Customer Reviews

Perpetual Motion (New Canadian Library)

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

 

 

a hard slog, but well worth the effort. robert fraser sets out to build a perpetual motion machine in 19th century rural ontario to end a life of agricultural toil trying to control nature, and as the editorials above suggest, goes a bit nutbar, eviscerating the natural world and alienating his own family in the process.

what i really liked about this novel were all the opportunities fraser had to reconsider his relationship with nature based on the strange occurences around his farm - the mysterious discovery of the dinosaur skeleton that sets the story off at a gallop, the chaotic fly-over of a giant flock of passenger pigeons, or the disappearance of his son angus, who is miraculously taken under the wing (paw?) of a bear while stranded in the wilderness.

the mysterious otherness of the land offers a hand to fraser a number of times, and each and every time he rejects the natural world's offer of a deeper relationship to its mysteries in favour of a quick 'get rich quick' liquidation of its natural capital instead. so: the dinosaur bones are taken on tour, the passenger pigeons slaughtered en masse, and mysterious son angus is driven out of the house and deeper into an already feral existence living out of a beaver lodge.

'perpetual motion' is a stunning allegory for the non-native inhabitation of north america, now careening ever closer to apocalyptic disaster in this our sixth full century of occupation. by and large, gibson suggests, we remain a culture that possesses the means to develop a more peaceful relationship to place, but our dangerous dreams of prosperity and wealth on our terms alone continue to derail any chances of a long term peaceful relationship to this long-suffering land.

I'm currently only half-way through this book because I like it so much I can't bear to finish it. I keep going back and re-reading, even out loud, as one would with poetry. I love the language, the descriptions and, especially, the humor. I started this book immediately after an action-mystery and at first found it slow going as well; descriptions of people, places, things aren't fill-ins--they're the book. So I started over and adjusted myself to the pace. It lit up.

This book does a very good job of informing the reader of a neat idea. I found it to be quite fascinating and would recommend it to anyone interested in engineering.

Though this book does get off to a slow start, it can be credited to the mood being established by Gibson. 19th-Century Ontario is a slow moving place, and Gibson's lack of break-neck action serves well here. However, I do agree that the book never does pick up the pace. Instead, we are treated to seemingly random vignettes of strange occurrences in and around the Fraser homestead in southern Ontario. There are certain gothic elements to this tale: family dysfuncion, madness, violence, and a perpetual feeling of uncertainty. That's what this book left me with: I was uncertain about where it would eventually lead. When it got to the end, the feeling persisted. A strange work, but not worth high praise.

This book got off to a slow start and remained so throughout the book. It was really boring and fairly difficult to follow. I would advise anyone to not read this book unless you like 1920's stories of an inventor.