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doreeny's review against another edition
2.0
The title of this novel refers to the description of the lunar landscape given by Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon. The world of the novel, however, is more desolate than magnificent.
At the age of ten, Duncan awakens to his life in an orphanage in northern Minnesota in the Iron Range region. He has no memory of the first ten years of his life. His mother, Maggie Bright, a has-been soprano, shows up and takes him to San Francisco to live with her and her sometimes live-in boyfriend, Joshua McGreevey, a Vietnam vet.
Although there are some important events, this is no action-filled plot; a large portion of the book consists of dialogue, lengthy descriptions of setting, and flights of imagination, much of which emphasizes life’s unrelenting suffering. In a relatively short period of time, the characters confront violence, depression, illness, and suicide.
Each of the characters is haunted by a past which in all cases involves some type of parental abandonment. It is soon clear that “there is no salvation and no redemption from the past,” but, like sewage, “The rain always pushed up the past so that you couldn’t forget it.” Maggie had a promising career as an opera singer, but a damaged larynx and a series of poor choices have led her to seeking solace in alcoholic oblivion. Joshua is another “damaged, fragile” soul because of his experiences in Vietnam; he is still in a state of war which he describes as “never forgetting even when you want to.” Duncan has “a singular longing that transfigures all other needs and desires,” the desire “to go home.” His mother does come for him, but there is much else he wants to know about his father and the first ten years of his life.
The seemingly endless despair is reflected in the setting. There is very little nice weather in either Minnesota or San Francisco; both places are constantly bombarded by storms of snow or rain or wind. Pathetic fallacy is used repeatedly; again and again the emotions of the characters are emphasized in lengthy descriptions of the weather and the behaviour of birds. For example, Maggie suddenly becomes angry with Duncan, and this description follows: “The day has darkened and Duncan is aware for the first time of the shadows . . . and the shifting gray beyond the kitchen windows. . . . Gulls shriek as they swoop down across the street . . . and a distant clap of thunder is quickly followed by rain tapping the glass . . . and then the shift siren from the Edison plant sounds, startling the both of them.” The constant use of these types of descriptions becomes tedious.
Amidst the litany of loneliness and regrets, it is difficult to find hope. The suggestion seems to be that there is hope because, as Duncan is told by one of the priests at the orphanage, “Through the gifts of the Holy Spirit [people] are granted the knowledge, the wisdom to see and understand, to perceive the divine in all things. And it is this ability to see which lifts [humans] from de profundis – out of the depths.” Duncan seems to have this ability; his mother, for example, speaks of her child as “her sweet, strange, beautiful Duncan, who managed to believe in angels and God and all manner of goodness in the world with such faith that it made her heart ache to experience it.” Maggie tells Duncan that even the monsters in one’s nightmares are “something very special and important given to people, it explained that which could not be explained, and only the very blessed received such aid.” She herself tries to reach the divine through her music; she says, “Always . . . the voice is striving to reach the heavens.” Duncan recognizes her search, “those notes and measures that could hold the soul . . . These songs shared a special grace, for in them, Duncan knows, she found her way to God.”
Duncan finds comfort in his belief that “God was with them, he was everywhere around them, they were in His care – he hadn’t forsaken or abandoned Duncan . . . and his heart seems to swell with the sense of Him.” The reader, however, may not find this assurance convincing, especially considering Duncan’s unfaltering belief that the astronauts never returned from the first manned moon landing. Children may have the ability to hold on to “their dreams and wishes” and, like Duncan, materialize ghosts of people “into being by the power of [their] longing.” Many writers have explored the idea that children are closer to divinity than adults; William Wordsworth, for example, explored this idea in his “Ode, Intimations of Immortality,” and William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience” contrast children’s and adult’s views of the world. In the end, Duncan should realize that he was mistaken about the fates of the Apollo 11 astronauts. Joshua’s fate certainly throws into question the goodness of the world and even Duncan’s mother thinks that eventually “the world would crush” Duncan’s belief in goodness, so there seems little relief for the overpowering bleakness of the novel: “The overwhelming reality of heartbreak and loss is simply too much to consider . . . “
The author is deft in his use of words, but I found the suffering and sadness so overwhelming that finishing the novel was a real struggle. Maggie works with terminally ill cancer patients and “she often feels so powerless and sad it is as if a great weight were placed upon her heart that she feels will never lift.” That is how I felt while reading this book. I saw the desolation but not the magnificence.
Note: I received a pre-release copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
At the age of ten, Duncan awakens to his life in an orphanage in northern Minnesota in the Iron Range region. He has no memory of the first ten years of his life. His mother, Maggie Bright, a has-been soprano, shows up and takes him to San Francisco to live with her and her sometimes live-in boyfriend, Joshua McGreevey, a Vietnam vet.
Although there are some important events, this is no action-filled plot; a large portion of the book consists of dialogue, lengthy descriptions of setting, and flights of imagination, much of which emphasizes life’s unrelenting suffering. In a relatively short period of time, the characters confront violence, depression, illness, and suicide.
Each of the characters is haunted by a past which in all cases involves some type of parental abandonment. It is soon clear that “there is no salvation and no redemption from the past,” but, like sewage, “The rain always pushed up the past so that you couldn’t forget it.” Maggie had a promising career as an opera singer, but a damaged larynx and a series of poor choices have led her to seeking solace in alcoholic oblivion. Joshua is another “damaged, fragile” soul because of his experiences in Vietnam; he is still in a state of war which he describes as “never forgetting even when you want to.” Duncan has “a singular longing that transfigures all other needs and desires,” the desire “to go home.” His mother does come for him, but there is much else he wants to know about his father and the first ten years of his life.
The seemingly endless despair is reflected in the setting. There is very little nice weather in either Minnesota or San Francisco; both places are constantly bombarded by storms of snow or rain or wind. Pathetic fallacy is used repeatedly; again and again the emotions of the characters are emphasized in lengthy descriptions of the weather and the behaviour of birds. For example, Maggie suddenly becomes angry with Duncan, and this description follows: “The day has darkened and Duncan is aware for the first time of the shadows . . . and the shifting gray beyond the kitchen windows. . . . Gulls shriek as they swoop down across the street . . . and a distant clap of thunder is quickly followed by rain tapping the glass . . . and then the shift siren from the Edison plant sounds, startling the both of them.” The constant use of these types of descriptions becomes tedious.
Amidst the litany of loneliness and regrets, it is difficult to find hope. The suggestion seems to be that there is hope because, as Duncan is told by one of the priests at the orphanage, “Through the gifts of the Holy Spirit [people] are granted the knowledge, the wisdom to see and understand, to perceive the divine in all things. And it is this ability to see which lifts [humans] from de profundis – out of the depths.” Duncan seems to have this ability; his mother, for example, speaks of her child as “her sweet, strange, beautiful Duncan, who managed to believe in angels and God and all manner of goodness in the world with such faith that it made her heart ache to experience it.” Maggie tells Duncan that even the monsters in one’s nightmares are “something very special and important given to people, it explained that which could not be explained, and only the very blessed received such aid.” She herself tries to reach the divine through her music; she says, “Always . . . the voice is striving to reach the heavens.” Duncan recognizes her search, “those notes and measures that could hold the soul . . . These songs shared a special grace, for in them, Duncan knows, she found her way to God.”
Duncan finds comfort in his belief that “God was with them, he was everywhere around them, they were in His care – he hadn’t forsaken or abandoned Duncan . . . and his heart seems to swell with the sense of Him.” The reader, however, may not find this assurance convincing, especially considering Duncan’s unfaltering belief that the astronauts never returned from the first manned moon landing. Children may have the ability to hold on to “their dreams and wishes” and, like Duncan, materialize ghosts of people “into being by the power of [their] longing.” Many writers have explored the idea that children are closer to divinity than adults; William Wordsworth, for example, explored this idea in his “Ode, Intimations of Immortality,” and William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience” contrast children’s and adult’s views of the world. In the end, Duncan should realize that he was mistaken about the fates of the Apollo 11 astronauts. Joshua’s fate certainly throws into question the goodness of the world and even Duncan’s mother thinks that eventually “the world would crush” Duncan’s belief in goodness, so there seems little relief for the overpowering bleakness of the novel: “The overwhelming reality of heartbreak and loss is simply too much to consider . . . “
The author is deft in his use of words, but I found the suffering and sadness so overwhelming that finishing the novel was a real struggle. Maggie works with terminally ill cancer patients and “she often feels so powerless and sad it is as if a great weight were placed upon her heart that she feels will never lift.” That is how I felt while reading this book. I saw the desolation but not the magnificence.
Note: I received a pre-release copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
bob_rubendunst's review against another edition
3.0
This Magnificent Desolation is four hundred and one pages of somewhat carefully constructed prose that lacks quotes around dialog. I suspect loss of punctuation was used to make the separation of thought from speech vague, to lead to a dream like quality to the story.
The novel begins with the Bill Safire actual speech prepared for Nixon to read in the event that the first Moon landing in 1969 left the astronauts stranded and dying on the Moon, rather than returning to Earth and adoration.
And it ends with an excerpt from the NASA flight log, with the first words about the moon landing are repeated three times (Beautiful view, magnificent sight, magnificent desolation), and then a fictional part about Michael Collins not replying is added to the very end.
In between, the novel follows a small handful of folks that feel abandoned or forsaken from a parent, or a lover. These feelings are amplified by the more than ample writing.
Whether you are pining for a parrot, a parent, astronauts, or a planet, this magnificent desolation is everywhere. Just remember, it is magnificent, and it can be shared.
The novel begins with the Bill Safire actual speech prepared for Nixon to read in the event that the first Moon landing in 1969 left the astronauts stranded and dying on the Moon, rather than returning to Earth and adoration.
And it ends with an excerpt from the NASA flight log, with the first words about the moon landing are repeated three times (Beautiful view, magnificent sight, magnificent desolation), and then a fictional part about Michael Collins not replying is added to the very end.
In between, the novel follows a small handful of folks that feel abandoned or forsaken from a parent, or a lover. These feelings are amplified by the more than ample writing.
Whether you are pining for a parrot, a parent, astronauts, or a planet, this magnificent desolation is everywhere. Just remember, it is magnificent, and it can be shared.
neko_em_reads's review against another edition
4.0
The more I read of this book the more attached I grew to the story and its characters. I picked this book up because it looked interesting. I never expected to enjoy the read as much as I did.
flogigyahoo's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to like Thomas O'Malley's novel This Magnificent Desolation but found it much too long--400 pages. Duncan is left by his mother at an orphanage run by monks in Minnesota and understands that his mother and father are dead. It takes a quarter of the book to find that his mother is alive and coming to take him home. Duncan is fascinated by the Apollo landings but is told that the astronauts never got back home; it was a Hollywood movie. Duncan sees the landing rerun on TV and from the reaction of Neil Armstrong to the lunar landscape we get the book's title. (Just 3 days ago I watched the movie First Man, on that very event. Also I too grew up in an orphanage so could relate to Duncan's unhappiness at life in his orphanage home which is described in great detail but quickly becomes repetitious.) Life with his mother is also problematic. She was an opera singer who lost her voice and is now poor and works at low paying jobs and a relationship with a war veteran suffering from trauma. Duncan begins life facing his own profound traumas but his hopeless story goes on far too long.
passarinho's review
4.0
First let me address Thomas O’Malley’s writing in this novel – the writing style is very poetic and eloquent, there’s a broad use of vocabulary, which I really appreciate, making the book pleasant to read. The only aspect that I think isn’t as enjoyable, is the fact that the narrative is sometimes overly descriptive, which makes the plot seem stuck, it’s definitely not a fast paced novel.
The plot isn’t very elaborate, and there aren’t a lot of characters, so keeping track of who is who isn’t a problem. The narrative is very character driven and all them are very well developed.
The book can be a bit depressing at times, topics such as depression or alcoholism are broadly patent through the book.
After leaving the orphanage, Duncan is caught in the middle of this desolate world, having to cohabitate with his troubled mother. His relationship with his mother is one of the most heartwarming aspects of the book. Despite all the problems that they face, the strong connection and love between them is something that is very noticeable.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I do suggest you to pick it up if you like books that delve into human relations, character driven novels, or if you enjoy lyrical prose.
The plot isn’t very elaborate, and there aren’t a lot of characters, so keeping track of who is who isn’t a problem. The narrative is very character driven and all them are very well developed.
The book can be a bit depressing at times, topics such as depression or alcoholism are broadly patent through the book.
After leaving the orphanage, Duncan is caught in the middle of this desolate world, having to cohabitate with his troubled mother. His relationship with his mother is one of the most heartwarming aspects of the book. Despite all the problems that they face, the strong connection and love between them is something that is very noticeable.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I do suggest you to pick it up if you like books that delve into human relations, character driven novels, or if you enjoy lyrical prose.