In the past few days I have found myself at the center of a family explosion of the sort that largely involves only one person but seems to suck so many others in whether they choose to be party to the combustion or not.

People are a lot like black holes sometimes.

It has been another of those reality checks that we all seem to receive every now and again (although many of us are oblivious to, unfortunately). What is most important to you? What matters in your life? How do you choose to live your life? These are questions that enter into your mind with increasing strength when a wild storm is blowing through and that has been where my head was dwelling since early yesterday morning as the emails arrive in my inbox and I have to decide each time whether or not I really want to engage in this sort of maddening communication.

When all else fails at times like this, one really must return to the sanity of good literature.

I was delighted this year with the release of Nicholas Christopher's latest book, The Bestiary a title that the Seattle Times called "A fascinating blend of the bibliophile quest novel merged with romance, intrigue and fantasy.�. I reviewed it over at Bookslut a few months ago; here's a bit from my concluding paragraph:

Finally, I was a bit surprised to read in Booklist’s review of The Bestiary that the, “novel’s potential falls somewhat flat under the weight of its leisurely pace and overabundant detail, lacking the emotive power of Byatt’s Possession or the atmospheric tension of Safon’s Shadow of the Wind.� As a reader who thoroughly enjoyed both of those novels, I can only wonder why the way in which those authors ratcheted up the tension must be considered the rule here, and for deviating from its path Christopher has failed somehow. The tension in this book is of a far more personal type than Byatt’s or Safon’s -- it is all about Xeno and his pursuit, and does not involve the machinations of others. I found The Bestiary to be a far more elegant -- and realistic -- adventure into the past than the other titles. I enjoyed all of them a great deal, but Nicholas Christopher’s work seemed most familiar and possible; it is, in essence, the sort of adventure that any lover of history (literary, mythical or otherwise) could one day hopefully experience.

The Bestiary is classic Nicholas Christopher - a great sweeping human drama that also contains a mystery, some fantastical elements and a personal quest or desire to know more about someone or something. There is also a coming-of-age story embedded in here, something that makes it readily accessible to any reader who ever struggled for years to find their way and yet was always circling back to who they were when they were younger - always returning to the fundamental elements of their childhood and finally accepting that, indeed, we do know who we are from an early age, we just have to find a way to be that person. (This particularly rings true for me.)

I discovered Christopher initially through Veronica, a serendipitous find on the library bookshelf in Fairbanks (thank you librarians!) which The New Yorker described thusly:

"Black and white magic, time travel, the choicer arcana of Tibetan Buddhism, and a titanic struggle to the death at the top of the Empire State Building...Satisfying as the storytelling is, though, the deeper pleasures here stem from the author's imaginative and idiosyncratic scholarship, by means of which the uncanny is made to seem commonplace and the commonplace unfathomable."

Veronica is the most fantastic of Christopher's novels (I think) but the elegance of his writing is what stood out for me over the magical elements. This book was a beautiful thing, and the author was promptly on my radar. (It will be reissued next summer.)

Franklin Flyer is more of a historical novel, the story of "a restless young inventor named after the train on which he was born--through the tumultuous years of the Great Depression, into the Second World War. Raised by his suffragette aunt, at various times a vagabond and tycoon, Franklin travels across the U.S.A. and around the globe, seeking adventure and enlightenment, charting his fate by pursuing the unexpected. He encounters a glittering cast of characters: among them Rita Hayworth, Josephine Baker, OSS founder "Wild Bill" Donovan, and a host of political zealots, opportunists, and dreamers thrown together in a world on the brink of collapse. With each new invention--devices that help to revolutionize everything from early television to the Allies' wartime technology--Franklin makes his mark. Gaining fame and fortune, he also suffers terrible heartbreak, and through numerous transformations discovers that a man's own life is truly his most difficult, and rewarding, invention. "

Franklin seemed to me to be a novel of ideas, a work of dizzying twists and turns in the life of one person (in a lot of ways all of our lives twist and turn an incredible amount of times; I think we just don't pay attention), and all of that can affect you over time. It was a novel to make one think, and while not my favorite of Christopher's work, it was certainly a title of distinction.

A Trip to the Stars is sitting beside me right now, a comfort read that I have dipped back into for the familiarity of a story I have read many many times. There is flying in this novel (yea!) but also the story of a lost boy, his aunt and a man she loves who is set to journey, quite literally, where no man has gone before. There is also a house in Las Vegas filled with the most intriguing sorts of curious and intelligent people, some attention paid to bugs and war and more than anything the question of how long you would look for someone you lost - how long you would hold them in your heart.

Beautiful, just beautiful.

Whenever I find an author whose work I love I feel like I need to reach out to everyone I know and say "open this book, read this book - please, please!" Nicholas Christopher is a novelist of distinction; he crafts literary boxes of originality and beauty that take the reader to destinations they never thought possible. Truly a wonderful writer.

[Post title from A Trip to the Stars.]