PB RRP
US$14.99
ISBN
9781894283991
Reviewed by
Anastasia Gonis
Black Bottle Man is a superbly-crafted fable
structured in a back and forth sequence, in smooth and seamlessly connecting chapters.
This structure feeds the reader the background and story of each character in
tiny, tasty morsels. It opens with Rembrandt, the main character, in the year
2007 when he is ninety years old and has only thirty days to live.
Rembrandt’s
mother and Pa, and Pa’s married siblings, all live in separate houses but close
together in the corner of a great piece of land known as Three Farms. Each
family helps the other in every way. But Rembrandt is the only child between
them. His aunts, Annie and Emma, and their husbands Uncle Billy and Uncle
Thompson have shared his parenting, and he grows up surrounded by love and care.
But Annie
and Emma long for a child of their own. That longing motivates them to write a
letter to their family in the city for any sort of help they can seek out at
any cost, that would enable them to have a child.
But the
price demanded for something is always the last consideration when longing
consumes all thought. On the day the parcel arrives in the mail containing a
black bottle and directions, no one can imagine how high the cost will be. Five
weeks later, the Black Bottle Man follows the package with his demands for
payment. But neither Annie nor Emma will make the payment. Deception and
secrets will rule from that day on. Two marriages are shattered. Lives end. But
still the price is not paid.
Rembrandt,
Pa and Uncle Thompson must find a champion to fight the devil and win in order
to save their souls. But after a lifetime, and thirty days to live, Rembrandt
has still to find a way to beat the devil.
Within this
story, there is another sub-story that filters in and out, adding suspense and
another dimension to the fable.
Gail, a
teacher who is taken hostage with her class of young children, makes a decision
that proves fatal. She withdraws from the world and becomes homeless as a way
of punishing herself for the outcome.
This is a
Canadian author of great talent. Black Bottle Man is imaginative and well-written with
prose that is thoughtfully constructed. But it is the innuendo and the unsaid
that magnetises the reader up to the last word.
I first met Black Bottle Man as a piece of reader's theatre (and got to read the part of Old Rembrandt). I thought it was wonderful then, and even better as a novel.
ReplyDeleteHi Brent, You would have an extra insight into the story. Wonderful that Black Bottle Man's even better in this new format. Thanks for dropping by Buzz Words Books.
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