Title: The Book of Speculation
Author: Erika Swyler
ISBN: 9781250054807
No. of Pages: 352
Genre: Speculative Fiction
Origins: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: 23 June 2015
“Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone in a house that is slowly crumbling toward the Long Island Sound. His parents are long dead. His mother, a circus mermaid who made her living by holding her breath, drowned in the very water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, ran off six years ago and now reads tarot cards for a traveling carnival.
One June day, an old book arrives on Simon’s doorstep, sent by an antiquarian bookseller who purchased it on speculation. Fragile and water damaged, the book is a log from the owner of a traveling carnival in the 1700s, who reports strange and magical things, including the drowning death of a circus mermaid. Since then, generations of “mermaids” in Simon’s family have drowned–always on July 24, which is only weeks away.
As his friend Alice looks on with alarm, Simon becomes increasingly worried about his sister. Could there be a curse on Simon’s family? What does it have to do with the book, and can he get to the heart of the mystery in time to save Enola?”
Thoughts on the Novel: The Book of Speculation promises much in the way of an interesting story and beautiful prose. Unfortunately, while the prose is still gorgeous, the story fails to meet a reader’s expectations. For one thing, there is a lack of directness in the narrative that muddies the story as well as the characters and prevents readers from making clear connections between the two. The story is almost hypnotic in its murkiness. One must infer everything that occurs. While this can be a good feature to add to any novel, one should not have to interpret all of the action and dialogue occurring within a story.
Another thing with which readers may also find issue is Simon’s voice. For someone who is supposed to be young, he talks and acts like he is closer to retirement. There is a wariness about technology that does not ring true for a character of his age. While he uses the Internet for his job and later for further research, he displays a lack of enthusiasm which better suits someone for whom computers and the Internet did not exist for most of their life. Simon is young enough to fully adopt the technology and adapt to the way it has changed the world. Yet, he does not act that way. Everything about Simon is jarring and incongruous and very much at odds with the rest of the story.
The story, like so many others these days, switches back and forth between time periods and narrators. Simon tells the modern-day portions of the story, while the rest of the book fleshes out the story told in the circus owner’s log. Although certainly an overdone story-telling medium these days, it works fairly well in The Book of Speculation if only because one needs to understand the past in order to comprehend the present. There is still an air of repetitiveness though as this method is overtly obvious in its attempts to artificially build suspense. For a novel that is thoroughly indirect in explaining answers, the directness of the back-and-forth time and narrator shifts does not quite fit.
The main fault of The Book of Speculation is the fact that it tries too hard to be everything and nothing. It wants to be a mystery, a thriller, a coming-of-age story, and a family drama all at once, but it wants readers to work for each and every answer. One gets the impression that there are blazing neon lights informing readers of the scenes containing magical realism, but other key aspects of the story remain shrouded in secrecy. Everything about the novel is a bit too convenient, as are the character relationships. All of this combines to create a novel into which it is difficult to immerse oneself.
BOTTOM LINE: Disappointingly mediocre.
Ohhh too bad. I had high hopes for this novel but it seems now like one to skip. hmm
Perhaps you could get it from the library and try out the first few chapters to see if it is going to work for you. I say that because I know others have loved this one. I just really struggled with certain elements of it.
Oh, bummer! I’ve been jonesing for this one based on the cover alone. 🙁
The cover is awesome. I just didn’t find the book to be worthy of that cover.
I am drawn to this one because it has books on the cover (and in the title), but of course that doesn’t always guarantee a great read. I’m not really a fan of magical realism unless the rest of the book is so good that I can overlook it. Sounds like that may not be the case here. I’ll likely put it on the get it at the library list so I won’t feel bad if I don’t want to finish it 🙂
There you go! I do know others love it, but like you said, I’m not a huge magical realism fan. It needs to be really well-done. I felt this was not, at least according to my exacting expectations. However, I do think if the premise interests you that you should give it a try. The sentence structure is gorgeous; she paints beautiful pictures, even if those pictures are blurry.
Argh, I scrolled to the end for your bottom line and wilted! So bummed that this one did not work better for you. It’s in my library stack, but I may place it closer to the bottom now…
I understand about it being frustrating when a story is *too* murky. I had that experience with an ARC I recently read (though I concede that its poor formatting may have been part of the problem). I don’t need all the plot points and revelations spoon-fed to me, but I also don’t want to be utterly confused the whole time I’m reading. Sad to hear that this one does the same, especially after all the hype I’ve seen!
I’m sorry! I wish I had better things to say about it. I did finish it, so it couldn’t have been too horrible. I just really struggled with the veil that seemed to cover the story, preventing me from obtaining a clear understanding of what was occurring. I could figure it out, but I think anything containing magical realism should have some escapism in it. This one had none because I had to spend the whole time reading between the lines. I will be curious to see what others think of it as reviews start rolling in.
ouch, I was expecting a lot form this book, so considering skipping it now
Oh, don’t skip it! I would hate for you to do that only to read it later and discover how much you love it. I don’t know if the problems with the book or with me. These were issues I struggled to overcome while reading. Others may absolutely love those same concerns though. I say read it but maybe lower your expectations.
You think the murkiness was intentional? It almost sounds as if it was.
I feel as if I’ve read this book because of the mermaid thing but I read that in Anabel, I believe.
I do think it was intentional – as if she was afraid of giving away too much. It just didn’t work well. There is too much left unsaid and up to reader interpretation. I don’t like that, although I do find this to be a common ploy with magical realism. Perhaps I am just not a magical realism fan…