Perched on the bluff's edge, the house is in danger.Last night's storm tore land and churned water, littering the beach with bottles, seaweed, and horseshoe crab carapaces. The place where I've spent my entire life is unlikely to survive the fall storm season.
Description:
Know what a "swimmer" is? A swimmer is a performer in a circus sideshow who can hold his/her breath for long periods of time, over 10 minutes in most cases, while swimming underwater posing as a mermaid. The narrator of Erika Swyler's captivating novel The Book of Speculation, Simon Watson along with his sister Enola learned this technique from their mother, a swimmer for a travelling sideshow company... someone ironically who committed suicide by drowning.
Simon, a small town librarian, receives an ancient book written in the 1700s full of notes, drawings, and rambling notations about a travelling sideshow circus. While interesting in itself as a rare book, the crumbling record also mentions Simon's great grandmother, grandmother and other relatives who all were swimmers with this show.
Fascinated, Watson researches these names and finds the odd coincidence that each of these swimmers committed suicide on the same date, July 24 - all by drowning just like his own mother. Impossible for a swimmer, but it happened. Of course, Watson has to get to the bottom of it to understand what actually occurred and to prevent his eccentric sister, currently drifting about as a fortune-teller with a travelling show (and also a swimmer), from possibly repeating her ancestor's actions.
Simon, a small town librarian, receives an ancient book written in the 1700s full of notes, drawings, and rambling notations about a travelling sideshow circus. While interesting in itself as a rare book, the crumbling record also mentions Simon's great grandmother, grandmother and other relatives who all were swimmers with this show.
Fascinated, Watson researches these names and finds the odd coincidence that each of these swimmers committed suicide on the same date, July 24 - all by drowning just like his own mother. Impossible for a swimmer, but it happened. Of course, Watson has to get to the bottom of it to understand what actually occurred and to prevent his eccentric sister, currently drifting about as a fortune-teller with a travelling show (and also a swimmer), from possibly repeating her ancestor's actions.
I have a week. The book is a beautifully broken window with an obstructed view of what is killing us, and something is definitely killing us.Jumping between the 1700s life and people of the travelling show, and then the present day, author Swyler keeps the story absolutely captivating. There are mysterious elements that span both time periods, from ancient tarot cards and fortune-tellers, to horseshoe crabs, floods, portraits, and even a tattooed man who can turn on electric lights with his fingers.
Those who long to live in [the] past dream just as much for the future.I loved the oddities of the circus life and its unusual performers, the element of mystery for each generation, the dusty research Simon pursues to unravel the story, the romance he finds with an old friend, and the tension when July 24 finally arrives in Simon and Enola's life.
We carry our families like anchors, rooting us in storms, making sure we never drift from where and who we are. We carry our families within us the way we carry our breath underwater, keeping us afloat, keeping us alive. I've been lifting anchors since I was eighteen. I've been holding my breath since before I was born.A wondrously beautiful, gripping, and magical book. Highest recommendation.
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Davies, Robertson. The World of Wonders
Fantastic telling of one boy's rise from a tragedy in his childhood to becoming an internationally famous magician, but still finds he must face his past and friends. (previously reviewed here)
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