but don't quote me on that) coupled with my basic knowledge of the plot (set in Montreal in the 1980s, centred on a Ph.D. student in English trying to write his dissertation) made me seize it when I saw it available at the Grande Bibliothèque. It was the same day I finally got a membership there, and I could scarcely believe my good luck at walking out with a brand-new, Governor-General Award-winning novel without having been on a waiting list for weeks.And it didn't disappoint. It's deliciously long, with a strange adventure section set in the Galapagos that I found impossible to put down. Ricci's prose style is excellent, and he tackles all the big questions in this one novel: death, God, living authentically and ethically. It's the kind of novel that for another writer is simultaneously inspiring and deflating --- a capital N Novel with all the hallmarks of time, research, genius, effort. Read it!
3 comments:
I have been hesitant to read this due to its heft but I finished his bio of Pierre Elliott Trudeau a while back and am so impressed by his writing style that I'm going to give Origin of Species a go. Am I alone in thinking the title is off-putting? It sounds too ponderous.
Are you going to join any book reading groups while you are in Winnipeg this time?
@B.Kienapple - you're right, the title is the pits. Trudeau makes a little cameo in the novel and it made me want to read the bio. I'm curious if Ricci pitched the biography since he was already caught up in writing about & researching the place/time period...?
@ReefaMahboob - sadly, no. I'm already home!
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