Customer Reviews

The Bestiary

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Caveat: "A Trip to the Stars" was the first Nicholas Christopher book I read. I loved it. I've since read his other fiction works, and I've been disappointed by all in comparison. The Bestiary is no different.

The Bestiary gets off to a good start-- Xeno's empty and lonely childhood is haunting and the tension building in his relationships with those around him is palpable. I kept waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. By the middle of the book, I'd just about run out of steam. I stuck with it to find out what happened, and was unimpressed by the ending. This was a book I finished just to finish, not because I was compelled to find out what happened or even particularly cared.

I also felt occasionally as if there were a private joke I simply wasn't privy to. In an otherwise serious novel, a Maine private prep school teacher named Cletis? Christopher also seems to rely on numerous symbols to communicate or hint at some message. Unfortunately, they seem like sentences with only beginnings and no end: they seem to be meaningful, but what they mean is none too clear to me.

Over all, this book got off to a great start, but sputtered to a fairly anemic end.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I notice that other reviewers liked the first christopher novel they read the best; That was true for me with this book. Beautifully written, a compelling mystery and fascinating characters. After I finished Bestiary, I read all his earlier novels which I enjoyed, but not quite as much as The Bestiary (Franklin Flyer was my second favorite. There is a simplicity that I really liked to this book). Strongly recommend Christopher,especially if you are partial to magical realism.

nicholas christopher's books are not-so guilty pleasures of mine. not-so guilty because they're just so much fun to read -- effortlessly beautiful page-turning prose following an intellectual (usually arcane) quest. he's quietly building a unique body of work. if you're the kind of person who wanted less action and more book-browsing in far-flung libraries in Raiders of the Lost Ark (which isn't to say ROTLA isn't one of the most perfect movies ever), his books might appeal to you, especially this one, featuring conscipuously named characters like Xeno Atlas, the protagonist, and his lifelong search (1950s - 80s) from the Bronx to Paris to Venice to Crete for an obscure illuminated book called the Caravan Bestiary. legend holds this book contains descriptions of all the animals that failed to make it on to noah's ark. it may not be powerfully deep in the end, but reading this is mostly about sumptuous intellectual escapism in the hands of a wonderful imagination. i'd also recommend A Trip to the Stars by christopher. his poetry books are excellent too, as they also excel in narrative and mood.

Xeno Atlas has grown up missing both his mother (dead) and his father (physically and emotionally distant.) If it weren't for his rather mystical grandma, their practical, supportive housekeeper, and the welcoming family of a friend, he might not have turned out so well. For solace, Xeno immerses himself in the fanciful stories of animals told to him, and when introduced to the medieval bestiaries by his his teacher, becomes obsessed with finding the long lost Caravan Bestiary, which has eluded scholars and historians for centuries.

Unfortunately, it takes almost half of the book for Xeno to set off on his quest. The first part is devoted to his emotionally deprived childhood and a shorter segment about his Vietnam War service. When he finally is able to get his act together, the narrative, while competently written, dwells mostly, and rather clinically, on description of Xeno's research efforts. While The Bestiary tells an interesting story, incorporating mythical and religious detail, the lyrical, poetic aspects so highly praised in some reviews was not its outstanding feature, in my experience.

"I felt the spirits of animals. In the instants of entering or leaving sleep I caught glimpses of them: an upturned snout, a lizard eye, a glinting talon, the flash of a wing. Hooves kicked up sparks by my cheek. Fur bristled. Teeth clicked. I heard pants, Howls. Plaintive cries.

And at dawn they were gone."

Xeno Atlas grew up with strange stories about beasts who inhabit a world just barely outside our world. Motherless, the boy was raised in the Bronx by his Sicilian grandmother, a woman who seemed to have the ability to shapeshift into an animal and back again. Her stories fueled the fire of Xeno's imagination, starting him on a lifetime love of animals, especially mythical animals of the sort represented in the lost book Caravan Bestiary.

From a young age Xeno was obsessed with the idea of finding this rare book, as well as the animals mentioned in it. His childhood was lonely. Not only had his mother died when he was too young to know her, but his seaman father was away on voyages more than he was home. Even on the rare occasions when his father was home he was distant, blaming Xeno's birth for his beloved wife's death.

Xeno's quest for the Caravan Bestiary takes him from New York to Viet Nam, and from there to the great libraries in Europe as he searches everywhere for this illusive volume. Ultimately he had to unravel dark family secrets in order to complete his quest, freeing him at last from his all-consuming obsession.

This is a compelling, lushly written book, with elements of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in its often lyrical prose.

Maybe it's me, but I found this to be a slow, long-winded story about a man who wasn't particularly likable. A man who never seems to work for anything he gets(including Harvard, a Purple Heart/Silver Star and the bevy of promiscuous women that naturally fall under his spell). He's also a man who is never gainfully employed and who still believes in unicorns. I think it was trying to be the Da Vinci Code with all the travel and the searching but it doesn't come close. Mind-numbing, boring and just plain bad.

As a young boy Xeno Atlas learned of an ancient book called the 'Caravan Bestiary' that contained stories of all the animals who had been denied safe passage on Noah's ark: the manticore, the unicorn, the sphinx, to name of a few. An isolated youth whose mother died giving birth to him - and whose father resents him for it - Xeno is raised by his grandmother and her tales of animal spirits. When his grandmother dies and Xeno is shipped off to boarding school a teacher tells him of the Caravan Bestiary, and herein begins Xeno's quest to find the book, which has been lost for hundreds of years. During his school years he begins researching fantastical beasts, taking notes in spiral bound notebooks, and when he is drafted some years later for the Vietnam War it is only Xeno's desire to find the bestiary that prevents him from succumbing to his traumatic wartime memories. Soon his father dies and leaves him with a fortune - a mysterious occurrence since Xeno's father was a sailor - and Xeno finds himself able to travel the world looking for the bestiary. His quest takes him to libraries from Hawaii to Europe, even an unlikely friendship with a seance master, each step revealing clues that take Xeno one step closer to his goal. Xeno's story is a fascinating one at first, punctuated by his melancholic passion for mythology and a frustrated love for his childhood friend, Lena. However, though the conclusion matches the overall tone of the book it was unsatisfying. Many questions are left unanswered, which is in keeping with Xeno's mysterious search, but I couldn't help wishing for more from the author.

Overall, an enjoyable read. The first part of the book was really great -wonderful imagery, interesting characters, and challenging relationships. However, at some point past the middle, the book seemed to lose its rhythm and I was disappointed with the ending. That said, I am going to slowly re-read the ending portion to see if I can get a better feel for the message. Again, I would generally recommend this book.

Normally I don't fall in love with characters in Christopher novels, but in reading The Bestiary, for the first time I did. Yes, there's the usual blend of fantasy and reality. There's also a deep message about the ecology of planet earth. But best of all there's a lovely story about a man in search for himself. This one should win a lot of new fans for NC and satisfy his current ones as well.

The most interesting thing about "The Bestiary" was that it was a book about a lost book that itself got lost along the way. Great start, but the ending lacks the emotional puch of "A Trip to the Stars" - in my opinion, Christopher's masterpiece. The book is filled with fascinating threads, but they never come together.