by Yann Martel
ISBN: 0151010900
In his prefatory author’s note, Martel refers to the four stories in this collection as “the best results of my early years as a writer.” The other results — 16 out of 16 stories rejected, then 17 out of 19 rejected — it will presumably take more than a Booker Prize to resurrect.
Still, in this collection I can see Martel playing with ideas he would later make sing in Life of Pi. The first story, the one lending its title to the book, is the strongest. In it, two college-age men find themselves bewildered when one of them is diagnosed with AIDS. To pass the time together as one is increasingly sick, then obviously dying, they turn to stories, inspired as perhaps only young philosophy students can be by Boccaccio’s Decameron:
Such a simple idea: an isolated villa outside of Florence; the world dying of the Black Death; ten people gathered together hoping to survive; telling each other stories to pass the time.
Martel doesn’t give us the whole story of the Roccamatios, though. His narrator, the healthy one, tells us: “Certain intimacies shouldn’t be made public. They should be known to exist, that is all.” What we get instead of the whole story of the family the two men invent to span the twentieth century are the facts behind the stories, the bits left over, because the “story of the Helsinki Roccamatios was often whispered. And it wasn’t
whispered to you.” Martel is working out what parts of a story to spell out for readers, what parts to invite readers to create in their own heads, and asking one of his most interesting questions — what is it with this human need to believe in the power of stories, anyway?
The other stories investigate the power of art (specifically, music) in mundane life, and are more experimental as they play with repitition and form in the pursuit of meaning.
I’d recommend this book to people who loved Life of Pi and want to see how Martel worked his way toward writing Richard Parker. People less interested in charting Martel’s development, or who were lukewarm about Pi (I don’t agree, but I know you are out there) will want to give this a pass. For me, it demonstrates that Pi was not a fluke, and it makes me want to read his next book more than ever.
Martel is my new favorite author. I have read both Life of Pi and Helsinki Roccamatios. I thought Life of Pi was amazing. I’ve never read anything like it and it immediately (within the first few pages) drew me to Martel himself; now the more I find out about him the more excited I become about his books. I can’t wait to read Self and the book he will soon be coming out with.