Searching

In the story within the story, simple Aethon, in ancient times, sees a play about someone who escapes the world of men to join the world of birds who live in a city called Cloud Cuckoo Land where wine flows freely and honey cakes arrive on the backs of turtles.  Understanding this to be reality, he determines to find this utopia, and looks for a magician to turn him into a bird.  This charming tale, supposedly written by an Antonius Diogenes, is discovered, read, and loved throughout generations.  It is the delightful story that unites the disparate sections of our novel.

Five main characters live hundreds of years apart.  Two of them are young teens involved in the siege of Constantinople in the 1400’s.  Saracen (Muslim) Omeir with his special team of oxen has been conscripted to join the sultan’s attacking army.  Christian Anna, forced to work in a monastery embroidering linens for bishops, finds herself abandoned during the siege.  Seymour, in the present time, is a lonely idealistic boy whose best friend is an owl.  Orphaned Zeno grows up to fight in Korea where his love teaches him Greek.  Konstance, in the future, is headed for a new planet named Oph2 (off to) beyond the clouds. All these young people are touched by the power of Diogenes’ tale which is an homage to storytelling, reading, books, libraries, and librarians.

A few lines of his story pop up in the fifteenth century, a few more in the present, again in the future, and repeat. Not even the individual stories are in chronological order but shift back and forth.  Piecing their fragments together echoes what must be done with the ancient Diogenes folio which is found with pages mixed up and sections unreadable.

An additional joy of the book is spotting the allusions to real Greek literature, characters, and historical events, then teasing them out from the fictional ones. For example, the phrase Cloud Cuckoo Land comes from The Birds, a real Greek play, but it was written by Aristophanes, not Diogenes. I sorted out some of this with help from historically minded friends, but it is not necessary to the enjoyment of this compelling novel.

And finally, since the puzzle motif is so strong, I can’t help but think about Wordle, another word puzzle that is so popular (and addictive).  Maybe puzzles are in the air these days, or – (sorry for the pun) at least in the clouds.

Many thanks to all my sister readers who recommended this very excellent book with the strange title. 

Its structure reflects the lighthouse, the image of its title. Section one, bright and shining, pulses with optimism and life. It culminates in the exquisite dinner party where the Boeuf en Daube is perfectly done and Paul and Minta are newly engaged. For this brief moment, all are bathed in comfort, security and happiness.

But time passes and light disappears. The last section brings the darkness of grief, death, and war. When the children, grown now, finally achieve a trip to the lighthouse, it is not as they imagined it would be. As the book ends, it is Lily Briscoe the artist, less attractive, less socially adept, who emerges as the main character as she finds her way to balance and contentment.

Woolf’s stream of consciousness and deftly changing points of view put us inside the characters’ minds giving an immediacy and intimacy to their shifting reactions.  The rhythm of this echoes both the lighthouse and movement of the waves.  She paints a familiar picture of aristocratic life in turn of the century England, an opinionated scholarly man supported by a capable pleasant woman who is wife and mother with servants for the household duties. 

We never learn the Ramseys’ first names.  For him, I saw it as a sign of respect, and his power, for his guests to refer to him this way.  But her – she is “Mrs. Ramsey” even to friends who love her.  What does that say about her identity?

This wonderful book can be enjoyed on the level of its story, descriptions, and characters. For something a little deeper, there is symbol and metaphor. For something more serious yet, there are musings on the meaning of life by a brilliant author.  Or, maybe best of all, it can simply be experienced as a work of art created by an exceptionally talented artist.

Liselle is married to a white attorney who has just failed at his first bid for elective office. As the story opens, she, like Mrs. Dalloway, is planning a dinner party for that evening. Her former lover, Selena, troubled about homelessness, poverty, the ills of the world, has been hospitalized for mental health treatment twice and lives with her mother. The happiness the two had together has since eluded them, and now, they have a second chance.

Although the story takes place in one day, Solomon’s use of flashbacks and stream of consciousness enable her to easily switch back and forth between the thoughts of the two women over the intervening years. I was especially interested in what Liselle felt comfortable doing in society as half of a black lesbian couple compared to what she would do as half of an interracial heterosexual couple.

The language, aggressively younger generation, is somewhat off-putting.   This is a provocative read by a definitely not “old white guy” author – or white woman either. There may be overtones of Virginia Woolf, but Solomon has strongly made this story her own.

The conductor acknowledged that the composer was Russian but used the opportunity to condemn the oppression he had suffered as part of Russia’s anti-gay persecution.   We were then asked to stand in solidarity against oppression and aggression everywhere while the symphony did a rousing emotional rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem.  Nicely done.