This book
came to my attention because of its nomination for both the Walter Scott Prize
for Historical Fiction and the Giller Prize.
The plot description also hooked me in, though I now wish I had resisted.
At the end
of the Acknowledgements, the author thanks his three editors for working “long
and hard to turn a self-indulgent mess of cobbled-together myth and mystery
into something like a novel.” I’m afraid
the editors did not succeed because the book, for me, still seems a “mess of
cobbled-together myth and mystery.”
The
characters who are present throughout the novel are Nelson Nilsson and Fay
Morgan who are both in Inuvik trying to solve mysteries involving family
members. Gradually, Fay finds
information about her enigmatic grandfather in the research conducted by Nelson’s
brother who has disappeared. There are just too many coincidences in this
plot line to be believable. (I have not
been able to figure out why the author chose for his female lead a name which
alludes to Morgan le Faye, the enchantress of Arthurian legend.)
The
majority of the book is multiple stories covering a span of 175 years. Historical figures like Sir John Franklin,
Roald Amundsen, and Jack London make an appearance. Likewise the settings cover much of the world;
Tasmania, Tuktoyaktuk, Antarctica, eastern Siberia, Norway. Timelines are not chronological so they add
to the confusion already present because of the number of characters, some of
whom are loosely connected and some of whom just disappear from the narrative
without explanation.
I am
certain that I am not the only reader who will recall Aristotle’s statement
about synergism: "The whole is
greater than the sum of its parts".
Unfortunately, in the case of this novel, the opposite is true. The individual stories are often interesting,
but the novel as a whole did not leave me feeling enthused. Of course, the individual vignettes vary in
quality; the one involving Jack London is tedious and the one focusing on one
of Amundsen’s mistresses seems pointless.
After a
while, I felt that the book might have been better packaged as a collection of mysteries. The book does touch on several unsolved
mysteries: Amundsen’s disappearance in
an airborne rescue mission in the Arctic, the fate of the Franklin expedition,
the identity of the Mad Trapper of Rat River, the appearance of Franklin’s
chronometer disguised as a carriage clock in London. As expected, none of these is solved. When one of Franklin’s ships is discovered,
one character mourns the loss of mystery:
“’They had to go and find
her. They had to solve a perfectly good
mystery.’” The epilogue also suggests
the author’s fascination with the mysterious:
“lives don’t always end like they’re supposed to. Some people slip through the cracks.”
This book
was just not for me. I can appreciate
the amount of research that O’Loughlin did, but I found the book just too
disjointed. At the end of his
acknowledgments, the author thanks the reader for reading the book, “assuming
you made it this far.” I have to admit
that for me finishing the book became a chore.
I will be checking the reviews of
others in the hope that someone will be able to fully explain this novel’s
worth to me.
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