Bay of Souls: A Novel [Paperback]

Robert Stone (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0618446745 | ISBN-13: 978-0618446742 | Publication Date: June 2, 2004

A new novel from an American master, Bay of Souls is a gripping tale of romantic obsession set against the backdrop of an island revolution. Michael Ahearn is a midwestern English professor who abandons his comfortable life when he becomes obsessed with a new colleague from the Caribbean, Lara Purcell. When Lara claims a vodoun spirit has taken possession of her soul, Michael follows her to her native St. Trinity, only to find himself in a whirlpool of Third World corruption. A finely wrought tale of one man’s moral dissolution, Bay of Souls showcases Robert Stone at his most provocative and psychologically acute.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Stone's shortest novel, and his first in five years (after Damascus Gate, 1998), is a tight, brilliantly observed tale of one man's moral dissolution. Michael Ahearn is a respected professor of literature at a small college in the upper Midwest, with a lovely wife and 12-year-old son, but a vague dissatisfaction gnaws at him, exacerbated by a frightening incident while deer hunting and the near-death of his son from exposure. When Michael meets a new professor, the beautiful and electrifying Lara Purcell, he falls under her spell and launches an affair, endangering his marriage and his relationship with his son. At Lara's prompting, Michael travels with her to her Caribbean island home of St. Trinity, a nation rife with political violence, where Lara hopes to repossess the soul she believes has been captured by a voodoo goddess. The narrative undergoes a tonal shift on the troubled, threatening island, with events unfolding in a more intense, then nearly hallucinatory way, especially as Michael is himself possessed during a voodoo ceremony in which Lara hopes to reclaim her soul. A brief return to the U.S. mainland closes the novel on a somber note. All of Stone's characters here are etched in the acid of hard truth, with Stone probing deep-particularly into Michael, a sensitive, at times courageous man whose lust for the divine, for transcendence or salvation, is spoiled by a self-deception and self-indulgence that lead him astray and finally turn his life to ash. This is a novel of bold prose and subtle perceptions, a small, hard gem from a master writer.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Stone's seven novels seem very different on the surface, but they share a common theme: characters losing hold of their moorings. It may happen in Jerusalem (Damascus Gate ), or on the open sea (Outerbridge Reach ), or in Central America (A Flag for Sunrise )--all settings where it's easy enough to become unhinged--but the process by which Stone's people self-destruct is finally an internal one. The pattern holds in this agonizing account of how an egotistical English professor from the Midwest falls under the sway of a Caribbean femme fatale, who leads him into his own special heart of darkness. Michael Ahearn has a beautiful wife, charming young son, and comfy position at a small Minnesota college, but if you look closely, it's possible to detect some twitching just below the surface, signs that the professor is vulnerable to psychic turbulence. It comes in the form of Lara Purcell, a political science professor from the island of St. Trinity. Before you can say la belle dame sans merci, Stone is following Lara to the Caribbean, where he lands in the middle of a political insurrection, a smuggling enterprise, and a voudon-drenched struggle for Lara's soul. As always, Stone depicts the internal savaging of his hero's mind with chilling precision, and his evocation of Central America in turmoil deserves comparison with Graham Greene. This novel lacks the grand sweep of Damascus Gate, and Ahearn doesn't engender quite the empathy the story demands. Still, as a record of one man's failed attempt to confront the darkness of the universe, it is a kind of small gem: perfectly chiseled and revealing an icy clarity at its core that is as frightening as it is hypnotic. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (June 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618446745
• ISBN-13: 978-0618446742
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,393,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ROBERT STONE is the author of seven novels: A Hall of Mirrors, Dog Soldiers (winner of the National Book Award), A Flag for Sunrise, Children of Light, Outerbridge Reach, Damascus Gate, and Bay of Souls. His story collection, Bear and His Daughter, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and his memoir, Prime Green, was published in 2006.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad story, December 17, 2004

By 

lisatheratgirl "lisatheratgirl" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bay of Souls: A Novel (Hardcover)

I find myself agreeing with some of the other reviewers. This book isn't poor writing style, but the story is so far-fetched, improbable and just plain unbelievable that this book cant be saved. There are two related stories, neither of which really works. First there is a group of professors deer hunting in the winter in a godforsaken part of minnesota (this is the characters' opinion, not to offend anyone). A few strange things happen, and the main character comes home to find his son has been lost in the snow. The son nearly dies, but miraculously pulls through. The main character goes on to meet a woman professor who has just come to teach at the college. She dresses exotically, comes from a ficitious Caribbean island, goes in for a little S&M, and he falls head over heels, despite his jealous wife and little son. After the woman tells him her brother has died of AIDS, has xtolen her soul and given it to a voodoo queen who died two hundred years ago, and how dangerous it is to walk around in a body without a soul (a recitation that would send most men running scared), he decides to pack up and go down to the island with her. Although it's hard to tell what is really going on, things get wilder and wilder, with Haitian voodoo ceremonies, Colombian drug gangs, Latin-American style juntas supported by the U.S. governement. At this point I felt the author was just letting his imagination run wild or he didnt know what he was talking about. If you've read this far, you'll have a hard time finishing, although I did. You''ll wish you hadnt. I cant believe people act like this.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Muddled Soul, June 24, 2003

By 

JAMES AGNEW "UBU ROI" (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bay of Souls: A Novel (Hardcover)

I think that Robert Stone has written some great books, but this is not one of them. Bay of Souls seems torn between an Dellilo style life in the USA novel, and the usual Stone third world Conradesque action/philosophy thriller. Sad to say, but the academic parts, the creeping ennuie, the sudden adultery, minutia of modern life, etc. seem much more real than the drug crazed revolutionary danger parts, which is too bad because there are a lot of people who do the Delillo/Carver thing and not a lot who can pull off the headlong rush of Robert Stone.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not up to par, April 19, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bay of Souls: A Novel (Hardcover)

This simply is not Stone's best work. While Michael Ahearn's motivations are believable--the marriage is comatose, the relationship with his son awkward--the plot is both farfetched and burdened by coincidence. He just happens to dive Great Lake wrecks in his spare time and, oh, by the way, his lover is going to need him to dive a plane wreck during their tryst in the Islands? Not likely, not logical, not well planned.