much as I'd hoped to.

I love the writing. Many of his images and sentences are beautiful, pure and original, and I don't think many could improve upon his ability to portray awkward social situations of all kinds in a sensitive, spot-on, nuanced way. But I want more. For example, I appreciate a plot, and I do like a story arc in a novel. There is no discernible arc in this one.

There are threads of a storyline, many, many threads, in fact. These are notably Alex's almost endless relationships: with Esther -the woman with MS; Ingrid- the mother of his son; his therapist, and many others, including family, friends, colleagues, former and current lovers, and aquaintances. None of these threads went much of anywhere or reached any kind of plot-like conclusions.

Oh, there is plenty to learn about, such as minutely detailed discussions of Quebec politics of the time, the Chernobyl disaster, Alex's trips to Scandinavia and the Galapagos, both of which include huge descriptions of the history and culture of these places, and so much more. The Galapagos section, which rated the title, was all over the place, mildly interesting in its weirdness, but almost unconnected to anything else in the story except its apparent influence on Alex's PhD thesis topic, though he hardly thought about his thesis while he was having his very weird experiences on the islands.

Ricci is obviously brilliant, for example in the sections where the character discusses his PhD dissertation ideas, not to mention all the topics above, but it was almost as if Ricci was displaying his brains and forgetting he was writing a novel. The book won the Giller Prize, among others. Perhaps he was trying to impress literary jurists (which he obviously did) more than ordinary readers like me. I'm disappointed.

[Debra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Twenty-six-year old grad student, Alex, is going through a tough time. After two years he’s still struggling to nail down his dissertation theme and deal with unresolved relationship issues. He’s sought a thesis supervisor and a therapist for his personal problems, but neither man is that helpful. Afraid that his life will be a total failure, Alex flounders in his attempts to turn things around.

I had high expectations for this book. After all, it’s a Governor General’s award winner written by a man who’s already won many prestigious awards. Unfortunately, the novel fell flat for me. I’ve spent most of my adult life reading Canadian literature and literary magazines from accomplished writers who occasionally use academic settings. To my recollection, most of them have made academia seem tediously eccentric, petty, political, and above all boring. I realize that many authors come from this background and write what they know with confidence and authenticity. But that doesn’t mean it will make interesting reading, even for those of us familiar with academic environments. I was hoping this book would break through and create a new perspective on the worn out eccentric, embittered professor angle and academic snobbery, but it didn’t.

Set in Montreal in the mid 1980’s, shortly after the Chernobyl disaster, there’s also a fair amount of political discussion surrounding the Anglophone/Francophone debates which is again was more annoying than interesting. On the plus side, the angst Alex feels about past and present relationships and his future in general is something readers can probably relate to. Although the lengthy backstory sections were unnecessarily long, the scenes set in the Galapagos were so vividly described, in a negative way, that I’m glad I have no plans to ever go there. Personally, I wouldn’t have chosen this book as a GG award winner, but as you know, prizes and preferences are completely subjective.

[Gaynor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tough book to review ... The reader is suddenly dropped into the life of 'Alex'. With no obvious story or overarching agenda as expected by most readers, it simply rides along whilst he figures out certain aspects of his life and struggles to finish writing his dissertation linking Darwin's theory of evolution with the history of human narrative.

Despite not particularly caring for Alex's character (and finding it hard to imagine having a real-life relationship with him), I nevertheless, found the rawness of his thoughts and sometimes confusing behaviours combined with the references to Charles Darwin, the Galapagos Islands and the HMS Beagle, to be a compelling read. So much so that I finished the book in three sittings. At one point I feared I would run out of bookmarks to flag particular sentences or turn of phrase that had me stop in my tracks.

I can understand how this book is not for everyone. It is not an easy, thoughtless read, and combined with the high calibre of writing is not what everyone is looking for in a read.

Of late, I have steered clear of any book that has received high level awards as my personal opinion seems to be contrary to that of higher literary beings, so, enjoying and appreciation Ricci's work came as a pleasant surprise.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to enjoy this book. With all its references to literary theory (just completed a Masters in Comp Lit) and the main character's existential angst it seemed right up my alley. I didn't hate it. I didn't love it.

I found the first part of the novel very interesting. We meet Alex and are immersed in his world; there is careful attention paid to many details of his life. I liked Alex. I enjoyed the middle of the novel too and the obvious connection with Darwin's theories. But the end lost me. It seemed like the story went on for too long and went in to too much detail that in the end I couldn't muster interest enough to care. The epilogue, though admittedly I scanned it, tried too hard to make clear the title's origins (no pun intended) and seemed all in all too neat. Overall the story teetered back and forth from being good (sometimes really good) to being too verbose and coming out then as just okay.

Maybe my expectations were too high.

[Anne-Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I quite liked this book. Ricci plumbs the depths of his main character's psyche and really shows us, with unflinching accuracy, the deep psychological recesses of a person whose everyday life is seemingly mundane. We see all of his worst thoughts and tendencies, portrayed not in a way that demonizes him, but in the context of his entire life as a complex and thoughtful being. You read this book and understand people a bit better. You understand why they are flawed, but also how they can rise above their flaws. All this in Ricci's elegant prose. Highly recommended.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that I couldn't put down. The book is an incredible journey through the life of one man as he tries to find a strain of reason or meaning to his existence and experiences.

[Debra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Actually, I never bothered to finish this book. Yet another sad-sack, loser protagonist. Who cares?

[Nellie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had this book out twice from the library as I decided I wanted to get through it but found it to be quite a long slog. In the end, I don't think it was worth my time and effort.

[Tat2d · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insanely good. Amazing read. You forget that you're reading as you lose yourself in the prose.

[Debbie Hill · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a struggle, but I finished it.

[HadiDee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alex doesn’t care very much himself or anyone else. The side characters are interesting as they drift in and out of Alex's life

[Lucas]

I don't want to shit on the other reviews, but a lot of what I read was: "I'm too young to know about 1980s culture and events, and I don't know Montreal so this book didn't relate to me.". Also "I didn't like the main character so I didn't like the book.". Also "It was too long.".

Well don't ever attempt to read historical fiction, or travelogues of places you've yet to visit. Part of the beauty of writing is that you inhabit the realm of another, whether it is the author or through one of their characters. Don't be affected negatively by knowing references passed you by, if I did that I'd never of read any classics. I had a friend who said he read all of Dostoyevsky every ten years, and it was different each time.

Yeah, the author has a lot of references that might not be readily accessible to the neophyte, like talks of contemporary politics of Canada and Quebec, or academic circles etc., But what's the alternative, to have a narration devoid of historical context? Even Aesop fables and Grimm fairytales have outmoded aspects....I think most complainants would be left reading sports scores and instructions on Ikea furniture.
I'm glad you gave the book a chance, but I think too many people read with the intent that they will be amused without any personal involvement, like watching an action movie or listening to top ten hits. Sometimes you got to meet the author partway down the trail.

[Alex Handyside · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given the pedigree and plaudits I was expecting better. But I was disappointed - and I even stuck with it thil the end - I thought it *had* to get better. It didn't.
It rambled: for chapter upon chapter nothing happened. The protagonist Alex was hateful, unlikable and introspective to the point of being completely (with the exception of his time with Esther) self-centred. His interactions with the other characters leave the reader feeling worse.

I would have given the book just one star, but there was one part of the book where it began to redeem itself. The part that was worth reading was Alex's time on Galapagos - the middle fifth of the book.
I wish I'd known, as I would have skipped the first 2/5 and the last 2/5, and just read p237-330. You should too.

And don't bother with the epilogue - it's disjointed and depressing, and does nothing for the story.

I don't know why the author wrote such a meaningless book.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book...but I found it a highly self-involved and a slog. At times, the timeline seemed to jump around without warning or connection to the current situation. I stuck with it until the end because the author definitely has some shining beautiful moments of prose, there are many interesting characteristics other than the painful protagonist, and I'm sucker for anything that describes the Galapagos and its incredible ecosystems.

[Rebecca House]

I’ve tried to read this book, just can’t stick with it. Writing is great, but I just can’t connect with the main character and it’s too slow for me at this point. Perhaps reading at a different time when can be more focused it will be better experience. For now, no reviews just an acknowledgement not for me.

[Kelly Forrester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a classic story, and the first third was hard to get through, but set up the rest of the story. The highlight was the section on the Galapagos, where I waited the whole time for something horrible to happen.

in general, the story leaves you pretty much no conclusion or too much progress on any of the character development, but I suppose that is somewhat akin to real life.

[Patti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rated this book a 3 but some parts of it I would give a 4 or 5. It seemed like I was never going to finish it as I would be totally engrossed one minute and the next I would be totally lost. It was a love/hate thing for sure.

[Jennifer Coleman-Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never really grabbed me like...took over a year to finish because I only read it every now and then and only because I felt I had to finish it. A bit boring for me but I did enjoy the bits about life in Montreal during the 80s.

[Mary Ripley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obsessive male rambling. Frightened to face his own life and actions. Privileged and lost. Pounding conflicting feelings that are never resolved but continuously revisited. Only finished it to find out if there was a message. There was not.