32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Expectation mitigation, September 8, 2009
This review is from: The Coral Thief: A Novel (Hardcover)
By the time I had read this novel, I'd already seen that it had hit the trifecta of book reviews--starred reviews in Publisher's Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus. Further, the reviewers had all commented on the novel's mix of science, history, romance, and mystery. All I could think is, "I've got to read this book!" Ah, but raised expectations are a brutal thing. Rebecca Stott addresses the issue herself:
"It depends," I said, "On your expectations. Whether they are low or high."
"Oh, my expectation are, I believe, unusually high."
"Well, then, many things will not be as good as they seem."
And that was my experience exactly. I think that had I come to The Coral Thief with no expectations whatsoever, I would have enjoyed it more.
The novel opens with 21-year-old protagonist Daniel Connor on his way to Paris from his home in Edinburgh. The year is 1815. Napoléon has just been defeated at Waterloo. And Daniel Connor is striking out on his own for the first time to continue his medical and scientific studies at the renowned Jardin des Plantes with the famed Dr. Cuvier. He comes bearing gifts of rare coral specimens, a translated manuscript, and letters of recommendation from his former professor.
As he travels by mail coach, Daniel meets a most extraordinary woman. It takes him a while, in the dark, to realize that she is quite beautiful, though she's about twice his age. She speaks knowledgeably, if controversially, about science. She is like no one he has ever known. When he awakes in the morning, the woman is gone. So is the bag containing his specimens and the rest of the precious items in his charge. Oddly, she's gone out of her way to leave his money.
Despondent, Daniel reports the theft to the French police, a more harrowing endeavor than one might expect. It is there he learns that his thief is Lucienne Bernard. In his desperation to retrieve the lost items, he becomes increasingly entangled with Lucienne and her colleagues. Ultimately, after a meandering start, The Coral Thief resolves itself into a May/December romance and a heist caper.
There's a great deal to like about this novel. Foremost for me was the novel's setting. It was a fascinating time and place. In the wake of major political upheaval, the world was on the brink of a scientific revolution that would change the way we think forever. The characters in this novel are the players in this sea change in thinking. I was so interested in this pivotal time and place, I found myself somewhat frustrated--a rare incidence of me wanting more fact and less fiction. Though it must be said that Rebecca Stott did a really terrific job relaying the significance of the events unfolding.
My biggest problem--and it's a biggie--was with the protagonist, Daniel. He was young, naïve, and frankly didn't have a whole lot to offer. I'm close to Lucienne's age, and all I could think is, What could she ever see in this kid? (Clearly I've failed my cougar test.) And young or not, Daniel is kind of an idiot. He risks so much for a woman of suspect motives. I wanted to slap him. But I did like that Stott addresses some of my conflict directly:
"Why did Daniel Connor take this path rather than the one he was supposed to take, what Rev. Samuels would call the righteous path, the one that went with Cuvier, with hard work, apprenticeship, patronage, the one that would almost certainly lead to success? Why instead did he take the path that led into the muddy and shadowy labyrinths with the heretics and the thieves? You'd have to ask him that. I am no longer that Daniel Connor. That one, that boy, is many Daniels ago."
The book is fairly short, but I have to admit it took me far too long to read. My failure to connect with the characters was a big impediment. Still, some of what Stott's written is so wonderful--such as the haunting story of how Lucienne du Luc became Lucienne Bernard--that it's hard to even suggest anyone miss it. If you have any interest in the time, place, or subjects being addressed, The Coral Thief is well worth a look.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The atmosphere outshawdows the story..., October 4, 2009
This review is from: The Coral Thief: A Novel (Hardcover)
If Rebecca Stott's goal was to create a vivid feel of Paris after the Napoleonic wars, this novel is a complete success. As for the plot and characters she builds this vibrant setting around, they definitely take a backseat in her vivid re-creation. Her story starts as an intriguing mystery novel, young scientist Daniel Connor heads to Paris to study with the greats in a nexus of brilliant and important thought of the day, Paris. On the train into town, he is near hypnotized by a beautiful stranger, and ends up having some priceless fossils stolen from him. When he tries to recover his items, he meets the Police Chief, a corrupt and former master thief who has his own agenda concerning this robbery. The novel quickly morphs into a caper story with who is using whom elements.
This narrative is interspersed with an imagined tale of Napoleon's journey to exile which Stott doesn't even bother to connect to the story in any real way beyond a few casual comments. Its almost as if you are watching a an Oceans Elevens/Departed type movie and your spouse keeps changing the channel to an documentary on Napoleon's exile and Post Revolutionary Paris. You don't get bored with one program or the other, but the mixture feels somewhat bumpy at best. The plot seems heavily contrived and the romantic scenes lack heat. Daniel Connor also makes one inexpiable decision after another which doesn't help.
The writing however is great, and Stott consistently uses several phrases that light up. The Police Chief (who is based on fact in a stranger then fiction turn), and some of the scenes that describe Revolutionary violence are the story's fabulous and moving highlights.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intrigue, intellect, and love in Post-Napoleonic France, October 7, 2009
This review is from: The Coral Thief: A Novel (Hardcover)
Post-Napoleonic Paris seethes with intrigue, daring scientific ideas and lawlessness. The head of the police is a former thug, the dread and fear of The Terror still linger and the intelligentsia scheme to hold onto the art and artifacts looted by Napoleon.
Into this heady maelstrom comes the naïve, ambitious narrator, English medical student Daniel Connor, fresh from the University of Edinburgh, to study anatomy with the great Cuvier at the Jardin des Plantes.
But on the coach to Paris young Connor meets a beautiful older woman, Lucienne Bernard, an intellectual who fills his head with the exciting and heretical ideas of another Jardin des Plantes scientist, Lamarck, precursor to Darwin. Beguiled by the woman, Connor falls asleep and wakes to find the precious fossils and papers he was to deliver to Cuvier have been stolen.
Without them his budding career is at an end. Connor reports the theft, but the menacing head of police, M. Jagot, proves more ruthless than the beautiful thief. Jagot has a personal vendetta against Bernard and her circle of outlaw intelligentsia and he's perfectly willing to bring down Connor along with them.
An affair naturally ensues between the mysterious Bernard and the young man and Connor soon becomes entangled in her fate. He also excels at his new duties assisting Cuvier's catalogue of nature, while carousing most nights with his fellow student or Bernard, drinking and talking of the new philosophy of evolution.
Stott's writing is visual and eloquent. She brings the intellectual excitement of the era alive as well as the post-Napoleonic letdown and unrest and the lingering paranoia of The Terror.
The book's problems stem from the narration. Connor tells this story of his youth from the vantage point of age, creating a distance that renders the youthful passion flat, almost unbelievable. This remove also lessens suspense, making the story more intellectual than involving.
Still, this is a beautifully written novel, which illuminates the beginnings of evolution's ascendancy, and the religious and philosophical questions that gripped people in a time of political and scientific upheaval.
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