This is another marvelous, digressive tale from Eric McCormack, who has become one of my favorite authors. As is a common theme in his work, the protagonist is a Scot who after a series of strange adventures finds himself in Canada. Along the way, he passes through Africa and South America. McCormack's obsessions are all here: old books, ships, doctors, coincidence, islands, odd sexual practices, strange cultures, and a host of quirky individuals, such as Doctor DuPont, whom we meet first in Africa, then later in the United States in very different circumstances. The plot, which somewhat connects the various sections, is a strange book discovered in Mexico, called "The Obsidian Cloud", which concerns a mysterious weather event in a Scottish village where the protagonist once lived and met the love of his life. But the research into the truth of that book and its unknown author is just part of the wonderful collection of stories McCormack manages to tell in this endlessly fascinating book. You should be able to tell early on if he is a writer for you. If he is, you'll be hooked and end up being a completist--something I'm well on my way to becoming.

I listened to the audiobook, which was read extremely well by Robert Ian Mackenzie. ( )

A good adventurous read...like dry ice and words. Definitely felt like an old man retelling his too, too incredible life story. ( )

This is a peculiar novel. Its blending of magic realism and Gothicism just doesn’t appeal to me.

Harry Steen finds an old book in a bookstore in Mexico; its title refers to an isolated village in Scotland where he lived briefly and where something happened which “would complicate the entire course of [his] life thereafter” (57). That book inspires him to chronicle his life from an impoverished childhood in the slums of Glasgow to his financially secure life in Canada as a successful businessman.

The Wikipedia entry on McCormack states, “McCormack's heroes tend to have an academic/bookish bent, been born in Scotland, and have settled in the same part of Canada that he did. They also travel extensively, often by ship, and meet eccentric fellow travelers who relate to them their life stories and interests.” This is certainly the case with this novel’s protagonist. After graduating from university, he sails to Africa and South America but eventually settles in Camberloo, which seems to be a bizarre blending of Cambridge and Waterloo, two cities in southern Ontario where the author lived. In his travels Harry meets many odd fellows.

It is the number of strange fellows which stretches credulity. There’s Jacob Nelson, a violinist with exhibitionist tendencies; Charles Dupont who becomes involved in horrific surgical/anthropological experiments; and Gordon Smith, a wealthy entrepreneur who enjoyed exotic sexual customs on remote tropical islands. Each of these men has considerable influence on Harry’s life.

Harry is not a likeable character. He is so self-centred and seems to feel himself hard done by, a wronged victim. He admits that he spent his life blaming someone else for his “self-serving behaviour over the years” (384). It is difficult to feel much for someone so self-involved. Every time he drinks he repeats his story of a love lost and becomes maudlin. Yet everything falls into his lap: jobs, sexual encounters, marriage, and wealth. Women are constantly throwing themselves at him as if he were irresistible when there is little attractiveness in his personality.

According to the Wikipedia entry, another characteristic of McCormack’s writing is the use of coincidence, with characters often meeting in unusual circumstances years after they have parted.
Again, this is the case in this novel. Chance and coincidence are found in real life, but the amount of coincidence in the book is problematic.

Apparently, McCormack is also known for self-references and those are found here as well. McCormack’s books include Inspecting the Vaults, The Paradise Motel, The Mysterium, First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, and The Dutch Wife. In the novel, the titles in a ship’s library include Inspecting the Faults, The Paladine Hotel, The Wysterium, Last Blast of the Cornet, and A Dutch Life (155). What is the purpose of parodying one’s own titles?

According to the flyleaf, the book is about the “nature of love” and there are statements on that topic like, “’We all wish love would be eternal and exclusive . . . But it rarely seems to be the case’” (146) and “’first love is often a kind of self-love, a delight in the idea of being in love’” (383). At the end of the book, a cloud is lifted and Harry sees how he was wrong about love, but there are no new insights on the subject.

This book will undoubtedly appeal to certain readers, but it failed to be compelling for me. It is not a difficult read by any means, but it lacks focus. There are so many tangents – do we really need to know the life stories of patients in a psychiatric institution specializing “’in artists and academics who’ve somehow gone wrong’” (374)? At one point, the narrator comments, “Book lovers naturally do feel a kind of possessiveness and protectiveness in how they relate to certain authors and books, as though they were pets” (413). This book is not one of my pets!

Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). ( )

This is the story of Harry Steen, from his childhood in Glasgow, a failed love affair that shaped his life in Duncairn, a successful if not passionate marriage in Canada and his travels throughout the world for his business.

This is my first novel by Eric McCormack and I have to say that it didn't grab me. I found the characters hard to relate to. And, I'm not sure what the author was trying to write about. There were lots of stories about helping others, gruesome experiments, and strange sex. Most of the book was entertaining, but I could never find a thread that held it together...other than the character of Harry, whom I couldn't relate to or really understand. ( )