In keeping with my, well, not tradition, since I've only done it once or twice before and then missed last month entirely, but let's just say premise, I am going to post about our latest book club selection before going to the meeting tonight. Sadly, I have not actually gotten very far with this one, but why let ignominy be an excuse for not writing? Maybe I haven't used the time so wisely, but hey, it's been a busy month.
The Sparrow is what I suppose might be called literary science fiction, maybe more in terms of its apparent aspiration rather than anything inherent in the story itself. We enter the tale after a space mission to reach another form of possibly humanlike life has somehow gone horribly wrong, and its sole survivor, a Jesuit priest named Emilio Sandoz, has now returned to earth, and Rome, both scarred by and judged for the experience. As the book unfolds, we are taken into the backstory of this fateful mission, in which a small handful of people are driven by a seeming destiny to set forth together on it. Whether the hand of God is in it is an open question.
This book was published in 1996 and it made a big splash in certain circles at the time. A lot of our staff members read and recommended it, so I have been interested in its appeal for awhile now. I confess to being a little surprised that such a seemingly God-driven book, though hardly pious and definitely not orthodox, would have captured the interest of what by and large is a pretty secular demographic. I also find the date of the space launch, which involves light speed, a bit disconcerting, because by 2021, it has apparently been figured out and is available for use. The world has moved a long distance since 1996, but not, so far as I know, in this direction. There's no real harm done, but since all the chapters are dated, you can't help contrasting our reality to the book's a lot. It's a bit jarring.
So far, I am finding the story interesting enough, but perhaps a bit too leisurely. There is this foreboding about what really happened out there, but it hasn't yet become my foreboding, if you see the difference. I'm on about page 143 and they are only just now launching off into space. This is what I mean by sci-fi aspiring to be literary. In real genre fiction, the author would feel an obligation to get on with it.
Unfortunately for me, there will undoubtedly be some spoilers tonight about all that goes wrong, and though I'm planning to keep on with it, it will be interesting to see if in fact I still want to after what others say.
I should emphasize that this is not as far as I can tell any kind of Christian tract. Of course, I suppose a lot depends on the outcome...
Well, I may drop this one. First the book group didn't get a lot of steam rolling on this.Only two people had actually read it all the way through. One was absent due to a death in the family and the other hated it.
ReplyDeleteThe person who hated it found it a very unpleasant book, but forged on ahead. She also found the characters very annoying, particularly the older woman, and as she said, I know the author is just like her.
Well, maybe. I think it's safe to say that the author admires this woman, or thinks she's a good sort. I have to agree with my friend, though, in finding her obnoxious in a kind of under the surface way. Or maybe she just reminded us of some part of ourselves that we can't acknowledge. I imagine that's how Jung would see it, anyway. I prefer to think that my friend and I have pretty good bullshit detectors.
Now, I wasn't really kicking against the book--I just ran out of time before the meeting. But it came to me exactly where the book lost me, even though I was preparing half-heartedly to keep going. It was a scene where the happily married older couple can hardly control themselves in thinking how ugly a guest is. They've kept it to themselves all night, as all the best hosts do, but once they are alone together, they can hardly contain their mirth, and not only mention it to each other, but in effect can't stop regaling each other with it. I actually couldn't fathom this scene, and in thinking about it, this is where I stopped giving it the benefit of the doubt and checked out.
However, our absent friend, who had suggested the book said that what intrigued her about it was the way in which language was used, and misunderstood. It doesn't give much away to say that the characters fairly early in the book hear an alien transmission, which sounds in some way human to them, and that become the basis of their mission. Apparently, from what my friends who finished it say, they have crucially mistaken the purpose of what they've heard. And I suppose this is in someway a theme.
If I hadn't realized the aversion I feel toward the scene I mentioned, I probably would have at lest deluded myself that I was going back to this one. After thinking about it further though, it seems unlikely.
This is what I mean by sci-fi aspiring to be literary. In real genre fiction, the author would feel an obligation to get on with it.
ReplyDeleteWell, sci-fi can still be literary and "decompressed" without being boring.
Apparently, from what my friends who finished it say, they have crucially mistaken the purpose of what they've heard. And I suppose this is in someway a theme.
I haven't read it, but I know more or less the final twist, and it may be seen as an ironic reversal of the God/religion message. So maybe also other aspects of the novels aren't to be taken at face value. I wouldn't be surprised if your elderly couple had a nasty payoff coming.
I wouldn't be surprised if your elderly couple had a nasty payoff coming.
ReplyDeletePut it this way--I don't think I'd cry.
I haven't gotten back to it, but I still do have my copy of the book. I should probably see it through. I wouldn't mind, really, it's just that other titles perpetually jump to the top of the queue.