A Review - The Gargoyle - A novel by Andrew Davidson

“Andrew Davidson was born in Pinawa, Manitoba, and graduated in 1995 from the University of British Columbia with a B.A. in English literature.  He has worked as a teacher in Japan, where he has lived on and off, and as a writer of English lessons for Japanese websites.  The Gargoyle, the product of seven years’ worth of research and composition, is his first book.  Davidson lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.”

www.thegargoyle.com. 

The Gargoyle takes off fast and furious; I was hooked from the first page.  I love how Andrew Davidson writes, a memoir in fiction.  It's almost poetic in its delivery, not the flowery kind, but the 'hit in the gut' kind.  It's taken me aback a few times, whoa Nellie!  But this character is speaking in his language of truths.  You can't shy away from that.

Those were the words I spoke to Debbie Haupt, the moderator of her General Fiction Board, on the Barnes & Noble Book Club Forum.  My first impressions, as I started to read this novel, The Gargoyle.

The following are the words of a friend who posted to me on my Face book page while we were talking about the use of certain offensive expletives concerning another novel---:  “ i found the use of words and language much more offensive in the poorly written 'Gargoyle' book - one man's meat is another man's poison...

I am now going to try to explain how I feel about this novel, The Gargoyle, not as a defense, but simply as a love for this book, and for this writer, Andrew Davidson.  

There are moments in our history no one can explain, except as Déjà vu; we simply feel those moments enter our being, mostly unannounced, shake our heads, and continue to move forward in time.  We all have a history, but some histories are more explainable than other’s.  That’s what I will try to get across to you while I write this book review, a hopefully believable history of these people, and how they related to me.

The main character in this novel, and I stress the word novel, because it is definitely a work of fiction, was a character of first person, living in today’s world, giving you a knockdown, blow-by-blow, of what his life was like before, during, and after his “accident”; a life as a burn victim of grotesque proportions – To be believed, or not.  The work that this author put into the creating of his novel is spellbinding, just as seen in his acknowledgements of resources.  And as I’m trying to write this review, I can’t put a name to this “main character”.  I didn't think anything of it, while reading the story.  It didn't seem important.  So, why now?  I can’t find his name anywhere in this fictional memoir!

When I mentioned, “It’s almost poetic in its delivery”, I should have said it wasn't “almost”, it was exactly that, poetic.  The rhythms of the words, the words themselves; the heart, the feelings that came through to this reader from writer of first person, rendered my heart in two pieces at best, then and now. Time traveled, you traveled, in and out of over seven hundred years of history!  These stories are amazing!  Can you believe that you, or anyone, could exist to tell that story, and then connect them all together by two people?  I suppose if you have enough faith in love, with a strong belief system in the Divine Spirit, anything is possible – well, at least in this story it is, and all bound by their truth by this author.  
It’s believable for me.  It was spellbinding; it was grotesque, but alive and compelling in a strange sort of way.  It was real.  Somewhere down the line, we are told we’re dealing with the life of an aberrant pornographer.  He admits this to us in no uncertain terms.  In other words, details follow....I believe him.  This made me pause.  I asked myself, “Do I really want to read further”?   I said, yes, I had to, to understand who this person was, or is, and what this has to do with his story as a whole.  

We look at what it’s like being a writer, a scribe, an artist, a devoted individual, or atheist;  then we are plunged into the lives of the scum of the earth.  All are graphically depicted in this story.  We deal with subjects that few writers touch upon, the hell someone experiences after being burned alive.  These feelings are real to us, we grow to understand this person, whether in the real world, or fiction, no matter what time in history you want to place them, it becomes real.  This is a human life, experiencing things no one should have to experience, and then live to tell about that life in their story.  This author tells this story to us as if we are sitting right next to him, the main character with no name; whether in his hospital bed, through his rehabilitation process, living in the outside world, talking to people, or just dealing with his disfigured life as a human being in a world who can’t see beyond their own reality.  This story makes you think twice.
As I mentioned, it’s written in memoir form, and real emotions come through this story to the readers.  The laughs that were interjected throughout made it real.  I laughed, even at the expense of this character, because that’s how he wanted us to feel him.  The aloneness of depression and what it does to you, how it makes you think, of course I felt that too, but above all we can’t forget the love that carried us through this, by these characters, even through their pain, was nothing less than miraculous.

I’ll never know how Andrew Davidson accomplished the writing of his story, but he gives us something, nothing short of Powerful and Beautiful.  I call this literary genius.  This story, for me at least, was a story to be held on to, tightly, to truly understand its full contents and impact.  I laughed, I cried, I felt all the emotions which coursed through these five hundred pages, taking place throughout eras that reflect upon present time.  We can’t be here, now, without a past to form us.

The character, Marianne Engel, was that creator, the secondary character (if that’s what you want to call her, but to me she was first and foremost in this story)....She gave us her stories, through language and sculptures, then chiseled a past for our unknown First Person, so he could live and exist for himself, today - As well as to live for us in this story in epic proportions.