Customer Reviews

Invention of the World

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

 

 

Jack Hodgins's The Invention of the World is the book that has made me move all the way from Europe to British Columbia, that "rainy green edge of the world" where magic still could - and occasionally would - happen.

When I first read the book I fell in love not just with the characters, in particular with Maggie, Wade, Becker, and Madmother Thomas, but also with the place where it was set: Vancouver Island - or "Jack Hodgins's Island," as I preferred to call it. The Invention of the World and most of Hodgins's other works are deeply rooted in what I would call the "soundscape" of the Canadian West Coast. By that I do not only mean the way the people speak here - which is unique and thoroughly captivating in itself - but also the music of the place: the ocean waves, pebbles, boats and ferries, trailer parks, bulls, arbutus trees, sparrows, sunflower seeds, and even snails....

In my opinion, Jack Hodgins is one of the greatest storytellers of our time. I love all of his works but The Invention of the World is my favorite, partly because it also enacts - in a post-modern way that combines social criticism, irony, humor, tall-tale elements, deception, truth, and magic- how myths are born and, in this case, transplanted from Europe (Ireland) to Canada. The British Columbian Coast is deeply rooted in the realm of myth to begin with, since it unites so many different cultural layers. But Jack Hodgins's book makes the realm of myth and every-day life meet and partly overlap and intertwine. And this unusual combination gives rise to all sorts of interesting events, developments and insights.

Since I happen to teach English at 2 British Columbian universities (UBC & FDU), I am always looking for works that will inspire my students. Whenever I pick The Invention of the World for one of my classes, the book is a hit with my students and leads to highly stimulating class discussions. Interestingly enough, each of these discussions brings out new aspects of the novel that I had not been aware of before. And each time I reread the book, I also discover something new and, yes, meaningful, despite - or maybe because of - that unique combination of myth, irony, imagination, realism, magic, psychology, and postmodernism that creates new insights about the contemporary world, the world of the mind, and the timelessness that transcends both on basically every page.

If you love reading - and if you love reading something that is truly stimulating, original, and creative - I can only recommend Jack Hodgins's The Invention of the World.

--- Gudrun Dreher, Ph.D., Sessional, Department of English, UBC & FDU, Vancouver, BC

Personally, I found this book to be tedious. It was too chopped up for my tastes. The plot seemed to go every where. Unless I missed something, the title was very misleading as to the content of the novel. However, the ending was hilarious and a good reward for the rest of the novel.