The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios [Paperback]

The topics of these short works are highly unusual, which I believe makes them interesting overall, but at some points I found myself feeling that the author was trying to be unique to the extreme, and therefore, going overboard. The first story is the one that gives name to the collection, and the one I found to be the most touching. In this narration, the author presents the account of his relationship with a friend from college and the events that unfolded after this friend was diagnosed with AIDS. Martel shows a natural ability for reaching the heart of the reader with its vibrant descriptions of the emotions the characters experience when faced with such an enormous tragedy. Maybe the fact that the story is based on a real life event, that the author had to face, helped him with making it so vivid.

The other three stories use as topics a peculiar concert in Washington DC with references to how the Vietnam war affected the life of many, a collection of letters with different outcomes regarding the termination of a prisoner waiting for his death sentence, and a machine that makes mirrors by feeding on stories. As you can quickly realize, none of these have as a topic one that you are likely to find in works by other authors, and that makes them unique and valuable based on the author's imagination. The fact that the writing is not as polished as one would like is just evidence that the author was in the process of discovering himself and searching for the style that suited him best. It is extremely interesting to see how Martel wrote before becoming famous, and this is enough reason to make the book worth reading. - 3.5 stars.

And when dealing with an art form, isn't that truly all we as readers can ask for?

The book is broken up into 4 stories and each is as different as they are off the wall. The first one, and the name sake of the title of the book describes a time when the author was in the tragic position of watching a good friend die from aids. He refrains from giving away too much of the interactions of the dying friend and for this I applaud him. It is up to him if he wants to bear his soul, but not fair to bear someone else's. This story is truly tragic and although not written as a tear jerker, or to particularly shock it manages both through the clever writing which really helps you to understand what it must have been like. This story to me is the most obviously powerful and well worth opening the book to.

The second short story concerns a piece of music that the author hears whilst visiting what appears to be quite an obnoxious friend (not relevant to the book though). This is a peculiar and somewhat less poignant story but powerful in it's own right. You can see how this could be turned into far more detailed story through either the musical genius of the guy playing or of his experience at war but because of the length and comparative ability of the writer at the time it becomes more of an observation piece. Impressive stuff though.

The penultimate story concerns a number of letters from the same person (a warden of a prison) regarding the same event (the execution of a man) to the same person (the man's mother). This is the weak link for me and is one of the stories that straddles brilliance and mediocrity without ever really justifying it's place in the later section. If written now this may have been far more impressive.

The last story concerns the authors grandmother during a period of reminiscence regarding an old machine that he finds. It is touching in places to see the relationship between them, swinging from love and respect to a feeling that he isn't quite good enough and doesn't measure up to his long dead grandfather. This has touches of the ability to come but as with the earlier stories is very rough round the edges.

Read this book not only to see how Yann Martell has grown as an author but also to appreciate a man bearing his soul for the world to see.