Karen
As an academic librarian, this literary mystery is just my cup of tea. The fact that it is set in a post-apocalyptic future (2119) where sea levels have risen to the point that England is now an archipelago, the remains of the Bodleian Library are now in Snowdonia, and Nigeria is the most prosperous country, give it the flavor of speculative fiction. A little time is spent reflecting on what led to this state of world affairs, as the main character, a professor of literature named Thomas Metcalfe, thinks about how his area of interest, the early 21st century, was just before catastrophic changes in the world began.
Metcalfe's research is focused on a poem, A Corona for Vivien, written by acclaimed 21st century British poet Francis Blundy for his wife Vivien and read aloud at her 54th birthday party in 2014. The poem itself was never published and no copies have ever been found, although well known literary folk who were at the party and heard it later published lavish praise for it. Literary scholarship ever since has been focused on finding the poem, or attempting to discover more about it. Given the worldwide catastrophes that have taken place in the intervening time, it seems unlikely that there could be anything more left to discover, but Metcalfe is driven as only an academic can be by his fascination for the time period and the people who were involved in the mythologized birthday dinner party.
This is an intricate book about the effort of trying to understand the past, the effort of being married to another person, literary academia in an environment that sees humanities as impractical or foolish, facing or not facing the reality of climate change, and probably many other things. However, it's written in a style that allows readers to just enjoy the mystery if that's what they want to do.
As an academic librarian, this literary mystery is just my cup of tea. The fact that it is set in a post-apocalyptic future (2119) where sea levels have risen to the point that England is now an archipelago, the remains of the Bodleian Library are now in Snowdonia, and Nigeria is the most prosperous country, give it the flavor of speculative fiction. A little time is spent reflecting on what led to this state of world affairs, as the main character, a professor of literature named Thomas Metcalfe, thinks about how his area of interest, the early 21st century, was just before catastrophic changes in the world began.
Metcalfe's research is focused on a poem, A Corona for Vivien, written by acclaimed 21st century British poet Francis Blundy for his wife Vivien and read aloud at her 54th birthday party in 2014. The poem itself was never published and no copies have ever been found, although well known literary folk who were at the party and heard it later published lavish praise for it. Literary scholarship ever since has been focused on finding the poem, or attempting to discover more about it. Given the worldwide catastrophes that have taken place in the intervening time, it seems unlikely that there could be anything more left to discover, but Metcalfe is driven as only an academic can be by his fascination for the time period and the people who were involved in the mythologized birthday dinner party.
This is an intricate book about the effort of trying to understand the past, the effort of being married to another person, literary academia in an environment that sees humanities as impractical or foolish, facing or not facing the reality of climate change, and probably many other things. However, it's written in a style that allows readers to just enjoy the mystery if that's what they want to do.