David Madsen (1)
Auteur van Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf
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- 4
- Leden
- 350
- Populariteit
- #68,329
- Waardering
- 3.7
- Besprekingen
- 8
- ISBNs
- 40
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- 9
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- 2
In essence, "Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf" is a story of the mysticism of Gnostic thought, orbiting around the interesting and sometimes madcap reign of Pope Leo X, Giovanni de Medici. Peppe (the dwarf) serves as narrator by providing glimpses of his youth, his introduction to Gnosticism, love, and education, which ultimately lands him in a circus, and then the 'court' of Leo X (itself not an actual circus, though one could make that arguement based on Peppe's descriptions).
Peppe is more tragic than comic. He ruminates on his physically painful youth (did I mention he has a rather large hump on his back?) "In the beginning was the pain, and the pain was with me, and the pain was me. It constituted the entirety of my burgeoning consciousness."
And one can't help but make comparisons to George R.R. Martin's own tortured dwarf, Tyrion Lannister. Peppe's mother, in a drunken fit, says, "God knows, I should have suffocated you at birth." Peppe responds in his narrative, "There was a time when I would have wholeheartedly agreed with this; now, however, I am rather glad that she did not suffocate me at birth. Strange, isn't it, how one can always learn to love oneself, however ghastly one is?"
Madsen displays a large and complex vocabulary which dually proves the literate nature of the writer as well as the value of having an e-reader with a built-in dictionary. His writing is big, bold and vividly descriptive.
In one particularly expressive scene, Peppe's only love is tortured for heresy. His description displays well Madsen's vibrant writing abilities: "...what followed fills me with anguish; the memory of it grips my heart like an icy vice. As I write, I know that tears will soon come. A huge and heavy sadness covers me like a shroud, and I cannot shake it off; indeed, I do not want to - for every act of recall, every rearoused memory of what they did to her, merits the expiation of a fresh agony of the soul. A sword pierced and entered the fabric of my psyche that day, and it is there still, for I feel its blade, as sharp and as deadly as ever, move between the infinitesimal spaces where socket meets socket and joint meets joint."
The middle third of the book, author David Madsen focuses much of his time on the political wranglings of and around the papal states. I'm always very appreciative of the historic angle of any historical fiction, however the complications surrounding the Vatican, Spain and France come at the cost of any real propullsion of Peppe's story.
The themes are rather large and heavy, and several plot lines are laced with overt sexual activities. Some may argue that it's gratuitous, but I would respond that it works effectively with the overall tone and themes of the novel.
What is Gnosticism, the reader may ask. One needn't wait long as Peppe provides his definition early in the story. "We hold that there are two equally-matched powers in the universe, one good and the other evil, and these are perpetually at war with one another. The good power created spirit, while the evil power created matter. Matter...corporeal form, the body, flesh, is evil...The devil (or at least a devil) created this world and it is hell."… (meer)