Review: The Map of Time, by Félix Palma

I have to start by admitting that this book was a big disappointment to me. The cover, the synopses, the reviews all had me ready to read a book about the mysteries of time travel. Instead, set in late Victorian era London "The Map of Time" gives readers a bit of a love story, a bit of mystery, a bit of science fiction, even a bit of biography, but it fails to fully develop any of these aspects and left me feeling cheated on all fronts.

Palma does a fine job of setting the Victorian stage. Historical fiction lovers will gobble up references to locations, people, and current events that almost disrupt the flow of the story by being too frequent and without impetus. The writing itself is Victorian in flavor with a flowery prose and the faux pas of author intrusion, which I found distracting. Other than that I find the book difficult to sum up or review because it's just not cohesive. Divided into three stories it relies on common characters, mainly the character of H. G. Wells, and the concept of time travel, to make it into one, but it just feels like the author is attempting too many things. The several pages devoted to Joseph Merrick, for instance, have no importance other than planting the scene firmly in the late 19th century and setting up a brief red herring in the form of a magic basket that isn't magic.

There are hints throughout the book of a greater discussion—a deeper meaning—but the allegory is left incomplete. References to class discrepancy, gender issues, and colonialism are present but never expounded on and leave the reader hanging. And if I started enjoying the book in the last 50 pages I can only say that I wish the first 500 had been so engaging. Some people will really like this book, and for a light read it isn't bad, I just can't give it a rave review.

Book 26 on my way to 52 in 2011

On George Sand, and incenst

"I was only too delighted, and Mamma went to fetch a parcel of books of which I could not distinguish, through the paper in which they were wrapped, any more than their short, wide format but which, even at this first glimpse, brief and obscure as it was, bade fair to eclipse already the paintbox of New Year's Day and the silkworms of the year before. The books were La Mare au Diable, Francois le Champi, La Petite Fadette and Les Maitres Sonneurs." (pp.52)

"La Mare au Diable", "Francois le Champi", "La Petite Fadette" and "Les Maitres Sonneurs" are all works of George Sand.

George Sand was the pseudonym of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (1804-1876) lived and wrote during the 1848 revolution that ultimately brought about the third republic. She started life in a pretty standard way for time period, married and had two children, then left her husband in 1831. From there she diverged from the customary; She wore mens clothing, she openly smoked tobacco, and she lived an independent life prolific in writing and love affairs. She was a contemporary and lover of Chopin and Musset, among others, and a close friend of Flaubert. I have not read any of her works, but understand from their synopses that she wrote often about romantic affairs and used her novels to paint a picture of French customs and class and gender discrepancies while paving the way for stronger female literary characters. Again, since I haven't read them this is speculation based on summaries I've read here and there.

Two Sand factoids interest me most with regard to Proust. First, that some of her works may have challenged traditional gender roles, the word lesbianism having been thrown around some. We'll see that in "Search" as well. Second, that she wrote strong female characters into her novels, including one, in "The Country Waif", that ends up having a love affair with, and marrying, her adopted son. The word incest comes to mind, and so does Proust's very strong attachment to his own mother. That The Country Waif is the exact novel his mother reads to him on the night she spends with him in his room should not be skipped over. Beginning on pg.16, in his book "Proust, Beckett, and Narration", James H. Reid discusses the narrator's mother and her reading on that night.

Stage 4, incest and silence... from "Proust and the Sense of Time", by Julia Kristeva

p. 16 of "Proust, Becket, and Narration", by James H. Reid,

George Sand on Wikipedia

George Sand on AMSAW