Book Review for the House at the Edge of Night
Catherine Banner'southward Firm at the Edge of Nighttime reveals the magic of out-of-the-way places
'The outside world in this novel is a malign presence, taking away the young men to be soldiers. (They will non come up back)'
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The House at the Edge of Dark
Past Catherine Banner
Doubleday Canada
432 pp; $32.95
Catherine Imprint is known for a trilogy of fantasy-inflected young adult novels, but her latest work of fiction, The Firm at the Edge of Nighttime, takes place in our world. Though prepare on an imaginary island named Castellamare, off the declension of Sicily, the natural atmosphere on this island conforms to recognizable geographical features – blistering rut in the summer, common cold in the winter, occasional visits from the Sirocco wind.
Castellamare notwithstanding abounds in legends such as the weeping stones in a cave by the bounding main, and by the various miracles attributed to the patron saint of the island, Santa Agata. But nothing is revealed that can't be accounted for by natural causes: the weeping stones, for example, are explained as "a trick of the wind," much to the dismay of some Islanders. (I protests that they "are non just a thing of air funnelled through holes, like a great big fart!")
When the novel's hero, Amadeo, obtains a position as the only medico on the windswept isle, his very first night on Castellamare shows what he'southward in for as he stumbles across a noisy piazza. "Women bore fish over caput on great platters; wine slopped into glasses; the circus strains of guitars and organetti rose in the dark," Banner writes. "Amedeo was before long to learn that he had arrived in the center of the yearly festival of Santa Agata. For now, information technology seemed only a wondrous, magical disorder unlike anything he had witnessed."
He likewise sees the Firm at the Border of Night, "a house full of books and curiosities," that volition become his home for the residue of his life, and one time his identity is verified, he is introduced to the of import people in the island. At that place is the grocer Arcangelo, the priest, Father Ignazio, and the reigning big shot, the Count.
Male parent Ignazio, a wise and humane human being, becomes friend and advisor to Amedeo, who falls out with the other two: Amedeo eventually acquires the Firm at the Edge of Night, becoming a business rival of Arcangelo, and even more than serious, commits adultery with the Contessa – an act, not entirely the result of passion, whose consequences will reverberate through the decades.
In that location is a hint of soap opera in this multi-generational family saga – literary taboos lurk, such as when an English paratrooper literally washes up on the embankment during the Second World War. Robert is virtually as well good to be truthful, only given the volatile suspicion of the islanders, a Robert-like figure needs to be equally a calming influence. Somebody needs to be able to listen to both sides of the story.
Banner admirably intertwines social history with the more personal and familial conflicts of the novel. The outside earth in this novel is a malign presence, taking away the young men to be soldiers. (They will not come back.) The influence of fascism after the Offset Globe War is equally subversive, and it is testimony to the bones decency of Castellemare's society that more damage isn't done to people'south lives by information technology. (Fifty-fifty the bad guys, such as the Count and the grocer, waste little fourth dimension in supporting Mussolini.)
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Banner is also very good at sketching the effects of progress on the isle. It is a neat day, for example, when Amedeo's grandson assembles a reckoner, and Castellamare proves to exist a sucker for the Internet. But the arrival of cyberbanking is more than serious and devastating in its effects. "Never in the boondocks'due south whole history has there been such squabbling over a affair like money," complains a resident. "Because no one has always had any, and nosotros've always got forth fine."
The primordial remains, notwithstanding, as indicated by the novel's championship, and by the islanders' continued craving for aboriginal tales. Banner herself, trained in the art of narrative, demonstrates how powerful storytelling can be. In her hands such an art needs no advocacy.
Source: https://torontosun.com/entertainment/books/book-reviews/catherine-banners-house-at-the-edge-of-night-reveals-the-magic-of-out-of-the-way-places
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