The Mayor's Tongue

by Nathaniel Rich

The Mayor's Tongue is a bold, vertiginous debut novel that unfolds in two narratives, one following a young man and the other an old man. The young man is Eugene Brentani, a devotee of the reclusive author and adventurer Constance Eakins, who goes to Trieste to find the girl he loves, who has in turn gone there herself to find Eakins.The old man is Mr. Schmitz, whose wife is dying, and who longs to confide in his dear friend Rutherford. But Rutherford has disappeared, and his letters, postmarked from Italy, become more and more ominous as the weeks pass.In separate but resonating story lines, both men's adventures take them from New York City to the mountains of northern Italy, where the line between reality and imagination begins to blur and stories take on a life of their own. Here, we are immersed in Rich's vivid, enchanting world full of captivating characters-the despairing Enzo who wanders looking for a nameless love; the tiny, doll-like guide, Lang; and the grotesque Eakins. Over this strange, spectral landscape looms the Mayor, a mythic and monstrous figure considered a 'beautiful creator' by his townspeople, whose pull ultimately becomes irresistible.From a young writer of exceptional promise, this exhilarating novel is a meditation on the frustrations of love, the madness of mayors, the failings of language and the transformative powers of storytelling.

Genres: Fiction, Literature, Novels, Literary Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Nathaniel Rich is an American novelist and essayist. He is the author of Losing Earth: A Recent History, which received awards from the Society of Environmental Journalists and the American Institute of Physicists and was a finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award; and the novels King Zeno, Odds Against Tomorrow, and The Mayor's Tongue. He is a writer-at-large at the New York Times Magazine and a regular contributor to Harper's and the New York Review of Books. His next book, Second Nature: Scenes from a World Remade, will be published in late March. Rich lives in New Orleans.

Reviews

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

i loved it then didn't then loved it then didn't and then loved it up until the last page and then didn't.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book opens up with a great deal of promise. We are quickly introduced to two stories. In one, we meet Eugene (probably the protagonist, though I'll explain in a minute why that may be a misnomer) and his friend Alvaro, a man from a region of the Dominican Republic who speaks only a dialect unknown to anyone else and no English. Alvaro and Eugene somehow communicate despite the fact that neither can understand a word the other says--though as the reader sees in translation, they're not always clear on what the other is saying, leading to some amusing interactions. Eugene and Alvaro both work for a moving company in New York. Eugene, as it turns out (and the author's failure to explain this point irks me) wrote his college thesis on a prolific writer named Constance Eakins, and is portrayed as being well overqualified for a job as a mover. Nevertheless, through his moving job, Eugene meets Abe Chisholm, who claims to be a close friend of the recently-declared-deceased Eakins, who has been missing for 30 years since last being seen in Italy. Chisholm is working on a biography of Eakins, and hires Eugene on for help, providing Eugene at the same time the opportunity to meet and quickly fall in love with his daughter, Alison (who--quite frustratingly--is referred to by the author with at least five different names over the course of the book). Alison runs off to Italy to try to track down Eakins, and Eugene is left deciding whether to follow after.

In the other story, two friends, Schmitz and Rutherford, meet for daily discussions about their past adventures in the army while stationed in Italy, while avoiding conversations about Schmitz's unhappy marriage or the mystery of Rutherford's Italian love who died in some unknown fashion not long after their romance began, leaving Rutherford's heart broken. This story is much less developed and interesting than the first, and I will dwell on it no longer at present.

I began this book by absolutely loving the concept of two friends--Alvaro and Eugene--who talk to each other all the time and who have an understanding between each other without every really knowing a single word the other is saying. That's an excellent concept. Alas, the book tumbles downhill from there. The author tells his story with a sort of magical realism, entwining myth and the supernatural with the course of the story. But he never explores the connection of his mythical characters--wood sprites and an Italian mountain demon--with the story he's telling. They show up as tangents and quickly disappear after fleeting glimpses that are left hanging and unaddressed by the time the book ends.

More frustrating is the arc of the two stories the author is telling here. One would expect that when an author writes a single novel with two storylines, that those lines will at some point connect and entwine in a meaningful way before the end of the book. Well, not so here. Other than crossing into the same region of the world late in the book, the stories have absolutely nothing to do with one another. I think it would have been just as well to drop the Schmitz-Rutherford story entirely: it's not that interesting and nothing would have been loft from Eugene's adventure.

The title of the book is also left shrouded in mystery. I won't explore this area to closely, lest I give anything away to future readers (not that I recommend anyone actually bother becoming one), but suffice it to say that there are at least four separate things in the book that might be referred to by the title "Mayor's Tongue." And when it comes right down to it, each meaning has very little to do with the others. So which is it?

Finally--and once again I am constrained by my desire not to ruin anything for those of you who brave this book despite my warnings--the ending is disappointingly lackluster and implausible. That's all I can say without making this into a spoiler.

Ultimately, this book is about language, communication, and the power of stories over people and even over reality. Alas, these promising themese are lost along the way when the stories in this book seemingly twist out of the author's control and beyond the reader's interest. As I said, this book started out strong, but it progressively lost steam until it puttered meekly into its disappointing conclusion. Nathaniel Rich may have potential--he provides some glimpses of it, surely--but it is lost on this particular effort.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm giving this one 5 stars. It's really beautifully written and I was able to fall into Rich's imagination. It kind of reminded me of that movie Big Fish....where it's kind of absurd and crazy...but that's kind of what books should be all about right? Falling away into the pages.

The story centers around two story lines, one about a young boy who is chasing after a girl he loves and then an old man trying to deal with a friend who left as well as his wife passing away.

So..yeah...kinda strange, beautifully written and in the end a good story.

[Loretta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this. It started out very promising - I really thought I'd hit on a major new favourite writer discovery. And then it seriously fizzled in the middle, and the ending was a really big meh. The writing is lovely, and the elements of magic realism which became more prominent as the plot moved on were intriguing at first but ultimately fell flat.

I would read something else by this author; but I didn't love this as much I hoped I would in the first few chapters.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The two different stories in this novel -- one of a friendship between two old men, another about a young man whose crush takes him far from home -- are initially great reads. I like the way Rich writes (no flowery language or snide asides here, just straight storytelling) and you wonder how and where these two tales will intertwine. The problem is the conclusion of the book. I won't give anything away, but needless to say after all that buildup the "twist" is a letdown. Rich's ending is both confusing and much too tidy. If he'd put as much thought into the end as he did to the beginning of "The Mayor's Tongue" this could have been an excellent read. As it stands, though, it's just a fun one. And on a superficial level, the cover art is the best I've seen in a long time. It looks like a cool old poster.

[Celeste Ng]

Near the beginning of the Mayor’s Tongue, a young man named Eugene reads a novella by his idol, the legendary author Constance Eakins. “[It:] was typical Eakins,” Eugene reflects, “a strange reality that bordered on fantasy, an exotic locale, larger-than-life characters.” He might have been describing The Mayor’s Tongue itself, a book so dizzyingly rich with surprises that no review could—or should—describe them all.

Read the rest of my review at Fiction Writers Review.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book revolves around the stories of two separate protagonists leading them both to the same mystical Italian mountainside. Solid for much of the book, it seems to lose focus towards the end. One of the stories was stronger than the other, leading to a lop-sided feel. The 'alternating chapters between stories' style sometimes lead to alot of re-reading to recalibrate how each storyline last ended.

[Kimberley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rushed ending was a shame, could have been an ok read apart from that.

[Tex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Abandoned. Just couldn't keep up with all the story-within-a-story plot lines. ALMOST interesting, but ultimately it feels good to drop this one.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's so much to admire about Rich's writing that I wish I'd enjoyed the book more. He's extremely inventive and extremely smart. His writing is well-informed and well-researched. With this novel, I feel like he took a big swing, writing both male and female characters, characters of different ages, settings both near and far (New York City, the Adriatic coast of Italy). The novel seems inspired by DeLillo and Pynchon. It wants to be a Big Book. Eugene is a lowly furniture mover working in New York with a Puerto Rican immigrant named Alvaro. Though best friends, Eugene can't really understand Alvaro because of his dialect. Eugene is an avid reader and fan of reclusive writer Eakins, a recluse, a cross between Pynchon and Hemingway. Eugene ends up working for Eakins' biographer, Abe, meets and falls in love with Abe's lovely daughter, who departs for Italy to meet Eakins. Eugene trails Abe's daughter to a section of Italy on the Adriatic called the Carso and meets Eakins himself. Eakins has become the mayor of a strange, mythical town that reminded me of the town in "Big Fish." There's also an alternating story with Mr. Schmitz, a mild-mannered former insurance executive, and Rutherford, a bolder personality, a food critic. The two met in Italy during the war and remained lifelong friends. The theme of "The Mayor's Tongue" seems to be about stories--giving voice to your story, larger-than-life stories, the way we as readers and writers come to feel as though the characters are real. One issue I had with the novel is that Alvaro was so lovingly depicted in the opening sections that I was sad to see this character discarded when Eugene set out for Italy. Alvaro became little more than a plot mechanism, a way to advance the story. When there are alternating stories, the reader expects them to intersect at some point, but they don't really do that here. They come close, but Mr. Schmitz and Rutherford never meet Eugene or Eakins. This is an intellectual novel, a novel of ideas, that tries very hard, but despite the elegance of the sentences and erudition of the author, there is no real tension. The relationships are underdeveloped. The only thing truly at stake seems to be Alvaro's marriage, which is forgotten, along with Alvaro, early on. Eakins, ultimately a grotesque dictator and, throughout "The Mayor's Tongue," a man of ravenous and often immoral appetites, becomes (spoiler alert) the victor here, leaving the reader with the theme that the creation of writing is more valuable than what we destroy or enslave in the process.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Mayor's Tongue, by Nathaniel Rich, is a bit of trickster of a novel. It lets you think it is a straightforward, linear (though it is in a way), realist (yes then no) book at first, then it starts slowly pulling that rug from underneath you. What's left is a playful novel about writing and stories, and how those can become more real to you than actual reality. The book is bifurcated, with two separate storylines and characters that don't overlap in any obvious ways. The main(?) storyline is about Eugene, a directionless, young man who is translating a story by his friend Alvaro, who speaks a very distinct dialect. Even though they barely understand each other, they still (try to) communicate. Eugene begins working for a man who is writing the biography of his favorite author, Constance Eakins, an author with a prolific oeuvre, but who hasn't published anything in 30 years since disappearing into the mountains of Italy 30 years prior. But his biographer doesn't believe it, so he sends his daughter, Alison, whom Eugene falls in love with, to find him. When she disappears, Eugene is sent, falling down a rabbit hole of oddities, culminating in a visit to a surreal town filled with recognizable (but how?) characters. The other story is that of two old friends, Mr. Schmitz and Rutherford. When Mr. Schmitz's wife dies, and with Rutherford having moved to Italy, Mr. Schmitz goes to find his friend, only to discover the ultimate in communication failure. So why these two stories together? Both are about trying to understanding, and failing to, those in our lives, and how we try to overcome that, sometimes with even more stories and layers of (mis)understandings. In this, Rich creates a modern take on a fairytale in a way. How much of this literary tongue you understand is about as much as Eugene understands. It's never dull, as all good stories should be.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different kind of story

The blending of two characters' stories as they traveled from New York to Italy becomes confusing, but I think that is Rich's intent. There is a blurring of the lines between fiction and reality, with the actual fictional characters of whom the fictional authors are writing come to life. They make up an entire city in the case of one author. I was intrigued enough to finish it, but sometimes the reader felt as lost as the characters.

[v · Rating 3 out of 5]

plot, pacing, development// characters, writing

I love how I’ve taken an Italian class for two years, then I just completed another semesters worth of Italian classes and still couldn’t understand the barest of Italian conversation here 😳

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out great, but 1/3 of the way in, a vortex of sub-stories spun out of control. I hung on for almost 200 pages. Finally, I gave up. Such a relief to put it down.

[Paolo · Rating 1 out of 5]

La voce del sindaco 5 - ma di che parla? Noia mortale

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very odd book… feel like the plot was missing key details. Didn’t love the ending.

[Isabella Macchia · Rating 2 out of 5]

No closure except for an old guy leaving his old guy best friend on the top of a mountain to die. Got better towards the end but all I can say is ???? Didn’t love this one

[Belinda Nicoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed this fast-paced yet dream-like novel about exotic characters and tangled relationships. The Washington Times describes it as "part fable, part magical realism, with a touch of the grotesque." I'd like to offer a review of a different kind since I have the pleasure of knowing the author. In the second semester of my MFA in Creative Fiction program, Nathaniel Rich was my mentor.

Nathaniel studied at Yale University, worked on the editorial staff of The New York Review of Books and as editor of The Paris Review, wrote San Francisco Noir (a guide to more than forty film noirs and the locations where they were shot) and The Mayor’s Tongue (a novel about a man’s obsessive quest, a book that’s been described as weird, funny, and moving). Nathaniel has lived in San Francisco and New York City, and currently lives in New Orleans. I liked this accomplished young writer straightaway; he has a wonderful mop of unruly hair and the great gift for being a friend and mentor without compromising either role.

Nathaniel seems to like stories with a fast pace and oddball characters on harrowing quests. His critiques tend to contain wisdom relating to plot: for instance, “Every detail should be relevant to the action of the scene at hand.” I'm looking forward to more from this great author.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like Tom Robbins without the humorous sarcasm. Inkheart-like characters but ones that tease with possibility and dissapoint rather than fascinate. The predictive fatalism and tortured relationships of The Shadow of the Wind without the dramatic tension. Overall, read any of these other three if you are tempted by The Mayor's Tongue unless you want to read the excellent dialogue that anchors the bellcurves of the story. Perhaps this forte is where the author's talent really should be concentrated? The dialogue between the pairs of: Eugene and Alvaro, Eugene and Abe, Schmitz and Rutherford is good bordering on great, but it is sandwiched between some OTT grotesque descriptive passages and lame attempts at spicing things up with voyeuristic sex.

Overall a time sink not an entertainment.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this novel impulsively on sale and had few expectations. It is a fairly whimsical fantastical book with a few interwoven stories about men seeking meaning, love, and friendship. Of course, because these characters are men, they make mistakes of foolishness, arrogance, and ignorance that lead to moments of humor and sadness. One story follows a young man who follows a young woman to an Italian alpine land of make-believe. A second story follows a different man who follows a friend to the same Italian alpine setting many years before. It was generally easy to follow as the story skipped around, and I was struck by how well the characters were developed in each of the storylines given that it skipped around. I found myself wanting more of the latter story than the former story by the end, so I'm glad the book wasn't another 100 pages. If you've found yourself in a rut of reading the same thing over and over, this will definitely not conform to whatever's been on your bookshelf as of late.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is so elegantly written, the tale unfolds in alternating chapters, each progressing two separate story lines that slowly unfurl an enchanting world hidden just bellow the monotony of daily life.

The novel is slightly lopsided, the narrative seemed to favor the young man on the precipice of love. I was surprisingly not distracted by this disharmony because I found the alternate tale, lifelong friends now in their old age, was balanced significantly by deeper emotional resonance.

The two intertwined stories accented one another just well enough to make me wonder what was going on in the other world without ever making me feel like I had to suffer through one story line just to read the other.

Certainly a whimsical novel, I would recommend it to anyone who cared to ask. I was reminded of the wonder and delight I felt reading fairy tales as a child ... in a kingdom far far away, that sort of thing ... but this is assuredly crafted to delight the cynical adult.

[Cyra Regina · Rating 2 out of 5]

A unique novel for me. Story inside another story. Full of imaginations, I can say. But it didn't quite impressed me. I guess I liked Mr.Schmitz and Rutherford's friendship story more than that of Eugene searching for Eakins and/or Sonia. At first, Eugene's story excites me, but when Alison/Sonia/Alicia/Alice/Agatha went to Italy, and Eugene went over, it starts to confused me. It kinda baffled me a bit about the whole Eakins thing. I don't clearly understand its what, who, why, how....I also didn't like the ending of both stories. I was expecting that both stories will have a surprised ending like there will be a connection between the two, and the characters will meet or so. However, I guess it was a good job, though to Nathaniel Rich in creating two different stories in just one book-knowing that this was his first novel. :)

[Jennifer Hutchinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing is OK but the story is too complicated. It skips around so much, even within one characters storyline, that you feel that parts are missing. Then after reading it through to the end (only too see if the way it ended wrapped the story up in a way that would have changed my mind) you still don't have answers to the questions. One characters storyline kind of tied itself up but that's it. Eugene's weird roommate? Never explained. Rutherford's sudden illness? Never explained. If Alvaro was actually writing a letter or a story? Never explained. The weird kid hanging around Rutherford when he fell ill? No. See a pattern here? I purchased this book at the dollar store (for $1) and now I think I understand why it was there. Overall not the worst time spent but I feel like the author is a talented writer and he missed the mark here.

[Michael]

Full disclosure. I am a friend of Nat Rich.
This is a great book. It's two parallel but never joining stories about our need to communicate and the stubborn tendency of language that prevents us from fully doing so. And yet -- magical occurrences and improbable circumstances allow words to possess us as much as we might find it futile to possess them. In both stories there's a beautiful flow to the words -- unpretentious and sincere -- that makes the book a sort of product of its own thought, and for me the "second" story, the one seemingly unconnected to the story referred to by the book's title, assumed a forlorn, decaying, but beautiful quality not dissimilar to my man Samuel Beckett. Nat might not have had him in mind, but I'm sure he'll consider that a compliment.

[Roxytoddroxytodd]

A quick read. I really didn't want to think Rich was a good writer because he's grown up among the literary world. Therefore, everything has been handed to him. He already is editor for the Paris Review. Anyway, so I had my reservations about enjoying this book. But is was, despite what I wanted to believe, a good book. Not a complete book, but a folklorist book, very Salman Rushdie. Actually, I think it's interesting that Rushdie wrote a book this year that also takes place in Italy, sort of. I enjoyed the Mayor's tongue, because it was fun. I hope he writes more in the future, and he's so freakin young I guess he'll only get better. Even though it's so frustrating when people like that are good!

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nathaniel Rich aspires to the heights of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but falls far short. I will admit that I am a sucker for stories that explore the perseverance of human relationships despite (or because of) the barriers one must breach to communicate in a meaningful way. Unfortunately, Rich only highlights his inability to handle this challenge with needlessly confusing plot "twists" and excessively "whimsical" characters. Even the seeming protagonists' (Eugene and Mr. Schmitz) motivations remain unimpenetrable or perhaps simply shallow and uninteresting. In addition to the lack of substance masquerading as profundity, the story fails to convey its own fantastical logic and finishes an unfulfilling read.

[Shauntrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rich's style of writing is very poetic, which I enjoyed. The story itself was very weird. It was hard for me to follow in the beginning, but as I read on the picture was starting to become a bit clearer. I've read a few reviews on how there are two story lines about two men (Eugene's and Mr. Schmitz) that seem to end up nowhere, but I saw their endings in different ways. Mr. Schmitz's ending was sort of vague... and to me, it was indeed an ending because he seemed to finally release some feelings that he had been harboring for years. But Eugene's ending was actually his beginning. He was writing his own story, and he had no idea!! I felt that there were some loose ends in this novel, but I still enjoyed it. I love books that don't end the way that I imagine that they would.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

The obsession—magical and grotesque—that the best books generate in the most searching minds fuels both the plot and the style of The Mayor's Tongues. Beginning in Manhattan with the protagonist translating a book into English from a language he doesn't know and taking us into the dark, mythic mountains of Italy's northeastern coast, the novel uses the seductiveness of the printed word as both gateway and guide to high adventure. In a sense, The Mayor's Tongue is a book about books, yet to say that would be to deprive it of its firm hold on humanity and our sad romance with our memories and our possibilities.

[Robert Fleitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nathaniel Rich's fascinating debut makes me really anxious to see what he comes up with next. I picked this up for just 3 bucks at my local bookstore because I thought the cover looked cool, and I am really glad I did - the two winding narratives are both remarkably interesting and as the book goes along, I found myself more and more invested in the stories and their ultimate resolutions. If there's a problem with the book, it's that it takes a while to get into - though Rich's plot is unfathomably absorbing, his prose sometimes lacks sparkle and doesn't always keep the reader glued to the page. Nonetheless, it's a great debut and I can't wait to see how Rich follows it up.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Richly descriptive, but often in a way that is almost too visceral: like, eww. Fabulous when the stories blend and mesh, and intensely imaginative, but ultimately? I found it unfulfilling. Maybe this means I did not read deeply enough, though I certainly did try (I was in the mood for something deep, some creative storytelling). I also had trouble connecting to the characters, which can make reading deeply kind of tough.

Meh.