Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy
After reading gushing reviews of this book over and over, I couldn't help but want to read it and judge for myself. Luckily, it was posted on Net Galley by Harper Collins and I snatched the ebook up. The power of book bloggers to sell each other and others on books and authors is so strong. I was pulled to this book by that strong force.
Three people move to Athens Greece to try to come to terms with their lives thus far. You could call them lost souls. Rebecca was raised with her sister by their grandfather, in the south of France. Their mother abandoned them with him when they were young. She comes to Athens to find inspiration and paint.
George is from New England. He grew up mostly in a boarding school, where he was dumped. His passions are translating ancient languages and alcohol. He indulges in a lot of both in Athens.
Henry is an archaeologist and has come to Athens with his best friend/ mentor / professor/ father figure on a digging expedition.
All three have one thing in common, past issues that they are having trouble coming to terms with. All three eventually meet and share a bond that can't be severed or can it?
Booy uses very unusual narrative voices in his writing. The first part is first person, through the eyes of a child. Then he switches to second person. I remember a kid in elementary school who wrote a story in second person narrative and got an F. The teacher hung up his paper in the classroom for us all to see an example of how not to write. That set my prejudice against this style early on.
At first I struggled with this abrupt change in narrative voice. However, I could not deny that the writing was fresh and beautiful:
"The kitchen floor is unswept. Gossamer sleeves of fallen garlic lie undisturbed where the linoleum meets the cupboard. Rebecca once sat at the table drinking tea with both hands. You shared baklava from the same dish. You remember that first night. The thick cream. Taking your cigarette. The long walk home. A missing book. Unceasing heat. Her body stretching out under you like a map of your life to come."
It did take me about ten pages to really get use to this narrative voice but then I got lost in the beauty of the writing. The section after that was in epistolary narrative voice. I usually enjoy that however the letters weren't formatted properly to my ereader, which made it near impossible to read many of them. I would be able to decipher snippets here and there to get the gist but not the entire story. I hope that issue has been resolved for people who purchase the ebook.
Over all, I loved this book. the writing was incredible and so creative. It almost felt like I was reading a book for the first time. I must read more by Simon Van Booy!
4.5/5
Also reviewed by:
Did I miss your review? Please leave the link in the comments.
Tweet
Posts
