The Gargoyle | Andrew Davidson | Of Fire, Hell, Love and Redemption

The Gargoyle | Andrew Davidson | Oh for pete's sake...or Andrew's

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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

Of Fire, Hell, Love and Redemption

Andrew Davidson's "The Gargoyle" is hard to describe in any way that does justice to either its uniqueness or its greatness. In essence, it is a tale of love and redemption spanning seven centuries, which intertwines the fates of the principal protagonists with mythical tales from around the world and through the ages, using Dante's "The Divine Comedy" as a unifying thread. Or else it is the tale of a drug-addicted burns victim and his developing relationship with a beautiful, rich but suicidal sculptress who herself suffers from severe schizophrenic delusions.

However you view it, this book is maddeningly difficult to put down (providing one makes it past the opening harrowing depictions of being burned alive almost to the point of death in a motor-car blaze and the period of ensuing self-pity). It is so well written and cleverly constructed that even though it is almost impossible to like the story's main character one is nevertheless compelled to keep reading simply to find out what happens to him! The book amply rewards any who persevere beyond the opening section, in its progression from sickening through heart-warming and exciting to its heart-rendingly redemptive conclusion. Be sure to have some tissues to hand for the end.

The hardback edition of the book is also beautifully produced, with embossed cover and blackened edges to the pages (the relevance of which is revealed in the book's closing pages) and it is a pleasure to hold (even while some of the contents make for very far from pleasurable reading!) If it were not for Nick Harkaway's "The Gone Away World" I would accord this book the accolade of best début novel of the year. As it is, the two of them will have to share that title!

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Oh for pete's sake...or Andrew's

Well, I just read alot of the discussion issues here. And frankly, I don't care what Mr. Davidson looks like, or what any author looks like, it's all about the book. This book is uniquely enthralling and it is also educational about the topics that it covers-- burn treatment, medieval ages, etc. But the single most important thing I will remember about this book is that the last paragraph made my skin tingle. And if you can't be touched by those words, by that concept, well then, crap, I'm just a hopeless romantic who enjoyed it, I guess.

Wonderful!!

This is an amazing book! I absolutely loved it. I took my time reading it, because I wanted it to last a while and I wanted to make sure I read each word.

The story begins with the narrator's accident, which leaves him horribly burned and near death. As he recovers, he's visited by Marianne Engel, and it is her story that fills the majority of the book. She claims to be over 700 years old - and is currently a renowned scultor of gargoyles (or grotesques, as she says they are called).

I don't want to give too much away, because the joy in the book is reading her history, the stories of her friends, and ultimately, the story of the narrator's recovery.

But I will say this - it's a great book - and it gets all five stars!

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Just who is The Gargoyle?

This is the first book I've ever read where three vice-presidents and top editors of a world-renowned publishing house wrote and signed a glowing foreword for any author. I was impressed, and due to the pre-hype and outstanding publicity for The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, I couldn't wait to read it.

They bill it as "an international sensation ... the most extraordinary debut novel of the decade, a riveting love story about the redemptive power of suffering and a romance that transcends the limits of time and space," but unfortunately, I don't see it that way.

Davidson is definitely a gifted author, with an amazing voice and an enthralling way with words. Written in the voice of a poor, beleaguered, unnamed man who is severely burned in an auto accident, Davidson's description--through the man's eyes--is magnificent in purity and depth. And he blew me away with his description of what burn victims suffer during rehabilitation; this part is so authentic, it's obvious the author researched the book from every angle. It's a brilliant book.

Even though the protagonist was a coke-addicted pornographer and had a horrible background, my heart softened towards him due to the horrific burns he suffered and what he went through during rehabilitation. I genuinely liked him.

The man is in such pain he forms an elaborate suicide plan, which he later abandons when a schizophrenic fellow patient, Marianne Engle, begins to visit him. This beautiful woman pulls him back from the brink with unbelievable stories about them being soulmates, dating back to medieval days. Marianne's tragic love tales are so historically convincing and her emotion so real that the burn victim gradually begins to believe in her, eventually falling in love with her ... again in this life.

When the man has recovered enough to try living outside the hospital on his own, Engel, a successful sculptress of gargoyles, offers to take him into her home and care for him. She, too, won my heart by her obvious love and concern for the patient. I cheered when the doctor reluctantly consented and allowed him to try it with her.

When suddenly the tables turn and he ends up taking care of Marianne and learns the secret behind her sculpting--what she goes through to "release the gargoyles from the stone"--that's when my enchantment with the woman began to wear thin.

And my enchantment with the author soured a little!

When Davidson drags the sculpting scenes out, by sending the sculptress back to the studio time and time again in her wild obsession with the gargoyles--to the point of making herself ill--I think he overdid it. I grew bored with those repetitious chapters and this is where the author and Engel truly lost my deep concern.

But when the man has his big epiphany with Michael the Archangel, I became thoroughly lost. I didn't understand this part and was unhappy with the ending of this much-heralded novel. I never did understand just who "The Gargoyle" is. Since Gargoyles were called "Grotesques" in earlier times, perhaps the burn victim is meant to be "The Gargoyle." Since Engel sculpts the Gargoyles from a smooth slab of marble, I thought at first she might do a reverse with the man and make him perfect again, if not in body, then in spirit. Perhaps she did. Could that be another pertinent point I missed?

Perhaps the fault is mine; maybe it's the kind of book I need to read twice in order to understand. I'm willing to do that. Should a second reading bring it together for me, I'll return and change my rating: 3-stars.

(I need to make it clear that I think Davidson is a 5-star writer with a brilliant imagination and that The Gargoyle is a high-concept novel. It just was not clear to me.)

This could be said by Marianne Engel as she "releases" her gargoyles:
"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." - Michelangelo

This review based on an Advance Reading Copy
Reviewed by: Betty Dravis, 2008
author of 1106 Grand Boulevard

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