I signed on with the Lloyd Jones fan club after reading his breath-stealing novel Mister Pip. I’ve waded in his writing ever since, more or less to the same level of enjoyment. Until I read The Book of Fame. The novel is based on actual events (a team of New Zealanders tour the UK in 1905), but it is not history. It involves a sport (said team—the “All-Blacks”—play rugby) but requires no expertise in scrums and touches and wingbacks.
I know little more about rugby now than I did before I read The Book of Fame. But I do know more about human nature, camaraderie, and humility in the glare of the spotlight, than I ever thought possible. The novel, like Ondaatje’s Coming Through Slaughter or Baricco’s Silk, is art of the highest, most literary kind: ambitious, unique, utterly engaging, eloquent.
And, if such a thing were possible, better than Mister Pip.
This is a guest review by CS Richardson – VP & Creative Director, Canadian Publishing, Random House of Canada
The Book of Fame by Lloyd Jones
Published: Jun 07, 2011 by Vintage Canada
ISBN: 9780307397584
Price: $19.95
Chapters-Indigo
Amazon
If you like Lloyd Jones and “Mister Pip” (which I do), they you have to read “Hand Me Down World”. It’s so different. There’s a variety of voices telling the story of a child being taken away from an African woman to Germany by the child’s father. Each voice is unique and carries the story of the woman’s travels from Africa to Germany one step further. At the end, the woman tells her own story. It’s wonderfully written.
I also loved “Hand Me Down World”. It was exciting to read and to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It would be an excellent book group choice.