Customer Reviews

The Origin of Species

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

 

 

Book Review by Ethel Clark

The Origin of Species by Nino Ricci

Published in Canada, Sept. 30, 2008 by Doubleday ISBN 10:0385663609

The author focuses on two main topics: Alex, an anxiety-ridden and depressed Canadian Literature student in 1980's Montreal and Charles Darwin's theory on evolution and the meaning of life.

Alex is not forceful, or that interesting. Lots of events happen, not plot-driven. The many facts and quotes from authors inspired me to research Darwin and Malthus, two scientists. It took me a while to get through it, going back to reread passages.

The story begins and ends with Esther, giving it a smooth conclusion. Excitement didn't begin until the middle of the book in the Galapagos Islands with Desmond and Santos in search of the special plants connected with Darwin. These characters were raw and attention-getting, making for a good plot.

The author touched on too many subjects, characters and cities, making it difficult to concentrate on one. I enjoyed the scientific aspects and the geographic areas of the book more than the story itself.

I'm not normally partial to romances. I mean, "happily ever after"? Yeah, and then what? This, though, is my kind of love story.

Love, sex: it all boils down to genetics, which when you think about it, boils down to sheer, dumb, blind luck. Primates' nearest cousins died out 50 million years ago. There's maybe one lucky mutation that separates a dead species from one whose descendents will be using opposable thumbs to text each other Tiger Woods gossip.

That's the rather bleak message at the heart of "Origin of the Species" by Canadian author Nino Ricci; life is random chance. Nobody better exemplifies this than Alex Fratarcangeli, an Italian-Canadian graduate student studying at Montreal's Concordia university. Alex drifts along, a passenger in his own life, carried by the currents and eddies of chance as they bring him bumping against fortune's flotsam and jetsam. These include Esther, a bubbly neighbour who sadly suffers from multiple sclerosis, Ingrid, a Swedish divorcee with unfortunate taste in men, Desmond, an unlucky British would-be researcher, Maria, an El Salvadorean refugee, a professor on the skids, a businessman with a disease -- Yes, there's plenty of dumb, blind luck to go around.

There isn't much plot, but then that was Darwin's point as well; there's no grand plan, no script, no author, no guarantees in life other than a very final End.

Alex scrapes a living teaching English as a second language while trying to muster enough enthusiasm to finish his thesis on the biological origins of storytelling. Books, in other words, are just another way to propagate your genes -- to get people to have sex with you (fair warning: book reviewing has no such power). Not that Alex needs any help in this department, despite his rather passive approach to life. The main branches from the main plot follow his disfunctional relationships with a raft of women, including Esther, Ingrid and Maria, as well as with Desmond and the others.

Without plot, you're left to fall back on character and setting, and this is where Mr Ricci's writing comes to life. Alex and his companions are not just believable, they're disturbingly familiar. You want to hate Alex, then catch part of him in your reflection. Ingrid, Esther and the others exist as fully-formed individuals, never mere ciphers or signposts. Each adapts to their environment, showing you different facets of thier personality, now a bullying tyrant, now a cringing supplicant. Only in Desmond, relentlessly awful and irritating, does Mr Ricci get carried into caricature.

"Origin of the Species" isn't a compelling story, but it's filled with compelling people. They pull you along in their wake, unwilling to let go so you can unravel their codes, see what makes them tick.

I said it was a love story, didn't I? And the object of desire is Canada. Canada in the 1980s, in Montreal, to be precise. American readers be warned; Mr Ricci expects you to keep up when he references Steinberg's, Pierre Trudeau and Peter Gzowski. "Origin of the Species" is brashly Canadian in exactly the way that Canadians aren't. It's like the Group of Seven, Canadians are always drawn to the land, even if it's seen from the windows of a coffee shop. The rush of names is overwhelming even for a Canadian, but you'll manage, you'll adapt. It's in your genes.

It's not always a fun read, but the love of place is part of what stops things from being completely gloomy. This may be all we have, but hey, isn't it something? We may be no more than genes, but you know, they're pretty good ones at that. There's the possibilty, not the promise, of happiness for those who fall in love. With the here and now.

And that's the kind of happy ending you can believe in.

This is a serious work of fiction. It is long and dense with a large number of characters who enter and disappear and when their names pop up many pages later I found myself asking, Now who was that again? Although told in the third person, we follow the events and thoughts of Alex, a graduate student in literature. Alex is the son of Italian immigrants living in Montreal. As a person who has yet to visit Montreal, I got a sense of its character and ambience by reading this novel. Alex also makes extended trips to Scandinavia and the Galapagos Islands. Alex is not a pleasant person to be around. He is extremely judgmental, directing most of the judgments against himself, habitually doubting every decision as soon as he makes it. In fact, he is kinder and more helpful then he imagines. He is particularly generous toward Jiri, his off-the-wall Eastern European mentor, and Esther a young woman deteriorating from MS. Esther is an important character as is Charles Darwin who appears regularly in Alex's thoughts (I particularly enjoyed Alex's visit to Darwin's English home) and Peter Gzowski , a deceased Canadian radio host, whose imaginary interview with Alex is sprinkled throughout the text. Esther's painful deterioration is with us from the first page to the last. And it is painful. Ricci does not blink, not when he looks at Esther, not when he looks at life in general. Ricci explores the big questions in this book in a way that one can through literature. There are a few awkward sentences and many beautiful insightful ones. The best thing for this reader was watching the play of the author's exceptional mind as characters and places and thoughts enter and leave and Alex stumbles along toward maturity. A very satisfying experience if you are up for the challenge. Doug IngoldThe Henderson Memories

Simply said, I hated this book. There's nothing I liked about it. It was a book group choice and out of the 6 of us, not one of us liked it. (Not even the one who chose it). The writing is all over the place, goes nowhere & the main characters are not at all interesting. The other reviews portrayed the story so I won't do that, but since Amazon sent an e-mail asking for a review of the book, here it is-It's one of the worst books I've ever read, and I've read a lot!