The Book of Speculation
Ratings28
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings28
Average rating3.6
"Simon Watson, a young librarian on the verge of losing his job, lives alone on the Long Island Sound in his family home--a house, perched on the edge of a bluff, that is slowly crumbling toward the sea. His parents are long dead, his mother having drowned in the water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, works for a traveling carnival reading tarot cards, and seldom calls. On a day in late June, Simon receives a mysterious package from an antiquarian bookseller. The book tells the story of Amos and Evangeline, doomed lovers who lived and worked in a traveling circus more than two hundred years ago. The paper crackles with age as Simon turns the yellowed pages filled with notes, sketches, and whimsical flourishes; and his best friend and fellow librarian, Alice, looks on in increasing alarm. Why does his grandmother's name, Verona Bonn, appear in this book? Why do so many women in his family drown on July 24? Could there possibly be some kind of curse on his family--and could Enola, who has suddenly turned up at home for the first time in six years, risk the same fate in just a few weeks? In order to save her--and perhaps himself--Simon must try urgently to decode his family history while moving on from the past. The Book of Speculation is Erika Swyler's gorgeous and moving debut, a wondrous novel about the power of books and family and magic"--
Reviews with the most likes.
Could have been good, but felt it's playing off the carnival/magician theme that has been circulating. Also the “I'm going to include a book restorer because anyone who's reading this book must love books. therefore they'll love my book” theme. groans
I am uncomfortable with the way that differing mental states are portrayed. I'm not sure if it is ‘mental illness' or ‘neurodiverse' that is being portrayed, but it feels a little voyeuristic. The grief portrayal seems like it could be accurate, but it is extra dramatized. So the story is kind of interesting, but the drama was distracting.
This isn't the normal type of book that I read, however, this book got its hooks in me and I found it so interesting, even though nothing much really happens in it. I just love the magical realism and the connections with family and the history of it all. A great book, but not for everyone.
Librarians, mermaids, traveling circuses and a touch of the supernatural make this an enjoyable read. I admit, I found the main character, Simon Watson, to be a pretty lame example of a reference librarian, his supposed profession. He kept asking his circulation colleague to do his research for him, when every reference librarian I know would have been elbowing people out of the way to get started on the research themselves. However, Simon Watson is an exasperating character in other ways too, so maybe this was just another one of his flaws.
The main idea of the book is that Simon becomes aware, through an old book sent to him out of the blue by an antiquarian book dealer, that his family's troubles go back much further than his and his parents' generations, and that they are part of an alarming pattern. The process of uncovering the pattern and discovering the source of his family's troubles make this a suspenseful mystery. A substantial part of the book also takes place in an 18th century American traveling circus. The story telling in these chapters is excellent–they were my favorite part of the book.
I read this in long stretches on the couch over my Christmas vacation, and I heartily recommend.
