The Gargoyle
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Review
"'Mixing romance, classic allusion and reality, Davidson's debut is a bravura performance.' **** Marie Claire"
Publishers Weekly
'Once launched into this intense tale of unconventional romance, few readers will want to put it down.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
220 of 244 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
After the slight disappointment earlier this year from Nick Harkaway's debut novel The Gone-Away World, I was a little skeptical about reading another new writer because I often find too many flaws ridden throughout the pages. However, The Gargoyle is another case entirely. In fact, the book is so well told that I just can't find a single fault. It really is quite possibly the most "perfect" of books I've ever read - and I'm not one to lavish praise on just anything. It's so rare that I will read and not try to change sections for my own personal endeavor, but reading The Gargoyle was refreshing - a strange word to use perhaps considering Davidson's knack for graphic description, particularly on his delineation of how the human body burns. It was refreshing because it was original, and even now a week after reading I am finding it hard to start another book because I am still emotionally involved with The Gargoyle. Our nameless narrator happens upon a vision while being high on drugs and booze where a swarm of burning arrows are heading towards his car as he drives along the cliff edge. He crashes down the gauge and eventually catches fire, leaving him a monster but alive albeit in the care of the burn ward at the hospital.
The story entails the once beautiful man during his hospital rehabilitation after the incredible survival of the burning wreck. Along the way he meets Marianne Engel - a woman who he initially believes to have come from the psychiatric ward. She is a carver of Gargoyles, tattooed, eccentric and scraggy and she comes to visit regularly telling him stories of long ago, from ancient Japan to medieval Germany, Italy and the vikings of Iceland. She also claims that the two of them were lovers in the 1300s - her being a nun at Engalthal Monastery and him a warrior wounded from battle (no wonder he thought she was crazy). As our narrator is brought back to life by his newly found friends at the hospital he is also brought to love and so his story goes much deeper than the tales he "believes" to have been weaved.
I've tried not to give too much away, so that you can read it for yourself because you really must. A truly remarkable piece of work; ambitious and taunting, yet so beautifully told. If you don't believe in love now you will after this, and you might even get the urge to buy a gargoyle... though I doubt it. A modern masterpiece.
The story entails the once beautiful man during his hospital rehabilitation after the incredible survival of the burning wreck. Along the way he meets Marianne Engel - a woman who he initially believes to have come from the psychiatric ward. She is a carver of Gargoyles, tattooed, eccentric and scraggy and she comes to visit regularly telling him stories of long ago, from ancient Japan to medieval Germany, Italy and the vikings of Iceland. She also claims that the two of them were lovers in the 1300s - her being a nun at Engalthal Monastery and him a warrior wounded from battle (no wonder he thought she was crazy). As our narrator is brought back to life by his newly found friends at the hospital he is also brought to love and so his story goes much deeper than the tales he "believes" to have been weaved.
I've tried not to give too much away, so that you can read it for yourself because you really must. A truly remarkable piece of work; ambitious and taunting, yet so beautifully told. If you don't believe in love now you will after this, and you might even get the urge to buy a gargoyle... though I doubt it. A modern masterpiece.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I picked up 'The Gargoyle' purely because of its ornate front cover and blackened page edges. The old saying warns that you can't judge a book by its cover. On this occasion, however, I hoped that the book's immaculate aesthetics were mirrored in its substance. The book's tagline was disturbingly vague: 'Love is as strong as death, as hard as Hell', which sounds a little too much like one of Pantera's more clichéd track titles. Still, I bought the book, intrigued to see if Andrew Davidson had crafted something new out of arcane gargoyle mythology.
The story begins with a car crash in which the main protagonist, whose name we are never told, is burned beyond recognition. Although the story's main character and narrator does not volunteer his name, he gives the reader myriad insights into his pre-crash self: he worked as a porn star but, despite having experienced thousands of women in the flesh, had never known love; he was selfishly hedonistic when it came to women, drugs and alcohol; he was 'beautiful' (on the outside, at least); he was facing financial troubles. In a perhaps-too-obvious example of poetic justice, his penis was burned off in the post-crash fire.
The narrator has a prolonged stay in the burns unit of a hospital due to the severity of his damage. 'Friends' from his porn career lose interest in him now that he is penisless and of no further use to them. He is visited by a beautiful young woman called Marianne Engel, a patient from the psychiatric ward. Although initially irritated by Marianne Engel, the narrator begins to welcome her visits. She tells him that they knew each other in past lives, and elaborates on these past incarnations, working her way from past to present. Doctors have labelled Marianne Engel schizophrenic, but the reader is left to make up his or her own mind about the truth of that conclusion.
Marianne invites the narrator to live in her house after he leaves hospital. A sculptor of international renown, Marianne has amassed vast wealth through selling her stone-carved creations, not gargoyles but grotesques: creatures with characteristics of more than one species. She alternates between periods of phenomenal - perhaps possessed - creativity and spells of exhaustion and recovery. Andrew Davidson describes Marianne's often-self-destructive behaviour beautifully, leaving it open to interpretation whether she is divine or deranged. Her selfless dedication to the narrator, and the belief with which she tells of their relationships in past lives, leads him to experience love for the first time in this lifetime. This is the message of 'The Gargoyle': that transcendent love has the ability to transform both recipient and giver. Marianne Engel's selfless love recreates the main character from the inside out while she sculpts her grotesques from the outside in.
'The Gargoyle' is a well-written story. My only real criticism is that Davidson frequently delves too deeply into details (such as burn treatments or irrelevant facets of past lives) to the detriment of the story's general flow. That said, 'The Gargoyle' is an enjoyable tale which contains some true originality.
The story begins with a car crash in which the main protagonist, whose name we are never told, is burned beyond recognition. Although the story's main character and narrator does not volunteer his name, he gives the reader myriad insights into his pre-crash self: he worked as a porn star but, despite having experienced thousands of women in the flesh, had never known love; he was selfishly hedonistic when it came to women, drugs and alcohol; he was 'beautiful' (on the outside, at least); he was facing financial troubles. In a perhaps-too-obvious example of poetic justice, his penis was burned off in the post-crash fire.
The narrator has a prolonged stay in the burns unit of a hospital due to the severity of his damage. 'Friends' from his porn career lose interest in him now that he is penisless and of no further use to them. He is visited by a beautiful young woman called Marianne Engel, a patient from the psychiatric ward. Although initially irritated by Marianne Engel, the narrator begins to welcome her visits. She tells him that they knew each other in past lives, and elaborates on these past incarnations, working her way from past to present. Doctors have labelled Marianne Engel schizophrenic, but the reader is left to make up his or her own mind about the truth of that conclusion.
Marianne invites the narrator to live in her house after he leaves hospital. A sculptor of international renown, Marianne has amassed vast wealth through selling her stone-carved creations, not gargoyles but grotesques: creatures with characteristics of more than one species. She alternates between periods of phenomenal - perhaps possessed - creativity and spells of exhaustion and recovery. Andrew Davidson describes Marianne's often-self-destructive behaviour beautifully, leaving it open to interpretation whether she is divine or deranged. Her selfless dedication to the narrator, and the belief with which she tells of their relationships in past lives, leads him to experience love for the first time in this lifetime. This is the message of 'The Gargoyle': that transcendent love has the ability to transform both recipient and giver. Marianne Engel's selfless love recreates the main character from the inside out while she sculpts her grotesques from the outside in.
'The Gargoyle' is a well-written story. My only real criticism is that Davidson frequently delves too deeply into details (such as burn treatments or irrelevant facets of past lives) to the detriment of the story's general flow. That said, 'The Gargoyle' is an enjoyable tale which contains some true originality.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
OK... so I have 20 pages left to go still so I probably shouldn't make a conclusive judgment yet but OMG I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! beautifully written, I just don't want it to end :-(.
I cannot perfectly express my inner feelings and thoughts for this book. It would take too long.
Clenching you into a spiral of wonderfully engrossing characters, graphic and pure stories twisting into the mind of a beautifully reformed man recovering from a seriously terrifying accident.
The grotesque and beautiful intertwining, opens your mind. What defines these? I was in awe and deep suspense during every single page.
READ IT!!
:-)
I cannot perfectly express my inner feelings and thoughts for this book. It would take too long.
Clenching you into a spiral of wonderfully engrossing characters, graphic and pure stories twisting into the mind of a beautifully reformed man recovering from a seriously terrifying accident.
The grotesque and beautiful intertwining, opens your mind. What defines these? I was in awe and deep suspense during every single page.
READ IT!!
:-)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Gargoyle
This is a fantastic book, very well written, quite gorey in places and a real page turner, why has the author not written anything else?
Published 23 days ago by Vinnie m
I didn't want this book to end.
Unless something comes up soon, this book will remain one of the best I have ever read. I really didn't want it to end. Read more
Published 25 days ago by Philly
Reasonable Read
Found this book a very reasonable read. The discriptive narrative of how he felt about his burns how he came to have them how the human body burns are really quite brilliant. Read more
Published 1 month ago by telephonegirl
Story Telling of the Highest Calibre
This is an incredible book. Do not be fooled or put off by it's cover...this is most certainly not a hybrid born of Dracula and The Phantom of the Opera. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Anna Clare
Quirky and moreish
I bought this book very much based on it's cover, a bad thing to admit to but it's true.
I'm glad I did! Read more
I'm glad I did! Read more
Published 2 months ago by Alison Fable
Strange but compelling
I have just finished reading this book, given as a gift and not one I had heard off.
It does have an intriguing cover and the pages have a black border giving it an old... Read more
It does have an intriguing cover and the pages have a black border giving it an old... Read more
Published 3 months ago by JJ
Almost a masterpiece
At first, I thought I was going to hate it. Not sure why, something in the character of Marianne, mainly. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Book Critic
You need to be in the right mood for it
This book isnt easy, in fact, i picked it up three times to read and didnt get passed the first few pages. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Helen Brown
Beautiful and evocative
This is a book that will keep your attention and remain with you long after you read it. Don't be put off by the length of the book or the strange dark edged pages as I was. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Bess_Wheat
A difficult read
As a selective reader I found it very difficult to get into this book. I have tried a few times to restart but have eventually given up. Read more
Published 5 months ago by McColey
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