THE BOOK OF SPECULATION
Erika Swyler
St. Martins Press
June 23, 2015
The Book of Speculation is a remarkably ambitious and polished debut; part family saga, part supernatural tale and wholly fascinating. Simon Watson is a thirty-ish librarian living on Long Island who receives an ancient handwritten book from an antiquarian book dealer whom he does not know. The dealer says he sent the book because Simon's grandmother's name appears in it. The book seems to be a sort of account book for a traveling carnival in 1740's America.
Simon's parents are long dead, his mother having drowned in Long Island Sound when he was a small child, and his father a few years later of pining away for his lost wife. Simon's job is precarious, his house is falling around his ears and he is estranged from his sister, Enola. Nothing has ever seized his imagination as much as this book, especially after he learns his grandmother drowned as well. In fact, many of his female forbears were carnival mermaids who could hold their breath for freakishly long times. All of them drowned on the same date in July. None should have. Simon and Enola's mother taught them the secret of holding their breath as well. Can Simon break the curse when Enola comes home unexpectedly in mid-July?
The Book of Speculation switches back and forth between the 1740's carnival and the present day. Sometimes that method of telling a tale can be risky but Swyler manages it with considerable aplomb. I was beguiled by the characters throughout, in fact, the word beguiling sums up the book very well for me. It is one of the rare books that will stick with me, even though there is no final solution of the question of a curse. And I can't even begin to explain the horseshoe crabs! It is just another thing about The Book of Speculation that lingers in my head.
Thanks to St. Martin's and netgalley for an advance digital copy.
RATING- 4 Stars
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