The Gargoyle | Andrew Davidson | A unique travelogue through centuries

The Gargoyle | Andrew Davidson | Brilliant

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The Gargoyle

	The Gargoyle Andrew Davidson Doubleday, 2008 - 480 pages average customer review:based on 133 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A unique travelogue through centuries

This first effort by Andrew Davidson will grab you by the throat from page one and it doesn't let go from there. The protagonist is badly burned over much of his body in a drug and alcohol induced automobile accident, his young physique and handsome face disfigured for life. Marianne Engel, a mysterious visitor to the burn ward gives him startling revelations on their conjoined past lives and love through the centuries as well as reason to go on living through unimaginable suffering and deformity. This most original story will not disappoint the reader. One of the best I've read in a long time.

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Brilliant

Brilliant book. I laughed, I cried, I understood that the author is trying hard to be cynical and introspective simultaneoulsy. A great read, fast and non-stop. Who cares if the main character is/was a porn actor, or if Marianne can speak and read numerous languages? This is a tale of true love, spanning lifetimes, and how one person can change another's life forever.

an interesting read

The Gargoyle is well researched in its account of fifteenth century Germanic writings and the ordeal of being severely burnt, both the process of, and the aftermath & treatment. Without giving away the plot, what follows is that the unnamed protagonist meets a strange girl willing to help him recover; feeding him bits and pieces of a supposed past life involving them both, and other stories of undying love....and oh, and she carves Gargoyles too - with an interesting twist. Is this the work of a schizophrenic, or is this the unbelievable truth that she speaks? If you read and enjoyed Salamanca`s Lilith and Dante's Divine Comedy, this is a must read for you, some interesting parallels. I found it to be fresh and thought provoking.

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Through Love Comes Redemption

Over the period of one day, I was completely immersed in the story... so many stories within one! Starting with a real shock of a near-fatal auto accident, this book definitely starts off with a bang. The main character (who is never "named") is severely burnt, and spends months upon months in a hospital's burn unit. I really enjoyed seeing the transformation of the main character both physically, spiritually, and emotionally throughout the 400+ pages of the novel. With the care/love of an eccentric (is she or isn't she? "mental" patient) woman he meets in the hospital, he finds love, redemption, and ultimately a reason to live. (Before meeting Marianne, he spends his days in the hospital planning his suicide). He lives for her, just as she lives for him. Interwoven into the main story are many vignettes about love and loss that Marianne tells him - spanning centuries and the globe. She tells them as if she was there, and these people were her close friends. She even weaves a story about how the two of them were lovers in sixteenth-century Germany... and it doesn't seem to matter to the reader if it is true or not, because it is so beautiful and so pure.

Davidson put SO much work into this book. He researched everything from third-degree burn recovery to medieval manuscripts, Icelandic love ballads to Japanese language. That feat in itself is very praiseworthy! (and when you read the book, you understand how it really works together).

This one will stay with me for a long time.

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Disturbing

I found this book disturbing. It took me quite a long time to get into it because of how graphic the first few chapters are. Once I got past the initial chapters, though, I really enjoyed it. It isn't a light, fun book, but one that takes time and thought.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

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