The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is a very peculiar sort of animal.

I have always been a sucker for annotated novels. They are the original basis for all of those bells and whistles you find on ritzy dvd films. I love finding out what a writer was thinking, where a scene took place, the history of an object that the protagonist is holding - all of that useless interesting trivial back-data.

I dig it.

So looking at this book with its pages of illuminated/annotated story I couldn't wait to take it home.

Well, actually, if you want the truth of it, this book was recommended to me by a bookstore employee - who knew that I dug "illustrated" novels (such as Sherman Alexie's very-cool "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian").

So I was the victim of a drug deal. She waved the needle and I stuck it in my eye.

The book is a very fine read - by spells. It is a little uneven in quite a few spots.

What I loved about it was the way the author wove the backstory into the annotations. There is a whole plotline going on through all of these maps and illustrations and notes - so don't skip them.

I loved his poignant fanciful text. Almost whimsical in spots. Still, the author left a lot to be desired.

The plotline was decidely erratic. This is a road story without much of a road. The protagonist, twelve-year-old cartographer Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet, receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian. So he decides to travel to Washington, DC to accept the award that he has been given.

The bulk of his journey takes place on a freight train, traveling hobo-style. Now I am a sucker for hobo stories, but this one checked out. While the protagonist was traveling by freight train - the bulk of the narrative consists of a journal that he is reading. He might as well have been traveling by Greyhound Bus. It feels a little cheap, a sort of a cop-out, and I felt a little cheated.

Of course, the journal does have a little to do with the story - but very little. It just felt as if the author had this chunk of writing that he wanted to shoehorn into the book to pad things up.

I bought the book in a children's bookstore but I have to wonder whether or not the rambling whimsy of this narrative would hold the attention of all but the most discerning of young readers. I feel this book is more aimed towards grown-ups who are trying to recollect the feeling of how it was to live in a child's imagination.

It was an interesting read that left me wondering - not a bad state for a book to leave me in - but I still have mixed feelings about recommending this.

If you are a fan of old school yarning, tinged with a bit of absurd realism, then you might enjoy this book. If you are more comfortable with a straight-ahead storyline and a plot that makes perfect sense you might want to look elsewhere.

Fans of the movie BIG FISH will most likely enjoy this novel. I dug BIG FISH, so I guess I dig T.S. Spivet - but I still wonder if maybe the author needed to put a little more elbow grease into what was a fine read.

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon

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