Seven Types of Magnificence

Last April I wrote a blog about a fantastic novel called the "The Book of Joe" by Jonathan Tropper, and said that it was the best non-Stephen King book I had read in my life. It's no secret that I adore the works of Mr. King, and that he is perhaps responsible for my love of literature. In fact the only book(s) I would call an "experience" to read would be his Dark Tower saga (particularly book IV)....until now. I recently had the good fortune to come across a novel in Barnes and Nobles by Australian Yid Elliot Perlman called "Seven Types of Ambiguity". I had never heard of it, and the only reason I bought it was because the brief plot summary seemed appealing to me. I figured "What the hell? Could be OK". Of course I was wrong. I didn't think that the novel would be utterly brilliant and even life altering, but by the time I was 30 pages into the book I knew that I was on the verge of discovering something truly special. And by the time I came to the novels satisfying conclusion I couldn't deny the fact that I had just read the best book I had ever read (with the lone debatable exception of "DT IV: Wizard and Glass",but the two books are so different it would be a waste of time to even bother comparing).

One might read "Ambiguity" and the first adjective that comes to mind might be "thought- provoking". Another might say "suspenseful". Yet another might say "touching". "Emotional", "witty", "disturbing", "intense", "illuminating", "powerful" etc... any, and all of these descriptions would be 100% correct. The novel is that damn good, and it packs that strong of a punch.

I'm sure you are wondering what it's about. Well it's a bit complicated but I'll do my best to give a brief summary. The story is told in seven parts with 7 different narrators, each with his/her own story that parleys into the main tale of the book. The protagonist is a handsome, 32-year-old out of work teacher named Simon. Simon was dumped by Anna 10-years-ago. He still hasn't gotten over her. Anna is married to a man named Joe, and they have a son named Sam who has a very unlikely encounter with Simon one day. Joe sees a kindly, morose prostitute named Angelique once a week. Angela (her real name) is madly in love with Simon. Simons father pays for him to start seeing a therapist, Alex. Soon Alex and Simon become best friends instead of doctor-patient. Angela also becomes friends with Alex. Joe is working on a major deal at work involving the restructuring of National Healthcare in Australia. Alex is the most vocal opponent of this switch in the media, and could be a major thorn for Joe. And to top it all off Simon decides to kidnap Sam one day.
It's similar to "Magnolia" and "Crash"without the race themes and the frogs. I'm sure from my gushing you can tell how much I loved this novel and I do hope you read it as well. It was the second time in my life that I can call reading a book an experience (sorry Ms. Rowling). I took my time with the novel, in order to absorb the sensationalism of it. And the month I spent reading it will be specially bookmarked in my life.

Now there is one big problem with reading a book as amazing as "Ambiguity" : it ruins the enjoyment level and appreciation of subsequent novels read in the near future. A friend of mine, my mother, and my sister have all been ooohing and ahhhhing over Jodi Picoult recently, particularly the novel "My Sister's Keeper", so I gave it a gander...even if it is a bit of chic-book. Now this novel tells an excellent story, and for the most part is well written (my main critiques on Picoult is that some of her metaphors and analogies are contrived and lame, and like Perlman she keeps switching narration, but she also switches the font with the narrator, which I think is highly unnecessary. Give the reader more credit, and give the book more class. Going to italics is fine, but keep the same font.) But as good as "Keeper" may be, it is completely out of "Ambiguity's" league. It's almost like comparing Shakespeare to Dan Brown. Both are popular writers, both tell engaging stories, but c'mon...
Perhaps had I not been graced with Perlman's novel I would be holding Picoult on a higher madreygah (though for the record I think Troppers novels are sharper, and clearly she's no King). But as it is she had the unfortunate luck of being the girl who followed Brian Regan (or perhaps Jerry Seinfeld for the comic impaired out there) in front of a sold out crowd at Caroline's. One could do a lot worse than "My Sister's Keeper", but no better than "Seven Types of Ambiguity".