Thursday, Apr 22, 2010

Book Review… Beatrice & Virgil by Yann Martell

“Reality escapes us. 

It’s beyond description, even a simple pear. 

Time eats everything.”

Publish Date:  4.13.10

ISBN #:   978-1400069262

Pages:  224 Hardback

Type:  Fiction

Purchase:  $16.20 – Amazon.Com (Hardcover) / Kindle $9.99

 The Review:

For fans of Life of Pi, as you commence Beatrice & Virgil, you wonder whether or not this is a psuedo-biography of Yann Martell.  This is the story of a Henry, an author, who wrote a largely successful novel about animals.  People, over the years have written Henry about this novel with their questions and thoughts sharing their admiration about the work.  In an unknown big city, Henry and his wife build a life.  After he wrote his next novel about the Holocaust, which was not received well by his publishers due to the format in which it was written, Henry decides to work in a chocolate shop.  He also acts with a  local theatre group while continuing to work on his novel.

Through his publisher, Henry is contacted by a stranger and provided a large envelope with a short story by Flaubert enclosed.  Certain sections of this story are highlighted, those primarily regarding the animals within the tale.  The sender also enclosed sections of a play that Henry didn’t recognize.  This play eventually leads him to the author of the play, who is also named Henry.  Henry-the-playwright is a taxidermist and has seemingly centered his entire life to preserving the beauty and the truth of the animals he ”restores.” 

Henry-the-taxidermist/playwright asks Henry-the-author to help him by reviewing the play that he has written.  It also seems that he is asking Henry to help him finish it.  Yet, Henry-the-taxidermist won’t release the entire copy of the play to Henry to read.  He insists on reading it aloud to Henry, not necessarily in order or a with an organized pattern behind it.  As the play is unveiled to Henry-the-author, he comes to his own conclusions and draws parallels between this play, seemingly about a donkey named Beatrice and a Howler Monkey named Virgil, to the Holocaust.  However, what is truly revealed to Henry is a horror that he isn’t prepared to face, but he is grasping to remember.

Wrap Up & On Sher’s “Out of 10 Scale:”

This author has a way of making you think like very few can.  His stories are philosophical in nature that I simply cannot resist.  After finishing this book, I was surprised to see the ending which was entitled “Games for Gustav.”  I have included below some of the questions in the game for you to ponder.  These, of course, tie to the horrors of the Holocaust.

Because of my on-going admiration of this brilliant author and appreciation of this book, I give Beatrice and Virgil a rating of 9 out of 10.

Interested On Hearing What Beatrice & Virgil Have to Say?

Games For Gustav

 Game No. 1

Your 10 year old son is speaking to you.  He says he has found a way of obtaining some potatoes to feed your starving family.  If he is caught, he will be killed.  Do you let him go?

Game No. 2

You are a barber.  You are working in a room full of people.  You shear them and they are led away and killed.  You do this all day.  Every day.  A new group is brought in.  You recognize the wife and sister of a good friend.  They recognize you too.  With joy in their eyes embrace.  They ask you what is going to happen to them.  What do you tell them?

Game No. 3

You are holding your granddaughter’s hand.  Neither of you is well after the long trip with no food or water.  Together, you are taken to the infirmary by a soldier.  The place turns out to be a place where people are “being cured with a single pill.”  As the soldier puts it, that is, with a single shot to the back of the head.   The pit is full of bodies, some of them still moving.  There are 6 people ahead of you in the line.  Your granddaughter looks up at you and asks you a question.  What is the question?

Game No. 4

An armed guard tells you to sing.  You sing.  He tells you to dance.  You dance.  He tells you to act like a pig.  You pretend you are a pig.  He tells you to lick his boots.   You lick his boots.  Then he tells you to ”_____” and it’s a foreign word you don’t understand.  What action do you do?

Game No. 9

Afterwards, when it’s all over, you meet God.  What do you say to God?

 Game No. 12

A doctor is speaking to you.  “This pill will erase your memory.  You will forget all of your suffering and all of your loss.  But you will also forget your entire past.”  Do you swallow the pill?

I am extending the give-a-way for the extra copy of Beatrice & Virgil to April 30, 2010.

CLICK HERE to enter.

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