I hesitate to start this review with the following outline: The Gargoyle is the story of  pornographer and cocaine addict who, fearing a shower of arrows, runs his car off a cliff and almost burns himself in a fiery crash, only to wake up seven weeks later in a burn unit of a hospital wishing he in fact had died instead of surviving. From that point, the story really gets weird, but I’ll leave that for those of you willing to consider this novel.

‘Willing suspension of disbelief’ is what is necessary for the reader of this first novel by Andrew Davidson. Trust me, if you get a few chapters into The Gargoyle, you will continue until the end, despite what seems an absurd story. It is in fact a love story of sorts, a mystery, a history, a description of the macabre. I won’t tell you much more for fear that you will stop right now and not even consider the book.

My reasonably well educated and well read cousin e-mailed me the other day about The Gargoyle:

        “It’s difficult for me to put my overall reactions to Gargoyles into a succinct package.  I found it extraordinary for the author’s ability to achieve a suspension of the “real” and enter into the imaginative world of the narrator. After the first few chapters, I no longer cared to try to see what was real or not, just as the woman (Marianne) was acting in a world that was authentic to her. The narrator travels along with her so that he can suspend judgment concerning her fantasies. Also, I got totally involved in
]q the historical arc that ran through the book.”

I’m not sure what it was about this novel that intrigued me. I am reading more and more non fiction and only on occasion now divert and indulge in novels. And rarely one such as The Gargoyle. But Davidson has a way of grabbing you and taking you along with him on a journey that is only to be enjoyed if you leave behind any concerns about reality. Maybe it’s the love story; tho it’s not a love story of the traditional, romantic sort. Maybe it’s just wanting to figure out Marianne’s story. Or maybe there’s some of the narrator in all of us.

It’s hard to believe that this is a first novel.  The newspaper reviews have been mixed. See here and here. A different ‘story’ about Davidson’s novel seems to be taking place with the readers of the book; I sense a bit of  ‘underground’ excitement as ‘ordinary folk,’ bloggers, and booksellers have been much more positive than have the professional reviewers. More than 1600 readers at Goodreads.com rated the novel above four (4.08 on a scale of 1-5).

Could be a good book for your book club. 

Let me know if you read it what you think.