The Gargoyle | Andrew Davidson | Tortured but Redeemable

The Gargoyle | Andrew Davidson | Darn!I

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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

Tortured but Redeemable

This book tells a story of redemption of the soul and its realization through sacrifice, It makes you believe in reincarnation. The power of love. This book is as true as its name. The main character is a gargoyle. From childhood his life was filled with destruction and a warped sense of life. He spent his life immersed in drugs and alcohol, taking the easy way out making porn movies and eventually producing them. I have lived in S. Cal. so I can identify with this characterization. You dont think that he will live. You dont expect him to live. You might not like him but you pity him because of his terrible suffering. You definitely think this visiting strange woman in a hospital gown is insane. Yet she is rich. You find out she is an artist. A tortured Artist. Every character and every tale is a deep moral metaphor for something the heart experiences in every person. Both characters suffer mentally and physically on a scope that sears your brain. I realized only at the end, after the many tales she tells of their past lives and their love, that all her stories were not of a mad woman but a woman locked in a divine destiny that only suffering and sacrifice could bring to fruition. I was left with the very eerie sense of deja vu'.

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Darn!I

I am sad that I am almost finished with this great story.
What a terrific read!
My siblings will get this to read!

A beautifully dark novel

I'll admit that at first I was skeptical about this book, but upon reading I realized that it was beautifully constructed and very descriptive.
It's a dark, compelling, work of art.
You have to be open-minded and have an appreciation of literary works of art as this is NOT some romance novel or poorly written book. If you only "see" the surface you will get hung up on it(yes, the character was a drug addict and performed in porn, however, there is a lesson learned from who he once was to who he became...he WAS part of the "underbelly of society." He's actually a "deep" and intelligent individual as you will find out.
I recommend this book, but if you don't like "deep" and "dark" novels it's not for you....
...but I give it 5 stars.

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Some Great Stuff, but not without Minor Problems..

This book alternates between 1300's Germany and present day America with terrific trips into a burn clinic, hospital friendships, gargoyles, and mainly the strange friendship of an even stranger sculptress and the burnt- out hero, also a former porn actor (these descriptions could have been toned down to make this a book for all ages) There is some literary analogies to the Divine Comedy which also add to the plot, and interest. All in all, a 1st novel that approaches the majestic at times, though it has its fizzles as well. Therefore a stong 4-star rating.

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Uneven debut

"Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson is nothing if not ambitious. It aspires, quite plainly, to be "Literary Fiction" and "Romantic" in the 19th century tradition. Unfortunately, ultimately, this oddly plain desire to slot the novel within certain categories proves to be its downfall as the story bogs down under the weight of its own ambition. That's not to say that "Gargoyle" is an awful read, it's not, but it would be better served by taking itself a little less seriously.

The story follows the tale of a burn victim who falls under the sway of a mysterious woman who claims to have been his lover through 700 years of history. There are those who have claimed that the opening descriptions of the accident leading to the burns are disturbing and affecting, but I found them oddly clinical and detached. This is a problem that plagues much of the book as it is an ostensible romance that feels uniformly dispassionate. Everything from the most gruesome injury to the most mundane facet of daily life is treated with the same language. At the same time, the author has never met a metaphor he didn't like and the relentless assault of one after the other would be comical if it didn't slow the story down so badly.

One of the strengths, and weaknesses of the novel is its attention to detail. Davidson obviously researched the historical aspects of this novel extensively, but then refers to the projectile fired from a crossbow as an arrow when even the most cursory study of the weapon would show crossbows fire bolts (he also seems oddly determined to inflate the importance of a weapon that was largely a sideshow to the longbow).

"Gargoyle" has at its heart an interesting, and potentially touching story, but it is often obscured by needless literary affectations (changes in font, unorthodox page arrangements). It's not a bad read, but not a great one. If you're a fan of historical fiction it might be worth checking out but if you are primarily interested in literary fiction there are better choices out there.

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