I was surprised by how much I liked the book. I was actually looking for something to rant about and when I read the cover, I thought, "This sounds way too surreal and out-there." When I skimmed through it, it only seemed to confirm it. But when I actually sat down to read it, I found an odd, sad world that had interesting and well-developed characters, making the fantastic events centered around them seem much more realistic and down-to-earth than I would have thought. Even when a woman births a baby with a fish's head, her grief is very real even if the story is not. It was a very emotional book for me and did suck me in with the loneliness, sorrow, and growing strength to accept loss of all kinds.The book is well-written and full of description that pulled me along for the journey. The sea was a terrifying, isolating presence for me, as well - unpredictable, illusive, and angry as more misery welled up from its tides. When they traveled to Jerusalem (and all the nitty-gritty descriptions) and fought the storm, I couldn't put the book down.The woman (who experiences loss and makes up the story) had an interesting role as more of an observer than as a central character, which I found refreshing. Only in the end, when she is with the leper and then finally alone to travel on, it all came together and I thought that was terrific. I'm sure that a lot of the symbolism was lost on me, but I felt it. The only thing I didn't like was the time-line could be confusing at times. It's a tale of allegory mixed with vengeful mermaids, motherhood, devils and saints, death, lepers, and the sea."The priest taught her how to write her own name, and the name of the holy city of Jerusalem. When she put the two words together side by side she felt she had written the story of a long journey."
3.5 Stars rounded up to 4 Stars. (GR really needs to allow half stars!)Homer’s “The Odyssey.” Greek mythology. “The Canterbury Tales.” Echoes of each of these whisper through the pages of the mythopoeic “The Leper’s Companions.” A present-day woman, struggling with grief over a lost loved one, imagines herself into a medieval village. In the early chapters, she is an observer, watching the villagers as they struggle for daily survival against nature and each other. When some of the villagers - a leper, a priest, a shoemaker’s wife, and a widow - embark on a journey to Jerusalem, the woman joins them, though her role is still only the narrator and she never directly interacts with the characters. “The Leper’s Companions” is totally unique in styling, and the author has created an almost myth-like world filled with superstition, religion, and mortality. It wasn’t a book that I enjoyed to any great extent, but it certainly is a testimony to the author’s talent and creativity.
Do You like book The Leper's Companions (2000)?
The narration starts off as She...then two pages it becomes the first person so the reader sinks right into the sand of this story. It shifts back and forth between first and third person narration. I think that the first person really bring the reader into this dream world. A woman has experienced a lost and she creates an imaginary world to escape from it. It is the imagination that heals her wounds. Fantastical things happen right away. I read the dust jacket and was so intrigued. I expected to find out about what happen in the dust jacket description near the end of the book but it all happened so quickly and was revealed at the beginning of the book. Though nothing is revealed yet of the Leper.So far there are plenty of symbols of water, birth, motherhood.
—Duc
