Product Description

It is by no means clear how much control Yorkshireman Jeremy Davenant has over his own destiny. For one, he's convinced that the blueprint of his future already exists on a page ripped from a random book (an encyclopedia, it transpires). Romantic, fatalist, quixotic, he blithely teaches with forged credentials at a Montreal university until a single glimpse of a dark lady sends his life spinning into chaotic mishap and obsession.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1122643 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
Born in Montreal, Jeffrey Moore was educated at the University of Toronto and the Sorbonne. He works as a translator and also lectures at the University of Montreal and Concordia University. He plans to take up an exchange chair at a British university in 2002.

Customer Reviews

Great Writing, But Weak Plot and Characters
At the start of this debut novel we are introduced to Jeremy, a young English boy whose "Uncle" Gerard convinces him that a random page torn from an encyclopedia is his destiny. The page contains entries such as Shaka Zulu, Shakespeare, and most importantly Shakuntala, with Jeremy's belief in the talismanic powers of "The Page" rather warping him. Fastforward to Jeremy as a grownup and fraudulent professor of Shakespeare at a university in Montreal. Having just ended a relationship, he moves into an awful new apartment and becomes immediately obsessed with a local woman. His determined and thickheaded pursuit of ardent feminist, and inconsiderate Milena is more or less the core of the book.

Moore wields an awfully witty pen, and his regular deliveries of clever wordplay manage to hide the shallowness of his characters-for a while. A rather major problem is that neither Jeremy nor Milena are at all likable other than in brief flashes (Jeremy when he talks about his Uncle Gerard, and Milena when she puts a snobbish professor in his place), and both are tremendously shallow and maladjusted adults. Their "courtship"-which is the main plotline-is also not particularly engaging, consisting as it does of her mild on-again, off-again interest, and his pathetic puppy-dog chasing. So, while it's nice writing, it's also squandered writing.

It's a pity really, 'cause Moore is very skilled and clever. He keeps one guessing throughout as to whether apparently manifestations of "The Page" in Jeremy's life are real or simply a series of projected meaning and minor coincidence. There is also a nice subplot of academic satire which is quite funny at times. Throughout the book, individual scenes and conversations can be really engaging, so it's a bit disappointing that things drag on so long and end in a series of rather predictable revelations and semi-reversals. The book did win the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best First Novel, so clearly some were able to overlook its flaws. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for his next book.

Difficult to Like
I found it difficult to like this novel.

I guess it's because I couldn't find a character to like within its pages, and I realise this may say more about me as a reader than it does about Moore as a writer.

Our "hero", Jeremy Davenport, is lazy, immature, ridiculous and foolish enough to believe his destiny lies in a random page torn from an encyclopaedia well into adulthood. His love interest, and it is their dysfunctional relationship that fleshes out the majority of the novel, is an equally exaggerated goth princess, with a hellish childhood, a feminist bent and confused sexual preferences.

The rest of the characters are an ensemble from the edges of society: Drug addicts, prostitutes, murderers, gamblers, alcoholics, non-English speaking immigrants and pompous academic types.

No doubt this is all for Bakhtinian effect, a carnival of grotesque characters, a collective able to subvert your bulk standard novel's fare, and if you like this kind of narrative game, then you'll like this novel.

The novel is humourous, and I found myself laughing out loud in several places. I did find myself satisfied, in a comfortable readerly way near the end, briefly, before the "real" ending kicked in to remind me that this isn't that kind of novel.

A good novel, well-written and firmly post-modern, but difficult to like.