Friday, September 5, 2008

Gothic books

It's interesting, Tiffany, that you mentioned being hooked to the Twilight series. It seems as if every time I’m on the subway, I see someone reading one of the books. Though it doesn't look like my kind of book, there must be something there if so many people are addicted to it. Maybe I'll cave and pick up the book sometime soon. But speaking of gothic books, I've been hearing a lot about The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. Have you guys heard of it? It looks intriguing. The cover of the book alone really makes me want to read it!

Here's a synopsis:

The narrator of The Gargoyle is a very contemporary cynic, physically beautiful and sexually adept, who dwells in the moral vacuum that is modern life. As the book opens, he is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body. As he recovers in a burn ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned, he awaits the day when he can leave the hospital and commit carefully planned suicide—for he is now a monster in appearance as well as in soul.

A beautiful and compelling, but clearly unhinged, sculptress of gargoyles by the name of Marianne Engel appears at the foot of his bed and insists that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly injured mercenary and she was a nun and scribe in the famed monastery of Engelthal who nursed him back to health. As she spins their tale in Scheherazade fashion and relates equally mesmerizing stories of deathless love in Japan, Iceland, Italy, and England, he finds himself drawn back to life—and, finally, in love. He is released into Marianne's care and takes up residence in her huge stone house. But all is not well. For one thing, the pull of his past sins becomes ever more powerful as the morphine he is prescribed becomes ever more addictive. For another, Marianne receives word from God that she has only twenty-seven sculptures left to complete—and her time on earth will be finished.

1 comment:

Tiffany said...

I have heard of THE GARGOYLE and have added it to my very long list of things to read. Def. sounds like it's up my alley!