Customer Reviews

The Half Life: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Move over Lethem and Safron Foer, there's a new Jon in town, and he's made the scene like gangbusters with warrants. This is a sweet, smart debut, which flirts with epistemological questions about the nature of history and our place within (or outside) it, as well as a gentle-handed social satire (involving the rival factions vying for the discovered skeletons, and the subsequent media barrage that follows.) But ultimately, it's a story with a very human center, about three tightly-knit relationships spanning hundreds of years. It's this humanity that Raymond pulls off with aplomb, as the relationships are beautifully and delicately realized, without undue sentimentality or goo. (Yes, all the goo is due.)

I highly recommend it!

Friendships, entrepreneurialism and the generational influences are at the heart of this beguiling, but predictable and slightly over-wrought book by Jonathan Raymond. With its duel narrative, that readily switches backwards and forwards in time, The Half-Life, is at once a successful historical epic set in the 1800's, and an effective portrait of the mid-eighties Regan era. Two friendships are separated by generations but bound together by a dark mystery: A pair of skeletons are discovered at the edge of Portland's Forest Park which sparks a clash between forensic science and Native American rights. The identity of the skeletons is the mystery at the heart of the story, but the eventual unveiling of them will come as no great surprise to the reader.

Stretching from the late 1820s to the early 1860s, the earlier of his two narratives follows Cookie Figowitz whom the reader first encounters as a camp cook for a party of fur trappers whose supplies of food are running out. As he forages for food one evening with the hopes of placating the increasingly restless men, Cookie stumbles over Henry Brown, a man on the run from violent Russians looking to settle an old score. The two friends have a desire to become rich so they devise a trading scheme that takes them to China, where under very different circumstances Cookie strikes up a new friendship with a calligrapher, King Lu.

The more recent story line, from the 1980s, involves two teenage girls: Tina Plank, a recent transplant from California, and Trixie Volterra, who earlier came from California shrouded in a shady, drug fueled past. They're the only young people living among aging hippies in a commune on the fringes of Portland, and the bond they forge leads to their own scheme - a film project, which they throw themselves into with indisputable enthusiasm. When, in the midst of filming, the two skeletons are unearthed on the property, the nexus of the two narratives converge and the lives of Cookie and Henry, Tina and Trixie converge in unexpected ways.

The Half-Life has the right ingredients of a mystery - two unidentified skeletons from the past, a man trapped in a prison in a foreign country, and a battle between forensic science and the spirituality of native heritage. But rather than constructing the plot around the conventional thriller Raymond is more concerned with questions of history, and he insists that we become aware of the complex and shifting base of our identities and our behaviors. The world of this novel seems polarized between two radically different time periods, however, the characters, in both times periods, are assertive, entrepreneurial and excitingly individualistic. The novel also effectively juxtaposes the modern with the historical Pacific Northwest, and there are some beautifully disquieting passages highlighting Raymond's skill as a prose writer.

However, this reader felt that The Half-Life sprawled in too many directions and had far too many forced narrative developments. Raymond is trying to say too much, and towards the end, as the mystery becomes clearer, the narrative tends to loose focus. The Half-Life, however, does have some moments of surprising power and grace, revealing the pleasures and heartaches that can unavoidably bind us to one another. The ambiguities of friendship, the fact that a person's life is completed only by friendship, and that friendships can be formed under the most unlikely of scenarios, is at the thematic heart of this novel. Mike Leonard July 04.

This novel is so rich and so full of beauty I don't even know where to begin. I'll start my saying that Raymond has mastered the English language. I found myself reading and re-reading the same line over and over again sometimes not being able to continue the book until the poetry of a certain line would sink in. Raymond uses even the simplest phrases in the most elegant ways and I found myself recalling his exact words days and even weeks after reading them.

OK, three words... location, location, location! Raymond uses such incredibly beautiful descriptions. The setting comes alive in this novel like no other book I've ever read. As a reader you feel it, you hear it, you smell it and you taste it as if you're there. I am in awe that this is a debut novel. After reading the first few chapters I had to look Raymond up to see if he wasn't some famous naturalist. I felt as if I was reading the journal of an early scientist exploring the Northwest Territory. It seems that Mr. Raymond knows every bird, plant, weed and stone in Oregon by name and yet he describes them to the reader in almost childlike simplicity. My theory has always been that if someone really knows something well, then they can describe it and make it understood even to a child. To me, Raymond knows Oregon like the back of his hand and I used to live there. They should make this novel mandatory reading for all Pacific Northwesterners so they can appreciate the beauty and the mystery of the region.

Then there's the cooking... Did you ever see the movie "Like Water for Chocolate"? I felt like I was reading a written sequel. I must have gained five pounds just reading it. The cooking scenes are fantastic and made my mouth water and my eyes burn.

Besides all that, the novel is haunting. I have no idea what the reviewers below are talking about by "lack of character development". Did we read the same book? Did you get through the first two pages or did your short little attention span get the better of you again? This novel is packed full of the most incredible characters. Simple, yet profound Neil, volatile Trixie Voltera, Tina the lost girl, the young romantic dreamer Henry, the serious and mysterious King Lu and Cookie! What about Cookie? Seriously, were you reading the same book as me? Cookie is the first time since reading "Giovann's Room" that I absolutely fell in love with a character! This is possibly the gentlest and most Zen character ever written!

OK, then the ending. First let me say that I love David Mitchell, but I get down on him for always wrapping his books into neat little packages in the end. Sorry David, but that's not doing it for me. Life is complex and so is "The Half Life". It always seems to me like Mitchell is trying to be Murakami in a way but with happy endings. Raymond perfectly captures the complexities of life and the struggle we all share for closeness and contact but to me it appears as if he wasn't even trying which is a sure sign that he was. The book and the ending definitely have a Eastern feel which brings Murakami to mind but the comparisons stop there. "The Half Life" is to me a completely unique book which stands by itself. Raymond fuses what must be an incredibly diverse background in history, natural sciences, English, film making and a little partying in the Northwest with a deceptively simple style and the heart of a poet and naturalist.

If you like:
Murakami
David Mitchell
Thoreau
James Baldwin
Jack London
Jared Diamond
Nature
Film Making
or if you live in the Pacific Northwest or if you like incredibly rich love stories that aren't what they appear,
THEN BUY THIS BOOK!

As an Oregonian who loves regional fiction, I was a little worried. Usually, when a novel is descibed in terms like, "It's the story of friendship..." it is one of those over-wrought, over-written books that don't ever tell a story.

Happily, my worries were wrong. This book is a page-turner.

I cared about the characters, where they went, and what happened to them. I couldn't put it down until I came to the end.

Yes, it's a novel about friendship. But it's a real yarn of two times, drawn together by place. It's funny and fun, and it's sad, and it's thought-provoking.

If you want to curl up with a good book that you'll enjoy -- and learn a little about Oregon, and a lot about interesting characters -- get this book. You'll love it.

This book did a good job at exciting me. The more i read the more i because interested in how all these characters would intertwine. But i tell you, they didnt until the 3 very last chapters, and it was very dissapointing. The writer is good with all his descriptive words and really gets you into the characters, but for no apparent reason because they are totally discarded at the end.

"The Half Life" is hands down the best book I've read since Plainsong. Raymond's language is both simple and startingly beautiful as he tells the story of Tina, Trixie, Cookie and King Lu. This impressive debut is well written, especially page 353 which contains, in my opinion, some of the finest heartfelt writing since William Maxwell's "They Came Like Swallows". Do yourself a favor and pick this one up. "The Half Life" deserves a wide audience. It's not flashy or glamorous, but it's very stong stuff just the same. I'm hoping the National Book Awards will reward Raymond with a nomination for this masterpiece that adds to the legacy of fine American literature.

This is one of the best books of the year! Everyone should read this novel. Get taken away with the characters over the span of almost 100 years. This book made me nostaglic for the Pacific Northwest and I've never lived there.

Some of the best new fiction out in a long time! Great story of friendship. Such poetic description. Lucid, modern day recollection of pacific NY history.

I heard him read a chapter at a reading in NYC- an sensitive and confident speaker. Amazing sense of flow. Amazing grasp on history. Amazing grasp on lexical ambiguity.

I HIGHLY recommend.

I loved the idea of this book much more than the book itself. Raymond obviously has great skill as a writer--the beautiful descriptions, the deep knowledge of history--but I felt like his characters were the weak point. Cookie, Tina, and Neil, the three main characters, feel like outlines, not real, flesh-and-blood people. They seem to have no past and no ideas about the future. They drift and they dream, but who are they, really?

Raymond seems to have a great book in him; let's hope the next book is it.

Former editor/screenwriter Jonathan Raymond opted for a mighty task when imagining his first novel - it would be a story of two friendships, alliances in the Pacific Northwest 100 years apart. He succeeded brilliantly penning parallel narratives that not only trace these friendships but also the development of the Portland, Oregon area over a period of time.

Cookie Figowitz is the youngest member of the Wild Trappers fur-trapping party. Both are aptly named as Cookie is the cook, and the trappers are a brash bunch. It is 1820 and they're on their way to the Hudson Bay Company. These trappers don't take kindly to not having enough to eat, which is precisely the situation Cookie finds himself in. Supplies are low.

One night while Cookie is out searching for food he finds instead Henry Brown, a fellow running for his life from a few vengeful Russians. Cookie's a good soul so he takes Henry back to camp with him, hiding him from the trappers. Out of this definitely inauspicious beginning a friendship develops, one that sees them go to China together in the hopes of selling a type of oil.

Segue to the 1980s and meet Tina Plank, an unhappy miss who lives in a commune near Portland. There's just one girl anywhere close to her age within a five mile radius, and that's Trixie Volterra, a savvy gal with a past. The two are quite a pair and form quite a friendship as they attempt to produce a movie on a poor excuse for a budget.

There's a surprise in store for the girls when two skeletons are found on the property where they're filming - Cookie and Henry. Thus the author has adroitly brought together the lives of four people. Each pair is from the same place in a different time. All have known the joys and sadness inherent in friendship. The reader has been treated to an intensely beautiful debut novel.

- Gail Cooke