The Testament of Yves Gundron

by Emily Barton

A novel about the advance of modernity on the peaceful and unprepared people of Mandragora explores the complex role of technology in our lives.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Book Club

305 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Emily Barton has written three novels so far. Her first, THE TESTAMENT OF YVES GUNDRON, called "blessedly post-ironic, engaging, and heartfelt" by Thomas Pynchon, won the Bard Fiction Prize and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. In reviewing BROOKLAND, Joan Acocella of "The New Yorker" wrote that Barton creates alternate worlds "out of Calvino or Borges." Barton's third novel, THE BOOK OF ESTHER, just hit the shelves in June of 2016. Writing for "The New York Times Book Review," novelist Dara Horn calls it "as addicting as a Jewish 'Game of Thrones.'"

Barton is the recipient of an artist's grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband, sons, and a cat.

Reviews

[Bucket]

I was hooked from the beginning, but I haven't been so disappointed in an ending in a long, long time. The book literally just stopped. I didn't need everything to turn out perfect, I just needed to know how things turn out. As well, the lack of an ending makes it so that Ruth's footnotes on Yves' story make no sense. When is she writing these footnotes and why? Is she publishing his testament? The author had that perfect opening to give Ruth the ending and she didn't use it. Throughout the bulk of the story though, I was definitely engrossed. I liked the way I could feel for Ruth (as a person in the modern world) and see her as a stranger (through the eyes of Yves) at once. The language was occasionally too flowery, but this fit with the "Mandragoran style".

Themes: tradition, family, the effects of modern society, invention, seeing visions, strangers

[Marc Kozak]

This is a pretty interesting and unique book that was a really fun read, but I think a reader's enjoyment of it is in direct correlation to how much you're willing to suspend your disbelief. There are some fine themes and viewpoints here, but if you're the type of person who simply cannot focus on anything other than the seemingly obvious impossibilities of the environment, then you may end up throwing this book into a local chasm.

I don't think I'm spoiling anything by giving away the premise here: we are introduced to a small primitive farming village, whose entire universe revolves around farming. There's no time for anything as simple as contemplation, because they gotta get the crops in before winter. When I say primitive, I mean primitive: at the beginning of the book, our narrator tells us of his invention that will change the course of history -- a harness for the horse. Before that, everyone just had their horses die routinely because they tried to get them to pull a cart that was heavy. So you get an idea of where these people are at in terms of technology.

So this little tale is going on and it's nice, and just when you're about to get bored, Barton throws a big twist in there; one that isn't so surprising maybe, but necessary to what comes next. What follows is a little predictable, but still very readable, resulting in some excellent character work and decent intrigue. I was going to write more here, but am starting to realize that maybe giving away the plot twist is a bad idea, even if it does make the rest of the book hard to talk about.

At any rate, it's a nice story about the price of progress -- the novel, almost a fable, serves to ask what is the price of moving forward so quickly? Are some things that are lost in the forward thrust precious enough to fight for? It was interesting for me personally, because I've always been a "yes, the future sounds awesome, let's get there ASAP please, any and all cool technologies that can be implemented, the sooner the better" kind of guy. But in this pursuit, Barton argues, we are leaving some important things behind. The money quote comes towards the end of the book: "There was no shame in this life, no lack of work and entertainments; but it had somehow ceased to be enough."

It's a cool story and an entertaining read, but as I said -- be warned: your mileage may vary based on how well you take the plot twist.

[Adam]

I think I found this book in a library book sale. It was pretty much a random impulse buy - sometimes these work out well, and sometimes they're terrifying.

This was the first, and not the latter. Charlie may not agree with me - I believe his descriptive was "I just couldn't get into it", or some such nonsense - but I enjoyed this book.

A small town in a small country, seemingly in a simpler time. Before harnesses. Before horsecarts as we understand them. Before any and all technology that we take for granted.
This book chronicles what happens as Yves, one of the main characters and a simple farmer, begins to dream of new ways to do things. He becomes an inventor, much to the alternating delight and chagrine of his fellow townsfolk, and improves his farming, his cart, and a great deal more.

Whether or not advancement and newness is to truthfully be considered an improvement remains to be seen, however. This book's reader experiences something of a tearing, a push and pull between wanting to thrill with Yves in his new discoveries and, also, to help him (and everyone else who experiences them) to forget any of them ever existed. His world, his town, his country - they all seem simple and peaceful in a way this world has forgotten and/or degraded ages ago, and some part of the reader aches for them to stay that way.

As it turns out, this world is not too far at all from the world of Yves, as is found out in ways both fascinating and heartbreaking. The outside world, unaware of Yves' country, suddenly becomes aware, much by accident, of who Yves is and just where and how his countrymen live and function.

This can be a magical and tragic book if you let it. I'd recommend doing so.

[Elaine]

This is a strange book. It took me a long time to get into it, but by after 100 or so pages I couldn't put it down. One sticking point was the patent impossibility of a culture which is Christian, but which didn't even know that one could harness a horse. Moreover, this culture is in the British Isles!! Actually, the Indo-Europeans at least 7000 years ago had both harnesses and bridles, and Christianity is far younger than that. But finally the entire premise sinks in and one suspends one's disbelief. What is the point of the book? Well, art doesn't necessarily say anything new, but what it says must be fashioned in new language. Unless I've grossly misunderstood Ms. Barton, this tale shows that invention brings irrevocable change, and many people don't want that change, even if it is ultimately beneficial. They value the old ways because they understand them and make sense of the world through them. Change is unsettling.

The narrator speaks with the voice of wonder, the voice of innocence and faith as he reflects upon his life and also mourns what is happening to it, partly because of his own inventions.

[Evonne]

a well told story with fun language and readability to boot.

disclosure: suspension of disbelief is needed.

it would have been cool to see Emily touch upon the agriculture aspects (implications of agriculture development) more in depth - i'd like to see her comment on our own agriculture. but i think that would make for too sluggish a tale and it was the right choice to display things as needed.

there are spots where this is clearly one person's view on their lives in Mandragora. there was some omission here and there - unanswered questions. that's fine considering this is Yves' tale.

i thoroughly enjoyed this and the comment on modernity vs the simple life - i'm not sure the author picks a side necessarily but shows what sacrifices are made to achieve modernity. or what is given up in pursuit of the simple.

i was expecting a horrid ending due to the reviews here but i found the ending extremely fitting. i wonder that the testament is written to record the last bits of their lives as they knew it.

[Chloe]

This book promises wit and inventiveness but gets too wrapped up in itself to fully deliver. There are some great descriptions of burnt toast and large frame backpacks from the perspective of an isolated farmer whose village could've existed in the middle ages.

But by the end I felt like I was plodding. It's still worth it, though, and I plan to read Brookland, Emily Barton's more recent novel.

As a side note, I heard Emily Barton speak at Paragraph and was totally impressed by how unassuming and smart she is. She woke up at 5am every morning to write the Testament of Yves Gundron! Plus she is a yoga instructor AND she learned everything about bridge making that was known in the 18th century in order to write Brookland.

[Rebecca]

Wow! I so enjoyed this book. I loved getting into the world of Yves and reading about his inventions. I loved the anthropologist, even though I could see early on she was unwittingly injecting herself into the lives of her subjects.
I wonder-How long had they been there? Were they isolated from the beginning? How did they forget what they knew? Where did they get a lump of sugar? Where did the first orange come from? Who was Rose? And where did those songs come from?

[Alexis]

What a sweet, unique novel. Set in a mythical village completely untouched by modernization, which is discovered by an anthropology student. Yves Gundron is the town inventor, and this is his testament to life as it was, as he anticipates with fear the changes ahead. I enjoyed the characters and the tension between the past and the future.

[Linda]

The story begins with the thoughts of a young man living in an undeveloped faming community where they lose horses at an appalling rate because they throw a rope around their necks and have them pull large loads, subsequently choking them to death ... ?!? When this young man comes up with in "invention" he calls the harness, the community deem him a genius. He continues to invent useful things and life seems good. One day a young woman wanders into their community ... a Cambridge student studying anthropology and the ripples from her appearance grow fast and wide as the community discovers there is a world they never imagined ... dishwashers, airplanes, automobiles. Makes one wonder about what has been lost in our drive toward progress.

[Max Eichelberger]

I finished the book on a flight to Phoenix, I spent some time looking at old photos and feeling nostalgic. My mom texted me to get my dad a putter for Christmas.

The first 100 pages were amazing and reminded me of Jean Giono. The second 100 lost the point, and the third act was a mess — too bad an editor didn’t come along and take off the last 50.

[Shiela]

Don’t know what genre to categorize this book. Confusing and slow in the beginning and difficult to accept some of the situations but the interesting characters keeps you reading. Thoughtful.

[Eva Kristin]

This book managed something few has, to turn me completely around. In the beginning I didn’t like it at all, and was thinking about just putting it away unfinished. Luckily I continued, because this book is very special.

Yves is the village inventor, and he comes up with a small improvement in their technology. One thing leads to another, and it ends up changing the way his society lives in ways he did not imagine, and does not want. As someone who doesn’t like change a lot, I really feel for him.

The history is not new. A small, isolated and old-fashioned society gets contacted by the wider world, and it starts changing, and, some might argue, not for the better. What makes this story so interesting is that the isolates society isn’t a tribe in the Amazonas, but a European one that just got left behind as times moved on. Their culture is not strange and hard to understand and value, it’s just outdated. And since I don’t like change, it was easy for me to get nostalgic for a time when life was both easier and harder than now.

Another thing that annoyed me in the beginning but I ended up liking a lot, is how it is impossible to place the village of Mandragora in time and place. They have plows and weaving, but not two wheeled carts. They talk about being north Scotland, but have droughts in summer. And people’s names sound French, Dutch, German and Russian. This could be anywhere and anytime.

I am of two minds about the ending. In one way I want to know what’s going to happen now, but in another way I’m happy I don’t have to.

[Robert Wechsler]

This certainly fits my preference for fiction that is odd, but told in a matter-of-fact way. The novel is the story of a lost little world in the valley of one of the Scottish Hebrides, and what happens when it is found by one anthropologist, told by one of its few inhabitants who knows how to read and write.

It isn’t the story that makes the novel, but Gundron’s voice and view of life, his feelings about and for Ruth, and all the odd little details that make up the world. The events are mostly ridiculous, as are the other characters, but they are not too broadly comical, and they are told and described from within the world, but by someone who is not entirely of it, since he is an inventor and has a brother who has traveled to the outside world.

Barton makes her own rules in her novel, and they work. This alone is worth the read. It’s a singular novel. One wonders what she will do next, at least after the apparently more straightforward historical novel that followed this.

[Jeanne]

As a one time student of folklore, this is an interesting book. It's the story of a man and a community cut off from the rest of the world. Like the movie The Village, it was a conscious choice of people who were not happy with how the world was progressing. Their descendants, however, do not know that their life is different from people in the outside world with whom there is almost no contact.

A woman comes to study the group and inadvertantly puts into motion a series of events, led by an inventive farmer. Change comes crashing (at times literally) into the community. In the end, individuals must decide what is best for themselves and their families and just how much change is enough.

[Jennifer Hudak]

This was an unexpected pleasure. Not at all what I expected! I thought, from the jacket cover and from a brief synopsis I'd read, that it was going to be some kind of trippy, post-modern exploration of language, culture, etc. And I like that kind of thing! But this turned out to be very quiet, very straightforward, not at all trippy or postmodern -- just a great story. I really sunk into it, and I still find myself thinking about it.

[Literary Mama]

"A recent winner of a grant from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, she talked with Literary Mama's Editor-in-Chief Caroline Grant about getting dusty while teaching, writing a novel on request, and why -- although she loves writing about new technologies -- she might like to un-invent the Internet."

Read Literary Mama's full interview with Emily Barton here: http://www.literarymama.com/profiles/...

[Anna]

A moving, mysterious and playful first novel, Testament hits on many lofty themes - technology, superstition, "progress", the value of truth versus myth - but ultimately returns to personal ones, like love, family obligations and the meaning of home. Barton deploys magical realistic elements deftly, weaving a dreamy yarn that the reader nevertheless believes in. I always enjoy this book.

[Jennifer]

Written like a field study with footnotes by anthropologist Ruth Blum, this is a study of a group of people living in primitive conditions in an untouched village in the waters off Scotland. Ruth's struggle not to contaminate the village get corny -- CAPTAIN KIRK, REMEMBER THE PRIME DIRECTIVE!!! -- But what happens next is fun.

[Giselda]

A fascinating project--sort of fictive anthropology. A somewhat slow read.

[Chris Johnson]

Not as good as Brookland by the same author, which was amazing, but a good read nonetheless.

BTW, this was her first novel, Brookland her second, I'm looking forward to the third.

[Allison]

One of my all time favorites. Loved the concept of a civilization that had regressed to a more primitive time.

[Notcathy J]

The author went to Harvard.

[Jennifer]

This book is magical. The world is unfamiliar and familiar at the same time.I can't recommend it more for adventurous readers, especially readers of historical fiction.

[Marvin]

A rich, charming, unusual fable on the unexpected consequences of progress, with much insight on one's sense of vocation, spirituality, & leisure.

[Joe Frisino]

Beautifully written. Anything I might say about it would give too much away.