Customer Reviews

Origin: A Novel

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Diana Abu-Jaber's startling literary prowess is only the half of it. What truly sets this author apart is her unpredictability. She has now tackled an incredibly diverse array of genres, and with each book she one-ups the naysayers, delivering knock-out tales that resonate and educate.

In Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience, she offers a tender, poignant, Willa Cather-style coming-of-age tale intertwined with disturbing undercurrents of racial and social alienation. In The Language of Baklava, food is the delectable conduit between family, tradition, and cultural legacy. Crescent, a quirky love story, introduces the reader to a marvelously sympathetic cast of characters. And now, in Origin, Abu-Jaber again walks in a new direction, finding steady footing from the very first page with a taut mystery/thriller. Origin kept me guessing--and it kept me reading well into the night.

The deftness and humanity of her work, and her audacious transcendence of easy labels, surely earn Abu-Jaber a place in the pantheon of today's best and most intriguing authors.

Diana Abu-Jaber never fails to amaze. Her characters are so perfectly developed that she could write 100 pages of dialogue between five characters, without ever telling us who's speaking, and we would know. Each voice is so unique, so identifiable...and so compelling. In ORIGIN, I thought I'd be annoyed by the neurotic viewpoint of Lena, but I began to understand her and she won me over. Her pain, her tenacity, everything about her...including her driven need to solve this case...kept me turning pages well into the night. This is not the first time Abu-Jaber's fiction has deprived me of sleep...and I hope it won't be the last.

This original author exhibits her versatility in a novel that pits the terrible reality of a baby killer at large with a young woman's haunted past. In Syracuse, New York, fingerprint expert Lena Dawson is happily ensconced in an intimate office setting, at home with the tools of her trade and diligent in her chosen career. Recently instrumental in the resolution of a very difficult child murder, Lena experiences unusual insights into crime scenes, an invaluable trait in detecting critical evidence in baffling cases. But Lena abhors media attention; her personal history is deeply shadowed by a mysterious past, her foster mother refusing to divulge the details of the transaction that delivered the little girl to the home of Pia and Henry McWilliams.

With vague memories of a rain forest, Lena doesn't speak about her past, the unknown weighing on an already delicate psyche. Lena is that rarest of creatures, an unassuming, devoted employee who only desires to perform her duties in the Lab, following the intricate whorls of fingerprints as incontrovertible evidence. When a recent tragic crib death is challenged by a desperate mother who begs Lena to delve deeper than the obvious, the fingerprint expert is trapped by the tormented woman's pleas, sensing that indeed there may be another, more heinous explanation for the death. Recently, a number of other so-called crib deaths have occurred in the same county, in sufficient number to warrant further investigation.

Thus begins Lena's troubled foray into the complex world of a baby killer, complicated by her own confusing history cobbled from fragments of memory. Eventually, Lena is forced to question her past with a growing suspicion that it is inextricably bound to the deaths of the babies. For Lena, all is smoke and mirrors, her memories intangible, foster mother resolute in her silence. Pursued by an almost-ex-husband who attempts to woo his wife back in spite of numerous infidelities and the quiet attentions of detective Keller Duseky, Lena finds it impossible to concentrate on relationship issues while immersed in this harrowing case, but is not insensitive to the patient and non-judgmental quality of Keller's support. A kind of psychic madness descends on Lena's investigation, a lurking menace that attends her every move. While political pressure builds, the press clamoring for information, Lena remains steadfast, ignoring the threats to her personal safety on a trail only she can follow.

Lena Dawson is a multi-dimensional character whose murky past threatens the future, the inextricable threads of a secret history intimately woven through an increasingly dangerous case. From a schizophrenic but brilliant elderly neighbor to the grieving mothers of lost babies, from Lena's sparse, yet compelling memories to a foster mother's refusal to acknowledge the truth, Origin addresses the dark side of human experience. As Lena seeks the revelations of a disturbing history, falling deep into territory fraught with danger, she comes face to face with one who would steal the breath from sleeping infants. Abu Jaber once again startles and delights with elegant prose and a profound compassion for the human spirit. Luan Gaines/2007.

A sense of place has always been important to me as a reader. Diana Abu-Jaber does an impressive job of it in THE ORIGIN. Her novel is set in Syracuse, New York. She uses weather to full effect as most of the story occurs during the winter time, and its main character, Lena Dawson, is susceptible to frost bite. Dawson also likes to walk and this gives us a panorama of what the city is like.

Abu-Jaber also creates a sympathetic character in Lena Dawson, a fingerprint examiner at the Syracuse crime lab. She has some issues, mainly with her foster parent, Pia, who never adopted her. Abu-Jaber also does an excellent job with the minor characters who work in the forensics lab. Her immediate superior Alyce, Sylie in Trace Analysis, and Margot in DNA analysis will remind you of people in your own office. Then there's Charlie, Lena's ex-husband and sensitive detective Keller who supplants Charlie as a love interest. Put them all together and you have a believable world.

Somebody in Syracuse is murdering babies and Lena is the only one, outside of one of the parents, who believes it's not Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. She has an incredible sense of smell and realizes almost immediately that there's something wrong with the baby blankets of the SIDS victims.

One minor complaint I had was Lena's memory of being raised by an ape after a plane crash until at the age of three she was taken in by Pia. I felt that was just a bit over-the-top. But Abu-Jaber uses that motif as a plot thread, and it all comes clear in the end.

Diana Abu-Jaber is an impressive young writer, and I'll be looking forward to her next novel.

I loved this book. I've enjoyed all the books written by Diana Abu-Jaber...but a murder mystery? She sure pulled it off...five stars plus!

Although I don't usually go out of my way to read novels described as "thrillers," I was eager to read "Origin" because I have enjoyed all of Diana Abu-Jaber's other work, and this was no exception. The writing is hypnotic, almost dreamy, and yet sharply detailed. This perfectly fits the voice of the narrator, Lena, who is simultaneously keenly observant of and detached from the world around her. I could almost feel the cold, grey Syracuse winter despite the hot July day. Plot twists in the two parallel mysteries had me shaking my head in disbelief and eventually delight as the bits and pieces came together. Even when I'd gotten something figured out, I would find that there was just a little more to discover. Although by the end Lena has learned more about herself, she is altered without being entirely changed. Both Lena and the reader are left with some questions that may never be answered, providing a sense of open-endedness that I found very satisfying.

I loved Abu-Jaber's other books about Arab-American experience - Crescent (fiction) and The Language of Baklava (memoir). Very rich, sensuous writing. So I wasn't sure how she'd handle a mystery noir. I think the book was 100 pages too long. It was interesting and well written, but I got frustrated several times with unlikely scenarios her main character got involved in. I had the who-dunnit figured out early on. I am not a mystery reader (though I'm willing) so I don't have much to compare it to in the genre. But I'd rather Abu-Jaber stick to what she's really good at - stories about relationships and the immigrant experience with enough space to use her skill at elegant descriptive writing.

Technically, Diana Abu-Jaber's Origin is a mystery.

But it completely transcends the genre.

This is mostly because her writing is so spectacular. Her characters are quirky and deep, but it is her description of THINGS that is so amazing. It is thrillingly precise. Things--the setting, the ordinary concrete details of everyday life--suddenly take on a hallucinatory intensity.

Then they take on a surreal life of their own.

This is completely appropriate: they are seen through the eyes of the narrator, Lena Dawson, who sees things sometimes with hypnotic clarity, sometimes with clairvoyant prescience, sometimes with psychedelic, kaleidoscopic wonder or horror.

The mystery depends on such perceptiveness, and so does the complete unfolding of Lena's character.

So this book is to most mysteries what Moby Dick is to most adventure-tales: a book that uses, but completely explodes, the form.

I have not seen prose that scintillates like this since Patrick White.

All the more amazing, since the setting is not the lurid rain-forest that Lena is always glimpsing, but drab, gunmetal Syracuse, New York in the dark of winter.

Her description of Trevor Haystraw, the pre-cognitive boy, is little short of a wonder.

Diana Abu-Jaber continues to polish her craft as a storyteller par excellence. Writing with artful prose, well-integrated scientific facts, an understanding of criminology details, and a gift for creating fascinating characters, she has, in ORIGIN, created a story that is not only a superb novel, but also one that is bound to please a wide readership. ORIGIN is a winner at every level, a novel that exercises the brain while exploring the heart.

Lena Dawson is a young woman who despite minimal formal education has become a successful interpreter of fingerprints with the criminal investigation unit in Syracuse, NY. As the novel begins she is separated from a fractured marriage with police officer Charlie, a raucous womanizer who continues to 'stalk' Lena despite their obvious incompatibility. Lena now lives a lone Spartan life, one more committed to her job than to a social existence. Her knowledge and sharp intuition in breaking a case of criminal implications in an apparent SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) case has sharpened her interest in other unexplained cases, and her extraordinary investigative gifts fall into place with the rather sudden onset of multiple SIDS cases. Her acumen and skills uncover the possibility of the implication of a serial killer who may be using poisoning techniques to murder infants of a strangely random assortment of couples - a discovery that results in paparazzi-type response from the media. Lena's only consolation and warmth in the frozen wintry Syracuse is her alignment with the tender, caring detective Keller, and as they both pursue the clues and investigation of the morbidly fascinating serial killer, each of them uncover and share personal demons that have shaped their lives.

Running skillfully alongside the linear investigation of the crimes is a detailed and touching story of Lena's search for her birth parents (she was 'adopted' by an odd couple as a very young child but has never felt a genetic connection: her dreams of her true beginnings are bizarre yet meaningful). It is the parallel investigation that introduces many fascinating characters and the discovery of a shaded past that has created a woman fearful of connecting in meaningful relationships. And it is to Abu-Jaber's credit that she intertwines both of these highly inventive stories so adroitly that they ultimately blend with a surprising, highly satisfactory ending.

Reading Abu-Jaber is a feast for the mind and the heart. Her imagery is richly colorful, cinematically unfolding the frozen landscape of Syracuse as the perfect setting for the two enigmas that eventually melt as they are resolved. This is a writer of enormous talent who has given us a multi-layered novel as fine as any in recent years. Where will her rich imagination and brilliant prose take us next? Grady Harp, July 07

Origin is one of the most creative and original books that I have ever read. Diana Abu-Jaber is very talented, she is a great writer. This book is impossible to predict, which makes it worth your time and money. Origin is one of my all time favorite books. Trust me on this book, you will like it.