Creation
Monday, February 18, 2008
Does this happen to you? You fall in love with a book, you tell the world about the book, you put the book on your list of favorite books, and a few years on you're afraid to read that book again. Afraid it won't live up to the buzz you threaded through it. Afraid that it will somehow let you down.
I've been circling Katherine Govier's CREATION lately—a book I fell in love with back in 2002. I pulled every string I had at a certain magazine so that I could back it with a stellar review. I went down the street, to my friend, Jane, and said: You have to read this book. Embarrassed myself with enthusiasm, you might say, but that's how it is with me and some books.
In any case—two nights ago I dared myself to pull CREATION from the shelf and to read it as if I had never touched its (quite lovely) self before. No one was looking; no one cared; I could have changed my mind: I didn't. CREATION is the story of one particular season in the life of John James Audubon, and if that doesn't sound exciting to you, think of the book as a lesson in craft. As a lesson in how to write an historical novel that feels current and pressing, in how to tell the truth with a modicum of facts, in how to stoke up character and plot in a novel of ideas.
Consider it a lesson, conversely, in how to write about birds.
CREATION withstands the test of time. I love it when that happens.
