Customer Reviews

Fish, Blood, and Bone

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Fish, Blood and Bone" by Leslie Forbes is one of the more creative books I have encountered this year, and it proves that her first effort "Bombay Ice" wasn't just a flash in the pan. That said, this novel labors under what can only be described as a pretension of being literature. That's not to say that Forbes isn't a talented writer Quite the contrary; in fact, she has an excellent grip on the English language and her characterizations are superb. Unfortunately, these gifts are shrouded by frequent changes in voice, confusing use of fonts, and poorly delineated flashbacks. It is almost as if Forbes is trying too hard to write something "important" rather than just telling the story to the best of her obvious ability.

That said, there is an excellent story at the heart of this novel, and in spite of the flaws outlined above I did enjoy it. The reader follows the rootless Claire Fleetwood to London, and then the Indian Sub-Continent, as she searches for a personal history shrouded in the mysteries of an earlier age. Part Michael Crichton, part travelogue; Forbes weaves a remarkable trail of murder, adultery, botany, etc. while delving into the nature of "self", and how our past (and our forebears' past) determines our future.

I have enjoyed both of Forbes' books, and I look forward to her future endeavors. However, I think that she will make great strides as a writer when she abandons her tendency of trying to write "literature" and gives free reign to her creativity. In the end, "Fish, Blood and Bone" is a flawed, but nonetheless enjoyable work by a writer whom I firmly believe is on the cusp of greatness.

"Fish, Blood and Bone" takes off rapidly enough with a murder soon after photographer Claire Fleetwood moves into her unexpected legacy. She inherits Eden Dwellings from a great-aunt of whom she wasn't aware. However, the house has a few problems -- a basement full of macabre artifacts and an intimidating tennant with friends who are bad news. The tennant's daughter, Sally, befriends Claire, but is soon murdered, for reasons unknown, right before Claire's eyes.

Claire meets long-lost cousin, Jack Ironstone, who briefly -- very briefly -- explains the family's heritage in botany -- specifically, opium in India. Offered a chance to accompany a team of scientists, cousin Jack included, on a hunt in India for a mysterious green poppy, which may provide a cure for cancer, Claire accepts. Thus begins a personal journey into her past. The girl whose roots were once non-existant, suddenly has her hands full of relatives and skeletons.

The plot is vast and takes off quickly at the start, and everything ties up interestingly at the end. However, the in-between is sometimes tedious. There is so much sprawl, you're worn out trying to follow it. And too, the scientific lingo bogged me down (i.e., teratology, cinchona.) This novel obviously required a tremendous amount of research on the author's part. It was good, but I wish I had enjoyed it more.

This is a somewhat interesting book that I feel lost its way somewhere along the way to the conclusion. The plot was murky, although the writing is generally excellent, and the characters finely drawn. The reader tends to lose the sense of the book, and there's many times when you have no idea where the plot is heading. I had the feeling that the author was as confused at times herself, which is what made the book so unusually odd. There are too many strands of plot lying around, and they really don't tie up neatly, or even close to neatly, at the end, which is not so much a termination as a petering-out of the storyline. You get to the point where you don't really care about the characters and what happens to them, and that's deadly in any work.

There have been a number of negative reviews of this book. This probably stems from the book being marketed as a "breathlessly paced thriller." Do not be mislead - this is not light summer reading.

The author has deliberately selected a specific genre to highlight the theme of the cycle of birth, life, death, decay and rebirth. The various plots and subplots form a dense, layered narrative hinting at the complexity of this cycle. Everything from the description of garden compost overlying a hidden bonepile, the protagonist's multiple exposure photographs, decaying Indian botanical studies, misleading diary excerpts, even descriptions of the growth cycle of various trees are fragmented clues leading to further complexity and layering. Hidden within the fictional layers are insightful references to how 19th century colonial attitudes still resonate and affect the present day.

Like Eco's Name of the Rose or Shield's The Fig Eater, or Pear's An Instance of the Fingerpost, the genre is merely the framework for a much more multi-dimensional excursion than the average.

Fish, blood, and bone make good fertilizer for Claire Fleetwood's garden. So says Sally, the caretaker of the garden on the property that Claire inherits from relatives she never knew, but Sally is murdered on page one, and Claire finds out that her inheritance - the garden, the house, tenants, and the heritage may not be such a blessing after all. Inside the house is a diary belonging to Magda Ironstone (circa 1880's), former owner of the property, who may or may not be Claire's ancestor, and a gruesome collection belonging to Magda's husband, Joseph, found in the cellar. Soon after Sally's murder, more unsavory shadowy characters start showing up, and the estate seems truly haunted.

The story shifts to India, to the Fleetwood opium plantation, and the book travels back to the time of Magda to tell her story, actually shifting back and forth between the 1880's and the 1980's. This, section, in my opinion, is the best part of the book. Magda is a beguiling character, and her voice lifts out of the pages of her diary into the present. Claire travels to India to begin a journey that will retrace Magda's footsteps, and wind up with cousin Jack Ironstone, on an illegal expedition into Tibet to search for the legendary green poppy which may contain a cure for cancer, besides being a hallucinogenic.

Part historic novel, part genealogy quest, part mystery/thriller, part botany and genetics lesson, this fanciful story has a lot of threads which may boggle some readers' minds but will delight anybody who craves untangling the challenges of a big rambling intellectual whodunit. As a bonus, there is also a new twist on the Jack the Ripper stories.

Fish, blood and bones originally appealed to me because of the forensics mentioned on the book jacket. The forensics involved was minimal at best. There was no mention of any of the major themes on the book jacket ( Did the author of the jacket blurb read the book?) I continued reading because of the "history" of the botany giants, gardening lore (a little),unrecognized native artists and the role of botanical illustrators, the lure of the Victorian interactions with native peoples in Asia, some of the scientific ideas expressed in the book, and the artwork on the front cover (paperback)

A nice summertime read, unfortunately there were too many fortuitous coincidences and inconsistencies( a Himalayan trek with no preparatory fitness regimes, etc.?) for this to be great literature.

However, I would not discourage any readers from reading this book. Lots of bits of info on many subjects- much of which I found to be substantiated (i.e., Britain's role in the spread of heroin addiction throughout the world, the rape of the world for exotic and medicinal plants, etc.).

Forbes tries a little too hard to tie too many things into one novel.

I can see how some readers might be put off by all of the science and detail in this book, though I was personally not bothered by it. There were several things that did trouble me however:

1.) The abrupt switch in the third section from first person to third person. I felt separated from the characters, especially Claire, and more or less ceased to care about her. Her behavior on the expedition didn't feel like the person that was established in the first two-thirds of the book, either.

2.) The many parallels between Magda and Claire felt a little contrived. Her quest to trace her family's history was compelling in and of itself, and didn't need to have those "clairvoyant" elements.

3.) The Ripper subplot was pointless and uninteresting. For a truly fascinating real theory about the Ripper murders, read Alan Moore's From Hell.

4.) Absolutely no resolution on what happened to Nick and Christian.

5.) The Jack-Claire affair was just creepy.

This is a book that appears to start out as one thing, turns into a second and then finishes as yet another, totally different story. The result, I feel, is a rather disjointed tale that fails to live up to it's early promise.

The story begins in England, spoken from the perspective of Claire Fleetwood, a forensic photographer who has just witnessed a murder. The victim was a young girl that Claire had been fond of who was a devoted gardener. At this point we are given many comparisons between gardening and the use of blood and bone, and our own mortality. We are even treated to the promise of suspense to come, thanks to Claire possibly being called as a witness in the murder case.

Suddenly, the story takes a turn and Claire is invited to join an expedition through India and Tibet in search of a rare, almost mythical, green poppy. OK then, you think, the story is now an adventure and we're going to be treated to a trek through the wilds of the Himalayas.

But no! We are then transported back 100 years as Claire begins a search into her family's past. During this part of the book, all momentum is lost and we seem to tread water while a background story is recounted in excruciating detail. What probably could have been told in 4 or 5 pages takes well over 100 and added little to the main plot.

I found this to be a book that I really had to work hard over. The reveals toward the end were implied rather than stated obviously, which I found annoying. Read this for the interesting discussions and observations on human mortality rather than for an electrifying mystery.

The romantic adventure that's promised by reading the summary of this book is not delivered within its pages. Instead, I've found a book that is too contrived and uncohesive. New ideas and characters are introduced clumsily. The author struggles to tie together a tangle of these different thoughts and characters and the reader is lost in the middle. Waiting for the story to weave together takes way too long and I began to question the investment of time I was putting into the book waiting for it to intrigue me as it had promised.

I found this book to be ponderous and, in the end, unreadable. I gave up on it with only 100 pages left to read - I cared that little about what was going to happen to the characters. The book is now in the donation bin of my local public library.