My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Marriage is like a series of opposing reflections, inverse images getting ever smaller like nesting dolls, each one of your trying to squeeze yourself smaller to fit inside the hopes of the other, until one of you cracks or stops existing.”
----Jacob M. Appel
I don't why I'm so much drawn to marriage quotes which are dark and justifying- not the sugar-coated ones! (PS: I'm not married!) Jacob M. Appel's remarkable quoted from the book, The Biology of Luck delves into the world of a hopeless-romantic tour guide's debut novel that is written about his lady love. Yes, you read it right- a novel inside a novel! And I don't know why, this very idea of novel inside a novel set across all the 5 boroughs of New York reminds of David Gilbert's & Sons ! But every novel has its own story, likewise, Appel's novel thrushes us inside the life of a promiscuous and egotistic woman.
Synopsis:
Odd-job queen Starshine Hart is about to go on somebody else’s perfect date. At 29, the usually carefree Starshine has realized that it is easier to start sleeping with a man than to stop. Her lovers include one of the last underground members of the Weathermen and the dilettante heir to a lawn chair magnate. Both men have staked their romantic future on her. Her only respite is her impending dinner with the nonthreatening but unattractive tour guide Larry Bloom. But Larry, too, has a stake in her future. He has written a book about their impending dinner in which he fantasizes about Starshine’s life on the day he wins her heart. Juxtaposing moments from Larry’s guided tour of New York City on the June day of his “dream date” with excerpts from the novel in which he imagines Starshine’s concurrent escapades, this inventive structure weaves a highly imaginative love story across all five boroughs. Provocative, funny, and keenly observed, an imagined pilgrimage through the underbelly of Gotham becomes a bold new voice in contemporary American fiction.
Starshine is the most beautiful and the most heartless woman who needed a man's company to hear his praises on her looks. But this is not about Starshine's beauty, but it's a comical and scornful love-story of a tour-guide, Larry Bloom, who hated his job and loved his new found love- Starshine and to prove his love for her- he wrote a novel and Appel writes it into two different tone to tell us both the stories- one is his own story and another is Larry's fictional account of his love-story with Starshine.
Honestly, speaking, neither I could relate to Starshine's justifications using her beauty to get money from men nor her ego. Hence, this is the character, I hated the most, but the author, Appel through Bloom's words made me fall for her exquisite beauty. Whereas, on the other hand, Larry is neither handsome, nor someone very striking, but he has a heart of gold and fills his sad yet bright life with stories of Starshine in his manuscript and prays that just like his novel, he too hopes to achieve a happy ending with Starshine, but despite of Bloom's flaws, I liked him with all my heart and at times felt pity for his misery!
The other characters apart from Starshine and Bloom from Starshine's lovers to their crazy landlord to artsy fartsy man to strange-cigarette-love aunt to a super-talented florist to each and every character that Bloom and Starshine encounter in Bloom's fictional novel, are all very much funny, bright and full-of-life. Recently, I heard from one of my close friend, that New York is city where you'll find all kinds of people from funny to dark, and where you'll find lively characters for your novel. Similarly, Appel too captured those strange, satirical and comic ones onto his book to make it humorous and at times, I was laughing out so hard that my stomach started hurting because of those character's demeanor. About the florist- he happens to be the key character in the book- a man who can determine anyone's level of luck in their biology simply by looking at their face.
Larry is a tour guide- so you simply can't those surprising and lesser known tid-bits of the New York City and like me, if you have also never been to The Big Apple, then I assure you that The Biology of Luck will be your best guide in that matter. Appel captures The Big Appel vividly with his evocative words and while reading I felt myself transported to the land of opportunities and hope. Larry felt his job was boring but he describes the NY city so gallantly, that it simply kept me hooked on to this story.
But the book had it's own flaws. The author not only painted the plot in a complex way but also it demands a sharp mind to understand it's multi-layered plot. Hence it's not for everyone, and if you're looking something difficult and takes a longer time to absorb into the essence of the story, then go for this book. The pace is very slow due to it's complicated prose. Yes, the prose is not very simple and is ornate. But it's unusual and quirkiness captivated me till it's very end. Moreover, the author leaves us with a huge cliffhanger and I'm guessing that the author is going to come back with another part of this story in a new book and I'll be waiting to read that story!
Verdict: If you are a big fan of James Joyce's Ulysses, then you'll love this unusual love-story.
Courtesy: I'm very thankful to the author, for giving me an opportunity to read and review his novel.
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