Customer Reviews

Possessed by Shadows

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

 

 

Mountains matter in a country often referred to as the rooftop of Central Europe." Possessed by Shadows takes one on an unforgettable expedition deep into Slovakia's Tatras Mountains-a human as well as physical journey of three climbers and the tangled lives they lead.

Donigan Merritt, the author of five other novels and a graduate of the Iowa Writers' workshop, is a master at crafting a novel that moves back in forth in time and relies on several voices as opposed to a single narrator. This is a book that seems chaotic initially but comes together magically at the end. Bits and pieces of information coalesce into a logical whole by the closing pages of the novel.

Merritt also is skilled at creating characters. Although he is a male writer, his female characters are the most masterful and compelling-especially Molly and Sasha. Furthermore, it's obvious from this book that he has traveled and climbed in Slovakia and understands the country's cultural and physical geography very well. His book captures a very important slice of that country's history-the dark period just before the Velvet Revolution in 1989. I would recommend it to anyone interested in Slovakia, climbing, or human relationships.

This is a love story about two married mountain climbers, whose final climb together takes place in the beautiful Tatras mountains of Slovakia.

It has beautiful naratives, authentic characters, as well many thoughtful relections.

The book ends in Slovakia near the end of the Communist era and recalls to mind how awful that period was in Eastern Europe. How quickly we forget.

It is a good read for climbers or non climbers alike, and for anyone interested in the realities of life in Eastern Europe before the Wall came down.

I recently went through a print reading slump. For some reason when I got back to the States about 6 months ago, I just lost all motivation to read anything much more challenging than a newspaper supplement. I mean, I was still getting countless tens of thousands of words off the internet, but while that is reading, in that eyes were moving over words, it's not reading, like eyes moving over, say, During the Rains.

Not that I didn't try. Oh, I tried. Picked up Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust from the local library, a book utterly unavailable in my former Third World abode, which I'd been looking forward to reading for a long time. Couldn't get into it. Tried Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, which I was forced to read in high school and wanted to come back to as an adult. It didn't take. Went for Richard Ford's A Piece of My Heart, which read like Cormac McCarthy For Kids. Nope.

The obvious culprit: wireless internet and a lightweight, non-thigh-scorching laptop spewing out the ceaseless offerings of the google-deity. And a comfy couch. I'd never lived in a place with all three before. I surrendered. Wallowed in mudpits of sweet, sweet information. (Though I never took to tweet-bleating.)

Probably a deeper malaise was at work. Crossing the pond will do that to you, I guess. More on that later, possibly, if ever I get on a confessional jag in these blog parts. Better, it'll get turned into some stories worth reading.

I use this long prologue by way of introducing Donigan Merritt's Possessed by Shadows. This was the book that, a few weeks back, shook me from my stupor. For an excellent full review, I direct you (once again) to Brad Green. He gives the kind of write-up that does this fine book justice.

For my part, I'll just say that I've thought a lot about Possessed by Shadows, and why it grabbed hold of my literary attention span where half a dozen other candidates - and not a ringer in the bunch - failed. I still don't have a good answer, but I didn't want to put off writing this post any longer. For one thing, I promised Donigan Merritt, who I now have the excellent good fortune to be in contact with and who is a regular EE commenter, that I would. For another, a day that goes by when you aren't reaching for Possessed by Shadows is a day you're squandering. I can't pin down just what it is Possessed by Shadows has. But it has it in spades.

Merritt pulls off the very tricky trick of writing about a foreign locale without being either smugly knowlegeable or all guidebooky. Is Bratislava, Slovakia a place you're dying to know about? Me neither. But Merritt makes Iron Curtain-era Czechoslovakia a grayly fascinating place, while sparing us the Wiki-isms a lot of writers insert like they're being graded on it. He also writes compellingly about rock climbing, another topic in which I am marginally interested at best. Same rules apply: no needless trivia, no constant assertion of authorial authority.

All this is to say nothing of the finely fluid writing and the carefully etched characters. The opening scene on a California rockface will set your heart to going, so that you won't even mind that one of the main characters gets cancer.

Possessed by Shadows is not without its flaws. The plotline is a touch hackneyed. (Come on: cancer?) But that just shows how extraordinary this book is: I was utterly absorbed anyway. Read the whole thing in two, two and a half sittings. This is what books are supposed to do to you. Grab you by the spinal cord. Now, thanks to Mr. Merritt, I'm neck-deep in half a dozen books and willingly, gladly, regularly, setting aside the laptop. I'm not able to offer up much better praise than that.

"Possessed by Shadows" is a brilliant and haunting novel. This work of fiction is not for the faint of heart. The narrator seizes grief and transforms it into redemptive wanderlust: venturing into the mountains, wading through memories, and scavenging for meaning.

How do we live with the knowledge of impending loss? Can we ever prepare ourselves for tragedy? Are death by suicide, death by accident, and death by illness truly different? Tom and Molly struggle with these questions as they pursue their riveting journey into the mountains and their memories. This journey is horrifying yet empowering.

The ending was a true heartbreak, as I had already suspected two pages into the book. The ending was uplifting nonetheless. Stefan, the bearded man and passionate melancholic who conquered the mountains with the couple when Molly was still among the living, makes a haunting comment towards the end: "How could anyone not love Molly?" Stefan's question prompts the reader to reflect on our conventional definitions of success and impact. During Molly's tender journey on earth, she did leave her imprints in the emotional world of others: that in itself is a tremendous success and impact.

Although someone once pointed out that this book is "depressing," I do not feel that way. Wrestling beauty and hope from excruciating pain is a survival skill that many of us get acquainted with at some point in our lives. If you have ever wondered how to distill otherworldly beauty from earthly sorrow, I would highly recommend reading this book.

(This review was originally posted by me at LibraryThing.com on March 11, 2009)

Back in December 2008 I received an a free book (through LibraryThing.com's Early Reviewer program) that I liked, the story was interesting. But, for whatever reason, the book didn't leave me when I put it down. It hung around for awhile, actually it still does. It's never clear to me why some books do this and some don't. It's worth noting that it had a lot of self-reflection in a clean and uncluttered manner. This book was "The Common Bond" by Donigan Merritt, published by a small press called Other Press. There are (at that time) 20 copies on LT; 15 Early Reviewer copies were passed out.

Recently I picked up Possessed by Shadows, the author's previous book. I have the only copy on LT. I can't predict whether this book will stick in the same way, but it had me mesmerized throughout. The story is about a married couple who are obsessive rock climbers. A climbing accident leads to the discovery that the woman, Molly, has a terminal untreatable brain tumor and about a year to live. We hear Molly's story of her life from herself, and the story of her last year from her husband. The two narratives are intertwined. I wouldn't call this a tearjerker or oppressively depressing (as a review on amazon.com did), because we're given the bad news up front. Instead this book is more about exploring the characters and mortality, and about a lot of rock climbing (something I'm not personally familiar with). Like the previous book there is a lot of self-reflection, and again it's very cleanly drawn. There are other similarities between these two books, actually in some ways they are echoes of each other.

It's interesting how a book so obscure can have such a meaningful effect on us. I can't say whether or not this is truly a great book or whether it would effect anyone else as it has me. My reaction may be a very personal reaction. I could probably say it's well written, although I don't feel qualified to judge. Part of it's attraction to me may have been in the discovery, and in the lack of expectation. A nice surprise. I'm not sure.

There are the sorts of moments in this book that can happen when you're having a great conversation - the illuminating moments. One such is the distinction DM makes between Hope and Desire. Its the sort of distinction that makes you understand how relationship can fracture. Another personal insight for me was the idea that this was what defined the Argentine personality - the lack of either hope or desire created by the totalitarian state.Those of us who live in foreign lands for extended periods trying to understand the nature of the culture and character we have chosen to meld with need these sorts of insights as validation. For the armchair traveller it's a lot more illuminating than a description of the iglesia.There is a whole section set in Eastern Europe while still behind the Iron Curtain which was interesting backdrop to the plot.
There is a lot of climbing references in this book which although for me was a delight, for some might be dull unless there is an interest in the sport/passion. Although I found the main female character selfish in the extreme, this didnt diminish the book at all - a likeable character doesntt necessarily show us much about our own beliefs.
I may well have given this book Five stars for its personal appeal apart from the rather bad reading experience delivered on Kindle. This many grammatical and spelling errors are not the responsibility of an editor

A worthwhile read that has a few interesting twists and turns. Topics include mountain climbers, end of life issues and marital relationships.

I rarely stop reading a book once I've started it. Can count on one hand the number of times I've done that--and this was one of those times. Dark, depressing and written like a draft in a writer's workshop. Lacks character development and any ray of hope/light.