Customer Reviews

The Convalescent

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Convalescent is an astonishing novel about small things, the events and people who, unnoticed, molt into the universe, right before our eyes. Jessica Anthony has given us a gift, a verdant, acutely smart, wickedly humorous novel, axenic and wise well beyond its pages. Rovar Pfliegman, the hero, loves without being loved, steals without repentance, and is, on first meeting, disgusting to all senses. However, his presence throughout the novel becomes etched into an enduring, joyful melancholy and onto the psyche we indite to protect the damaged little spiritus inhabiting each of our lives.

It would be difficult for me to typecast The Convalescent. While it is not a novel for everyone, it is a novel about everyone. It draws its strength from the weakest among us, from the humid, at times fetid, Rovar and his small world flush with a dominion that become ours. In the end, there is an ecdysis, the shedding of ego, that internal diathesis, as Rovar's world, our world, emerges, sonorous and pure. Which is fine.

I love the world created in The Convalescent. Although I don't want to detract from the unique voice Jess Anthony has in this story by comparing her to a lot of other writers, I will say I wouldn't be surprised to see a Kilgore Trout or T.S. Garp standing in line to purchase some of Rovar's steaks. It is a world of melancholy, humor, and the sublime. And although I'm hardly a sickly midget of Hungarian descent, Rovar's world became my world while I was reading this. A pretty nifty trick.

It is a difficult thing to create characters like Rovar or his giant counterpart and ancestor Szeretlek without taking advantage of the reader's emotions, but I never felt dirty or used by this story. Rovar through his observations and insight has a way of turning those who pity him within the story into condescending asses and ultimately the most pitiable characters in the book. I think it is partly this trait in Rovar that keeps you from following suit.

The intertwining of the modern age and the 12th century history and myth is seamless. At the same time this story recognizes its modern lineage (the second section of the novel is titled Metamorphosis, for example), there are echoes of the primal stories we have been telling since before Szeretlek's age. The troll under the bridge, the ugly duckling, the loosely defined boogeymen in black suits that lurk on our periphery are all invoked in this story. It is a modern folk tale as much as it is a modern novel.

The next time I read about a stuffy Nobel judge or some European critic decrying the pausity or decline of American literature and how it lacks nuance or sophistication, The Convalescent will be the middle finger I reply with.

An excellent book that uses two slices of time separated by 1000 years to show us that no matter how much our world has changed, we have remained emotionally fragile.

The writing is excellent and elegant, and the character's more subtle actions were very familiar have grown up in a first generation Hungarian home. Jessica Anthony's history of the Magyar's travel from the Ural Steppes to Eastern Europe is one of my favorites, a literally magical journey.

If you like intelligently written books that use history and great language to tell us about ourselves through people that we could never imagine ourselves being The Convalescent is your kind of book.

It's remarkable that someone could write an epic spanning centuries and one lifetime in the space of 243 pages. It is a book that both draws you in to the personal stories of the very real characters; enchants (and sometimes repels) you with the mythical themes and happenings running through it and makes you sit back and wonder at the craft behind the writing. How did she conjure up this tapestry?

It is wonderful. E. Callahan

Full disclosure: the author is a friend of mine. Former employee, as a matter of fact. And I had NO idea that she was this talented--if I had, I'd have realized how much her talents were wasted while working for me! I haven't finished the book yet but that's largely a product of having two small kids and a life too hectic to sit down for three hours and plunge into it, but if the time were there (maybe this weekend) I know that I would immerse myself in it, finish it, and wish it were longer and/or that Jess had written a great deal more so I could go out and buy her books. Her writing is funny, insightful, quirky, and philosophical all at once. I'm not normally a fan of this type of fiction but I feel myself becoming converted.

I really hope her next book comes out soon... and I wish I were still her boss so I could make her write more of this. :)

Best summer read yet -- full-spectrum literary pleasure. Now looking forward to Ms. Anthony's 2nd novel.

First off,I have no complaints regarding the actual writing style of this book. The (storyline?) was paced well, and created substantial visualization for me. Here-in lies the drawback- this book made me feel dirty. I found myself generally repulsed in a skin itching, uncomfortable squirming kind of way all throughout the entire journey. Although this probably speaks highly to the skill of the authors' writing talents, I must say that the "movie in my head" that this book created was not at all pleasant. My rating is based on a lack of enjoyment caused only by my incompatability with the story itself, but leveled out by the fact that I was at no point able to abandon the story for good, or bored in the least.

I'm usually not much of a reader. I often pick my books like my wine... by the label(cover). Often this strategy doesn't serve me that well, which is why my books often sit by my bed, half-read. Not this one. I swallowed it whole. This is a true piece of literature, full of complex layers of narrative that turn back on each other with beautiful rhthyms that push you deeper into the story, but also offers a dark, baudy sense of humor, and flights of fantasy... with just a hint of cherry and oak.

Also, if you like this, try a Confederacy of Dunces.

Myth wins over reality and truth, for sure, for the fiction writer. Anthony knows that well and creates two tales to explore these things. I read it because Katherine Dunn likes it and I love her Geek Love. The Convalescent is not quite as wonderful and yet the sensibilities of both authors jive and rhyme. Rovar is an unforgettable character and creature and the history of the Hungarians is now etched on my boneplates. Amazing book. I know, I know, everyone says that over and over but to say much more would be to spoil too much. None of your expectations will be exactly met but they will be entertained and spun by a telling that is not too unlike the old-timey divine. That sounds like too much so let me reassure you with a quote that shows one of Anthony's other registers and voices---of many---in the book: -----"Front Lick, Virginia, is like most small American towns. There are subdivisions. There is community theater. It was once quaint and beautiful, but now thanks to television, prescription drugs, and trickle-down economics, has fallen a few notches to 'not a wholly unattractive place to live.' " ---Jessica Anthony, The Convalescent 165 (has the smallest page numbers I've ever seen in a book ever). Now you can see that "myth" doesn't "win"---nothing is either/or, is it? And Anthony reminds us of the Both/And in a work of great and terrifying (as it should be) beauty.

I have to say after reading the reviews of this book, buying it and reading it, I was totally disappointed. I think it just wasn't my kind of book. For sure, the author writes really well, and does an awesome job describing things, I just thought the storyline was too weird. Seemed kind of all over the place with way too much symbolism and historical detail for me; It would be a good book to discuss in a book club, but I didn't enjoy it.