Number 15 - Moonglow - Michael Chabon

 

Michael Chabon writes gorgeous prose.  I read The Yiddish policeman's Union a few years back, and while I'm sketchy on plot details, I remember really loving it.  So much so that I now have 4 more of his books in my TBR.  So I was quite happy when this was chosen for this month's book group (even though it wasn't one of the ones I already had, so it cost me money to go out and buy it)

The meeting was held a week ago last Wednesday and I've only just finished the book today.

I wasn't the only one in the group who hadn't finished.  This book is unique in the history of my book group in that not one person had finished it.

It's a memoir of Michael Chabon's maternal grandfather - or it purports to be. The first person narrator is one Mike Chabon and he's telling us about the stories his grandfather told him from his deathbed.

The old guy apparently had an interesting life.  A decorated veteran of WWII, an ex convict married to a woman with severe mental health issues, a rocket scientist in his spare time, and as he got older, a hunter of killer snakes in his retirement village, trying to avenge the many pets which have gone missing.

I say apparently, because the book is apparently fiction. It's hard to tell what it is. It is filled with Chabon's trademark luscious prose, layered narrative and deeper hidden meanings and metaphor.

On the strength of the quality of writing, I should love this book unreservedly...

The problem is that I don't. And one of the annoying things about this book, is that it makes me feel that it's a ME problem and not the fault of the book that I've actually found it a struggle to get through.

The structure of the book doesn't help.  In a well done attempt to recreate the randomness of memory and recall, the book is very choppy and bitty.  It takes till about page 180 before two consecutive chapters are set in the same timeframe. Every chapter up until that point requires a mental reset and effort to work out where in the timeline we are.  This does help to get across a whole lot of background information and the piecing together of the jigsaw pieces is sometimes quite enjoyable. 

It has made me laugh out loud frequently. It has made me feel sorry for the family. A chapter close to the end dealing with his mother's miscarriage was particularly moving. But this isn't a book I think I would read again, despite the fact that knowledge of the whole story will almost certainly grant more insight to events described earlier on, and to see the myriad of patterns  in the storytelling.

It's frustrating.  I can't fault the book, but it was a real struggle to get through. Your mileage may vary but this is a 6/10 or 7/10 at most for me.