NO SPOILERS!!!I have read other books by Anne Roiphe. I love the author's ability to create a time and place, to depict it with such detail that you see it, smell it, hear it and feel it. Again she succeeds with this, right from the beginning chapters of this novel. Here, in this story, we are transported back to Alexandria, Egypt, to 1883 when cholera is ravaging the city. There is a race on – which country's scientists will find the cause for this disease? Louis Pasteur has sent three young French scientists to Alexandria, along with clear guiding instructions and a servant boy named Marcus. The three are Louis Thuillier, Emile Roux and Edmond Nocard. And then of course there must be some romance thrown into the story, so Roiphe has thrown in Este Malina, the lovely daughter of a respected Jewish doctor. But look how Roiphe describes, with all the senses, Alexandria:At last shore, the carts piled with goods rattling along the narrow planks of the docks, the strange sound of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer, the gold sandy color of the buildings, the customhouse with its soldiers in uniform, braids and buttons glistening in the heat, and the donkeys with their long ears flattened back against their heads and the children with their hands out, crouching in the doorways, flies stuck to their encrusted eyelids. The smell was strange: dung, saffron, ginger, banana, human sweat, fish packed in barrels, waiting to be carried to the market. They saw turbans and loincloths, and sandals made of paper and wood. Bells were ringing, men were calling out numbers in Arabic and French and English, and sailors were tying up sails. Louis felt dizzy. Marcus placed the large carton they had brought on a wagon, and Louis hopped up on the front seat, with Roux and Nocard behind. Marcus rode standing on a rail in the back. They headed for Hotel Khedivial at the corner of rue Cherif Pasha and rue Rosette, where they had taken a week's lodgings. (at 7% of the book)Roiphe is not only adept at describing places and scenes, but also people. Here we have a bit about Marcus:The three of then walked into the café. Marcus followed them, his eyes glazed. If he were a dog, someone would have patted him on the head; as it was, he sat at a table in the darkened room, repeating his uncle's words as he departed Paris: "Travel is broadening for a young man. Shakes you up, it does" He did feel shaken, but was he broadened? His stomach still heaved and he barely sipped at the absinthe drink that Louis had ordered for him. It was on the table in a long thin glass, pale green, cloudy; the taste of licorice pleased him, but the burning in his esophagus did not. A boy who is not quite a man is not eager to know the outlines of his esophagus, the details of the act of eating, the route the food takes to his stomach. He prefers to think of himself as not so much a body with parts as a blossoming landscape, springtime in the pastures. He stared at his drink and grew sleepy. (7%)You can also see from just this short passage that a major theme concerns the science of disease and the human body; how it functions, when well and when ill.And who is Louis? Take a peek at the first dinner party, when the three scientists are invited to the consul general, M. Girard:At dinner, Louis was seated next to the very round, rosy-colored wife of an Alexandrian doctor……The first course seemed to be a thumb-sized fish lying on a bed of mushrooms. Then concoction had a strange smell. Louis picked up his fork and mutilated the fish, smashing it into the mushrooms, without bringing the smallest piece to his mouth. Slowly he drank a glass of wine, after wiping the rim of the glass with his napkin.....he glanced down the table and saw a young woman with long dark haired back with a bright green ribbon. Her skin was coffee-colored, like that of the natives. Her eyes were dark and wide. Her neck was long and graceful. "Who is the young lady down the table?" he asked his companion. "My daughter,"replied the lady. "She is beautiful, is she not?""She is," he said."Beauty is an asset in a woman," said the wife of the doctor. "Of course," said Louis. Not wanting to seem like a beast, he added, "Beauty is worthless without character.""True," said the wife of the doctor, "but character is often worthless without beauty – in a woman, that is."Louis fell silent. What should he say next?........Louis had never in all his life been served by a butler. There seemed to be ten of them in the room. He had never tasted the fowl with tiny bones that floated in a gravy on his gold-rimmed plate. He had never eaten from such a plate. He had never put such a large silk napkin on his lap before. He had never tasted such fine wine. In fact he did not like it quite so well as the kind purchased by the glass at any corner café in Paris, but he knew enough to know that this was his failure, not his host's. (9%)That is enough. Are you intrigued by the characters, by the place, by the book's subject? You must decide if you are drawn to the descriptive writing style, learning about Alexandria and cholera. Do you want to know more about Louis, this young scientist, who know so much about chemistry and yet feels so misplaced in the splendor of the elite Alexandrian upper-class society?I like that the history of cholera and what was known concerning the disease are documented here in the book. Here follows a quote concerning the history of the 1817 outbreak of cholera in India: According to a conclusion arrived at in 1819 by the Bengal Medical Board, the "the proximate cause of the disease consisted in a pestilential virus, which acted primarily upon the stomach and the small intestines and the depressed state of the circulatory powers and diminished action of the heart were consequent on the severe shock which the system had received in one of its principal organs." (45%)Many interesting facts are presented. It had been claimed on several occasions that the wealthy had purposely poisoned the poor using cholera to remove them from cities. And how does it feel to dissect a human being, a young child killed by cholera, to find the cause, to find the microbes there on the "imperfect lens"? Think, if the lens could be improved? Think, if they could only see more! You will find yourself washing your hands rigorously as you read this book!Neither is the book just about cholera. It is about fathers and their daughters. It is bout both mother to son and mother to daughter relationships too:One was married oneself, and showered with candies by one's friends, and lifted on high by the men of the community, and everyone admired you and the real life began and you had a daughter and the daughter grew and you went with her to purchase the dress for the most important event in her life. Was this not the way it had always been, generation after generation, l'dor v'dor, as they said in Hebrew. (55%)What if your daughter is headstrong and wants to herself plan every step of the marriage without her mother's interference? Are times changing? I am just wondering?! But then I read a few pages more and I smile……. Este and her Mom certainly do not agree on everything. In fact, they do not agree at all, so they drop the subject. Now I feel more normal. :0)And there is more……. You will be glued all the way through to the very last page. You must not look up the character names or cholera in Wikipedia! What an adventure! There is a clear and detailed author's note at the end. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute spent reading this book. I highly recommend it. It is a terribly fun read. Even when things are grim, I was laughing. Wait till you see the behavior of the French consulate's wife!
Until now, I might not have said that historical fiction was more interesting to me than any of a dozen other genres. After finishing this one, however, and reflecting that it's the latest in a series of exemplary historical novels I've enjoyed over the last couple years, it's time to recognize what is happening to my reading preferences.This story is set in Alexandria, Egypt, during the cholera epidemic of 1883. Louis Thuillier and two other scientists arrive, having been sent by the famous Louis Pasteur in hopes of identifying the microbe that causes cholera. That much is historical fact. To the mix, the author adds an assistant who is far more interested in womanizing than in doing his duty, a local Jewish doctor with a high-society wife and a much sought-after daughter, a morally inferior young man who has known that daughter all his life and intends to marry her, a stranded British merchant who is befriended by the doctor's family and is grateful up to a certain point, and there are other characters. Given that the book is only 291 pages, the cast of characters seemed excessive to me. But that is my only complaint. There is a great deal to this story, and I'm sure a second reading will bring out more than I grasped the first time through.Another character, of sorts, is the elusive microbe itself, which the narrator occasionally tells us is lurking in a damp towel hanging on a line, on the surface of fruits that have been sliced with an unwashed knife, and (when last glimpsed, as the epidemic is abating) in a strand of scum floating out to sea. The microbe, we are told, is amoral. It does what it does (the descriptions of its effect on people are gruesome) simply because that's what it does. But, frankly, certain other characters are little better. There is no true malice in what they do, but they hurt blameless individuals just the same.Those who are not amoral, i.e.,those who attempt to do what is right, don't have such clear guidelines. The scientists, who send frequent telegrams back to the absent Pasteur, are like believers trusting in a silent God. He sent them forth with a few basic rules, such as being sure to wash their hands frequently and to avoid drinking water that hasn't been boiled, but as far as pursuing the microbe is concerned, they are flying blind.I think I want to reread The Plague, the allegorical Camus novel this reminds me of, and then return to this again. And I think I'm going to wash my hands more often now, too!
Do You like book An Imperfect Lens: A Novel (2006)?
I like the style of this book, but I was frustrated by the ending!
—Rebecca
This novel, set in 1880's Alexandria, is both a medical mystery and a romance. It was inspired by a one line reference in a non-fiction book The Microbe Hunters, and deals with a mission to discover the causes of a devasatating cholera epidemic in the city. Louis Pasteur sends a team of his young assistants to gather evidence so that the French can claim the achievement. The main character is based on a real scientist named Louis Thuillier who rises to this challenge in a heroic way. In Alexandria he and his team befriend a Jewish doctor and his family, the Molinas. In the meantime, a German researcher, Koch, also arrives at the scene so a competition to discover the cause of cholera ensues. Louis and Este Molina, daughter of the Jewish doctor embark on a romance. The novel depicts the squalor and decadence of the city as well as a fascination with science and the scientific method. The story is both disturbing and realistic in its depiction of the disease and how powerless the citizens of the city are in the face of its path. i was interested to read this novel because I also have ben re-reading Durrell's Alexandria quartet, and recently read the new Cleopatra biography.
—Lianne
I’m a fan of well-done historical fiction, and I liked this a great deal. There are many, many things to hold the reader’s attention - the desperate race to find the cause of cholera, two romances (both involving the same girl, Este) with very different outcomes, British colonialism, the interaction of long-established Jewish families within Alexandria, the dynamic between the three young French scientists. It never became overwhelming, nor did it feel like Roiphe was trying to jam too many characters into one story; all the plot lines were well-developed and intertwined neatly. Par for the course with me, though, I thought the most interesting character was the lab assistant, Marcus, and could have read a little more about him.What did get somewhat overwhelming were the lengthy passages describing both cholera and Alexandria. I felt those passages went far past simply evoking fear of the disease or awe/horror/disgust of the city – it became a bit like taking a vacation to Washington, DC, and trying to see every single museum in three days. Others may like it, I personally don’t need that much description to form an image in my mind. Additionally, there’s really only so much description of the scientific research process that I need.
—Miss_otis
