Customer Reviews

The Calligrapher: A Novel

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Jasper Jackson is a young calligrapher in London, commissioned to transcribe and illuminate the love poetry of John Donne (1572 - 1631) for an American media baron, and he soon finds himself living the poems he is transcribing. An energetic and inconstant lover, Jasper has an affinity with Donne, a "serial philanderer" whose poems reflect his changing attitudes toward love and sex as he ages, from his early celebration of variety in lovers, to a later, more mature discovery of the new world which opens when one finds and/or loses "true love."

Jasper invites us into his life from the opening paragraphs, creating interest and suspense by telling us in an intimately casual way that "atrocities" had occurred while he was touring the Tate Gallery of Modern Art. In a farce worthy of Monty Python, a gallery-clearing fire alarm allows him to exchange of e-mail addresses with a potential new lover. Some days later, a second, even more slapstick burlesque occurs as Jasper tries to prevent Lucy, his lover of one year, from entering his apartment and discovering his "Tate Modern flirtation" in his bedroom. The humor throughout is broad, bold, and masculine, and the succession of wild scenes is easy to visualize, though female readers may cringe at Jasper's casual duplicity as he lures gullible women into his bed. Eventually, however, Jasper begins to reflect the signs of true love which Donne has described in his poems, a love that may turn out to be his "deal with the Devil."

Jasper's casually vulgar speech and his willingness to share his inner life with the reader are an effective counterbalance to the formality of Donne's poetry, which begins each chapter. The author creates and sustains suspense throughout the novel, leading to an exciting story of relationships, with the end result always in doubt. Docx's descriptions add immeasurably to the pleasure of the action, and his wry commentary on people and places is irresistible--i.e., "talentless men and women" at a club engage in a "ceaseless search for the dwindling plankton of each other's personalities." In view of the cleverness with which Docx reveals Jasper's relationships, the ending of the novel is disappointing, however--contrived, unrealistic, and full of coincidences. The subtlety with which Donne's poetry has provided the intellectual underpinnings of the novel vanishes in a wild, plot-driven grand finale, which feels artificial within the context of this study of Jasper's emotional "growth." Still, the novel is great fun--full of broad humor, sharply observed social commentary, and the vagaries of love and sex across the ages, a stunning debut for a very talented new author. Mary Whipple

Sometimes when I finish a book that has been particularly engrossing and rewarding, I feel a deep void. I don't want it to end, ever. I could roll along, lost in the wit and harmony of the writing, the plot, the thinking going on. The Calligrapher was just such a book: witty, elegant in its description of the thoughtful outsider who poses as a trendy insider, archaic yet modern, the man/woman obsessed with sex who falls in love, the ambiguity of love, sex, the possibility of a developing relationship. I keep thinking about the characters. I laughed, sometimes out loud, I empathized, I felt a kindred soul in the mix even though I'm a female. Jasper, a man, was the narrator but I connected--I like to cook, choose fine wines, look at great art, travel, enjoy my friends, and learn about life, too--and it's all much more fun when infused with good company and great sex. John Donne knew all about these things and wrote about them, eloquently. But life is a puzzle. So is Donne's poetry. And The Calligrapher falls right in line. Things haven't changed much in the intervening centuries. The basics are still the same and able to turn, upside-down, inside-out, on a dime, depending on the perspective. A page turner, The Calligrapher is extremely well written with very funny observations about the way we live today and think about love, art and relationships. I was reminded of Nick Hornsby--the writing was quick, irreverent, sociological in its focus on one quirky individual. So much of the time, the world does seem totally run by our perceptions of who and what are sexy. And such superficiality (or are these reallly deep, necessary feelings?)can often get turned inside out in a hurry. Great reflection, indeed illustration, of the multiple levels of Donne's insights, poetry and the complexity of life itself. I loved this book. Docx can write! I can't wait for more.

I have read a handful of books that have made me literally laugh out loud on a packed train. This ranks amongst them but, unlike the others, this novel plucks the strings of so many other emotions.
Docx has packed his first work with so much passion and feeling yet, somehow squeezed in there with his dark, intense description of the earnest seductor, is the most entertaining analysis of the male's perspective of the fairer sex: the real stuff. All this is interwoven with a beautiful introduction - to those who haven't met him already - to John Donne, a love ripped British poet.
The story itself is compelling and moving. A must read and a great novel to discuss with your friends. Girls, learn the real REAL side of men.

There is no secret here: fundamentally, this book is a Master's thesis on John Donne disguised as a novel. As we read the Songs & Sonnets that head each chapter (and are often interspersed) and we listen to Jasper's speech in the final chapter we fully realize this--something we should have known all along. Still, it's a very good disguise.

What ultimately makes this novel so successful is the character of Jasper, through whom we see the story unfold. He is the calligrapher of the title, a man currently making his living copying out a selection of Donne's poetry for a rich patron to give as a gift to his girlfriend. He is also an incredibly smooth womanizer whose thoughts on the subject of how to deal with women are vivid and honest. Jasper is one of the most alive characters I have read in awhile.

In my mind, Jasper is at his best in the opening chapters of the book when he is unrepentant in his dealings with women. However, he only loses a bit when he encounters Madeline and we realize love is going to change this man. And we realize where this story is ultimately going: payback. Jasper is going to learn lessons about his dissolute life the hard way. Still, Jasper is so engaging as he goes through his trials that I kept reading and didn't even have to stifle a groan as the "secrets" were revealed in the book's final chapters. And what serious reader would regret spending some time learning about calligraphy and John Donne in the process of being told such a story?

Mr. Docx has written an excellent first novel and shown that he possesses the skills to become a major talent. If Jasper, Madeline, Lucy, Will and Jasper's grandmother are any indication, his ability to create character is better than most. I am interested to see who peoples his next creation.

The conflict between the classic and the contemporary has long raged among literati; rarely is it resolved so eloquently as in "The Calligrapher", which combines the love poems of John Donne with Docx's modern characters and plot. Jasper, a present-day British calligrapher and womanizer, is transcribing Donne's poems for a client. His adventures with the women in his life, particularly his love affair with the beautiful and devastatingly casual Madeleine, parallel his work on the poems.

Docx writes an absorbing plot, and the interplay between the narrative and the poems is well-constructed. However, the most enjoyable component of the books is Jasper's thoughts on love, poetry, calligraphy, and contemporary society. "The Calligrapher" is an intensely modern book: clearly turn-of-the-21st-century, post-9/11, post-Fight-Club. Docx is not afraid to tie his book to a particular cultural locale (in time, place, and class), and his references work marvelously well, making the book feel sassy, immediate, and shockingly intelligent.

The characters in this novel lack both charm and warmth, and it is after all a comedy. Obviously, most readers (14 of 14 reviewers) felt this was a small price to pay for the wit and literary by-play, and occasional funny scenes. For me, the main character, Jasper, was a one-dimensional bore.

The Calligrapher is a story that is so true, so moving, so elegant, so witty, and insightful, so fine, so direct, and so oblique that you cannot help but surrender to its mastery. This novel is a fine treatise on the nature of love, and the lengths that humans will actually go to fall in love. John Donne's love poetry provides the thematic skeleton of the story, as the reader follows the travails of Jasper, a very modern man, who is a breaker of hearts, and an absolutely selfish, but at the same time rather endearing womanizer. A calligrapher by profession and a totally self-obsessed hedonist, Jasper falls head over hills in love with Madeleine his beautiful neighbour. What follows is a fabulous tale of seduction and obsession as Jasper is forced to confront the ghosts of his deceitful past.

Jasper is betrayed by love, and his own duplicitous behavior comes back to haunt him. Ultimately he becomes a man tortured by unrequited love - a man who turns out to be wounded, bedraggled and dismembered. Along the way Jasper is constantly expounding his views on all sorts of issues about life and modern society. We hear his thoughts on Australians, women, god, sex and the nature of love - and he never ceases to surprise us with his witty banter and cynical sense of humour. For Jasper, love is cautious and mute, "an unknowable risk taken in the darkness during unsettled weather". But in his journey to find the meaning of love, Jasper is actually embarking on a journey of self-discovery and maturity.

The lengths of falsehood and deceit that the characters go to in this novel is breathtaking in its scope, and the sudden plot twist, involving Madeleine and one of the other characters will make you absolutely gasp in surprise. Contemporary society hasn't changed that much since John Donne's time and this story shows that his love poetry may probably be just as relevant today - people are still plagued by issues of faithfulness, unfaithfulness; truth falsity, and possession.

Fans of calligraphy will find much to appreciate in this novel. Docx inculcates the tale with lots of details on the history and techniques of calligraphy, and he does this without ever stultifying the story. The reader learns about Rustic Roman Capitals, Half Uncial, New Roman Cursive and the ancient beauty of illuminated manuscripts. And these details are effortlessly woven into the narrative. There's also some fantastic descriptions of London - the Chinese tailors on Carnaby Street, the inner city groove of Soho and the foggy beauty of Wimbledon Common, And there's also some beautifully atmospheric descriptions of Rome, where Jasper and Madeleine holiday together - the street lanterns in the Ponte Sisto, the scrawny Tiber, and the dome of St. Peter's.

This is an extraordinarily modern and contemporary story with a splendidly historical bent. One of the best books of the year, and an absolute must read. Docx is a startlingly fresh and talent writer whose take on human relationships is brutally honest; he's a real talent, and I can't wait for his next novel.

Michael

There's no doubt that Edward Docx is a skilled and creative author, and The Calligrapher is an excellent debut novel by any measure. Yet in his effort to win over his new readers, Docx sometimes falls victim to the vices of many young authors these days: over-stylized language, too-cool characters, thickly-written prose. He's trying too hard. That said, there are some very clever and witty bits in this book and anyone looking for a good read will not be disappointed. Spellbinding? No. Worth reading? For sure.

Despite the wry observations and articulate wit of the narrator, this book is hampered by a plot which, juxtaposed against the beauty of Donne's verses, is extraordinariy trite. The (very) end of the book is completely unsatisfying and telegraphed like an amateur boxer's left hook. I found Jasper's treatise of Donne's poetry perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book. Although the reflections on London, class, gender and modern romance are always entertaining and often very humourous, I always had a feeling of deja vu - will Hugh Grant play Will or Jasper?

This is one of the most cleverly written books of the last decade. The jaded reader may disparage this novel as "lad lit" in all its vainglory. Thankfully, Edward Docx weaves a remarkably funny tale of a rougue, learning his lessons the hard way, with the love sonnets of John Donne. The most brilliant aspect is exposing the modern reader to Donne's humorous and often, odd exposition of Love. It was a pleasure to read Donne again in this context. I couldn't agree more with the Publisher's Weekly review.