I finished this book about 4 hours ago and I feel like I have been on an emotional roller coaster. I actually feel disoriented and dizzy by this wonderful tragic book. I would have to say that this is one of the most intense reading experiences I have ever had. It opened me up and challenged me emotionally like few books or films have ever accomplished. I may read it again some day but not soon. I say this because this book is so realistic and tragic that it is painful.
Maria McCann gives us fair warning when she begins her story with a brutal murder, yet romantic idealist that I am, I kept hope alive in my heart that Jacob Cullen would overcome his dark interior voices and that he and Christopher Ferris would mature into a mutually supportive male-male couple. I hoped this to the final bleak and heartbreaking pages.
We see the world narrated through the eyes of Jacob Cullen, who maintains control of his irrational violent impulses 99% of the time, however, when he is threatened or hurt, he becomes a terror, a Dark Angel. McCann carefully allows us to see deeper and deeper into the disturbed mind of Jacob. He rationlizes much of his hostility and violence and I didn't fully understand until I was 75% of the way through the book as to how dangerous Jacob really is. He suffers so much for his actions that I empathized with him until the final 2 chapters when he facilitated the destruction of Christopher Ferris' world. When a love affair ends, there are those who will go to extremes to re-ignite the flames of passion, and if this does not work, they will seek the total destruction of their past lover. Jacob Cullen is one of these folks.
I hoped that Jacob's paranoid schizophrenic violent nature would be "cured" by his love for Christopher Ferris, his lover. They try to balance their strengths and weaknesses, each needing to submit to the other from time to time to maintain the balance needed in a male to male relationship. However, on many occassions neither partner submits and a struggle for dominance in the relationship clouds their interactions. Christopher Ferris is no push-over. In fact he is psychological healthy and empowered. The middle section of the book where Christopher and Jacob make love every night and plan their great commune adventure almost made me forget Jacob's intense violent reactions when he misinterprets and feels threatened.
I am very conflicted as to whether their sexual relationship postpones Jacob's fall into violent insanity or whether it aggravated it. Their struggles for dominance (Jacob gained a violent sexual dominance while Christopher gained the dominance of vision, direction and becoming Jacob's entire reason for existence)further aggravated Jacob's disturbed paranoid mind. You will understand the attraction between these men as you read the book. Christopher wishes to create a new socially just world yet he is attracted to the massive masculine force of Jacob. Jacob is aware of his faults and sees in Christopher the antithesis of his personality, a man of social grace, insight, and creativity. Christopher Ferris is not an angel however. He is manipulative and charming. He knows how to get his way which is one of the sore spots in Christopher and Jacob's relationship. During the bloody civil war, Christopher has become sick of all the gore and violence. He convinces Jacob to desert the army of Cromwell with him. Why does he chose Jacob over Nathan? Nathan is bright, articulate and would be a willing partner. He selects Jacob out of pure animal attraction, never a wise way to select a mate. Christopher is physically and emotionally hurt so often that he can no longer forgive Jacob's violent nature and actions. He continues to love but can no longer forgive. His disillusionment with Jacob mirrors the reader's growing disillusionment but as in all failing relationships there are sexual bonds that pull folks back into destructive patterns.
I hoped that Christopher Ferris, a truly good man with exceptional visionary leadership and interpersonal skills, would achieve his mission of building the New Jerusalem commune, a social justice experiment in a violent time of little justice. I believed this would happen even as Jacob becomes more of a disruptive and dark force in the life of the commune.
I hoped that the relationship between Christopher Ferris and Jacob Cullen would grow since it was absolutely full of creative energy and sexual electricity. I think both men loved each other but Christopher was obsessed with his vision of social justice whereas Jacob was obsessed with Christopher. This might have worked if Jacob had not been a violent paranoid schizophrenic with frightful devilish voices sounding in his scull.
The Civil War in England was a time of great social upheaval and McCann captures all the filth, inhumanity, smells, and diseases. The loss of social order would certainly be fertile ground for violence and inhumanity but also a fertile ground for a male-male relationship as well as utopian social movements.
The battle scenes, between the Catholic Cavallier forces of Charles I and the Parlimentary Protestant forces of Cromwell are terrible in their violence and cruelty and serve as a perfect background for Jacob's growing obsession with his fellow soldier, Christopher Ferris. Ferris fights the good fight while hating the blood and gore of warfare. In this gore and constant danger, Christopher Ferris finds the wild man, Jacob, and nutures him while their growing obsession with each other grows.
McCann's charaterization was superb. Every character, of which there are many, in this historic and personal tragedy comes to life. Her attention to detail and social interactions make even minor characters jump alive in your imagination.
I highly recommend this book but I warn you that it is an upsetting reading experience that will leave you with amazement at McCann's literary power.
