An English man called John Spooke (later revealed to be a author) opens the novel by introducing (and preempting the fact he will be bookending) a long email by Frank, a Norwegian evolutionary biologist, to his estranged wife, Spanish palaeoanthropologist, Vera. John doesn't explain how or why he has the email, or a postcard from Frank to Vera, he only reveals that he and Frank met on a small island in Fiji. Frank's email details what happened in Fiji. Frank had been travelling through New Zealand to research lizards and to escape the memory of his separation and the death of his small daughter (and deal with the fact he will soon see Vera at an upcoming conference), and he decides to spend a few days at a eco-tourist resort on the small Fijian island of Taveuni- the island lies directly on the international date line and supposedly is very beautiful. On the island he meets a weird collection of characters; John Spooke- an English novelist working on a documentary on the turn of millennium (the novel is set in 1998) and mourning the death of his wife, Bill- an overbearing American retired industrialist, Laura- an Australian hard core environmentalist addicted to her Lonely Planet guide, an Italian sailor, some American honeymooners, and, most importantly, Jose and Ana- a mysterious Spanish couple who are a journalist and flamingo dancer respectively. Frank uses his knowledge of Spanish to eavesdrop on Jose and Ana as they wonder the island sprouting odd sayings that only they can understand about religion, science and philosophy. He and John are both fascinated with the Spanish couple (though John cannot understand them) and both believe that Ana is oddly familiarly though neither can figure out from where- when Frank catches Ana and Jose nude bathing he even realises that her face may be familiar but her body oddly isn't. In the evening the whole cast of characters sit around the dinner tables and discuss the origins of life and their own religious views. Frank develops an attraction to Laura with her dual pigmented eyes and her stubborn beliefs- the novel's title comes from several things amongst them Laura's brahman belief system. Frank also spends his nights philosophising with a gecko who has invaded his hut - he names the gecko Gordon after the gin brand of a bottle the gecko wraps himself around. It is much talking of philosophy, evolution and religion. Trying to determine, why we are here, why we think humanity is so important and what is the meaning of life is.
Well Gaarder's meaning of life is much longer than Douglas Adams's answer but it is almost as inexplicable. Gaarder made a massive splash with Sophie's World and most people haven't read far beyond that. A few years ago I suggested The Christmas Mystery as an easy Christmas time read for my then book club and most people weren't huge fans- I have to say I think it is decidedly better than Twilight which they all made me read (I got my revenge at length for that one by speaking their ears off for about an hour about how much I detested it). Personally I like Gaarder but I will say a lot of his books took more than one start for me to get into- this is my second attempt at Maya, The Castle in the Pyrenees I have yet to come back to, and The Orange Girl took three attempts before I got through it and loved it. In my last blog, I said that I couldn't feel much for the principle characters in The Beautiful and Damned. Thankfully Frank is most more appealing mainly because I like characters who have stuff in common with me even if it is something minor- e.g. I loved the character of Clare in The Time Traveller's Wife because she spelt her name the same way as I do and I loved the wholly unlovable Chip in The Corrections because he was an academic who spoke in the kind of language I was taught to speak as an Arts graduate/ PhD student- Frank won out as an evolutionary biologist which but for the choice of the humanities over science might have been my career path. I found most of characters interesting and the philosophising thought provoking and still quite like Gaarder love of being more than a bit meta. I also loved that Frank named the gecko Gordon- I'm not sure if The Wall Street illusion was intended but it made me laugh. A few minor points, read The Solitaire Mystery (my favourite Gaarder novel) first as Gaarder has a few philosophical points and minor plot point that he returns to repeatedly in his novels and many of these were first found in The Solitaire Mystery. Following that I had a massive annoyance with the character of Laura, not her stubbornness or her views but the fact that Frank says she is Australian and then it is VERY quickly revealed that she is from the US and that she has only been in Australia for a few months- it would be very foolish for anyone to mistake an American for an Aussie!
In good news for people who aren't yet sick of me talking about books, the Novel Challenge has been extended by a month so you get one more month of book related blogs. Tomorrow all about Jonathan Franzen's The Discomfort Zone....
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