Percival Everett is an eclectic writer whose work spans a variety of genres. Everett's 2020 novel 'Telephone' was published in three versions which are almost identical except for the endings. After reading 'version A' I looked up the other endings, which I like better. Everett's experiment was undertaken to generate discussion of the book, which apparently worked. On to my review......
*****Professor Zach Wells is an African-American paleobiologist and geologist at a university in Altadena, California.
Wells' research centers on ancient birds that once lived in Naught's Cave, a grotto high in the wall of the Grand Canyon.
Wells collects bird bones from the cave's rat middens.....
......and his findings include things like:
"Falco mexicanos: Four bones of this species indicate at least three individuals, an adult, a male-sized immature, and a female-sized immature. It should be noted, that of the larger falcons, this species, which nests on cliffs, is most frequently found in southwestern archaeological sites."
Falco mexicanos
Wells doesn't think being Black has held him back, though he makes observations like: "For all I know I may not have gotten several grants because of racist panelists. I just don't know. I crawl into caves and find fossils and then identify them. I am a scientist. I should probably be more political in my thinking and dealings with the school. But I'm not."
Zach refers to his himself as dull and boring, but says he's a devoted family man. Zach and his wife Meg, an English professor and poet, both dearly love their clever, funny, twelve-year-old daughter Sarah.
Zach taught Sarah to play chess, and she always beats him these days, so it's odd when Sarah makes a bad move.
It turns out, Sarah is experiencing vision problems, and a series of doctor visits - to an optometrist, pediatrician, ophthalmologist, pediatric ophthalmologist, and pediatric neurologist - cause the family increasing anxiety.
Finally, Zach and Meg are devastated to learn Sarah has Batten Disease - an incurable genetic disorder that leads to seizures, vision loss, problems with thinking and movement, and early death. Sarah is allowed to believe she has epilepsy, but her condition inevitably deteriorates over the course of the story.
In the midst of their sorrow, Zach and Meg take Sarah to Paris, to give her a wonderful experience while she can still enjoy it. Sarah loves the Louvre.....
.....but there's some unfortunate drama in the French capital, which has the same problems as any other city.
Back home, Wells has classes to teach, field trips to supervise, research to do, committee meetings to attend, and so on. These university responsibilities cause two problems for Zach: an undergraduate student called Rachel Charles develops a crush on Zack and comes on to him;
and Zach's colleague, Hilary Gill, is up for tenure and hasn't done enough research to get it.
Both situations concern Wells, and he does what he can to assist Hilary, but Zach's worries about Sarah overshadow other matters.
Perhaps needing to help SOMEONE, Wells becomes obsessed with stories about women and girls disappearing from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, a city just across the bridge from El Paso, Texas. Zach notes, "Hundreds of women had been hunted there, on the other side of that bridge, pursued, raped, imprisoned, tortured, and killed. They were mostly dark haired and of slender build, as was my beautiful Sarah."
Coincidentally, Wells orders a pre-owned tin cloth Filson jacket on Ebay. When Zach dons the jacket and reaches into the pocket, he finds a small slip of paper that says, 'Ayuadame', which means 'help me' in Spanish.
Later, Wells orders a shirt from the same provider, and finds another note requesting assistance. Zach concludes enslaved Mexican women are being forced to work for the vendor in New Mexico, and he embarks on a mission to help the captives.
Zach outfits himself as a geologist looking for oil, and goes to New Mexico to scout out the situation.
In New Mexico, Zach comes across a motherly waitress called DeLois;
two right wing Nazis up to no good;
and Mexican women working in the Nazis' compound.
Wells' exploits in New Mexico seem incredibly daring, but Zach's Marine background makes him more adventurous than most people....and the Nazis aren't that smart. Zach's determination to help the enslaved women lead up to the three different endings in the three versions of the book.
The novel is sprinkled with passages about bird fossils, as well as chess moves; Latin quips; chatter about paintings; and more, which makes the story feel quite erudite.
Bird Fossil
I was engaged with both plotlines - Sarah's illness and the Mexican women - and felt the 'three endings experiment' was interesting. To REALLY start a conversation though, the three endings should have diverged from one another more. Still, this is a good book, highly recommended.
Rating: 4 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment