Leslie Parry
Two Roads/Hachette
Otago Daily Times, July 27th 2015
Leslie Parry’s debut novel, Church of Marvels, takes us back to the sweltering depths of late 19th Century New York City and into the tattered fringes of society where its outcasts and misfits scratch a living in the streets and slums. Here in this world of Jennysweeters and opium dens, penny Rembrandts and fanny boys, three intersecting story lines gradually coalesce into a picture of a fourth, overarching narrative of – and by – a voiceless woman whose fate lies at the heart of the story.
The novel opens when a nightsoil collector and small-time prize-fighter discovers a half-drowned baby in a tenement privy, a near-tragedy that leaves him searching the neighbourhood for clues as to who abandoned her and why.
Meanwhile a young sideshow performer, boards a ferry from Coney Island to Manhattan in the hope of finding her twin sister who disappeared without warning or explanation shortly after a fire at circus in which they were raised killing their mother and one of their closest friends.
And then there is the mortician’s wife who awakes to find herself in Blackwell lunatic asylum, her dreams of respectability and mother stripped away just as they were about to be realised and with a precious secret she must protect at all costs.
The narrative moves back and forth between the trio, revealing their pasts and drawing them together in a series of chance encounters and revelations – some of which are more obvious than others – that culminate in a moment of unity before sending each of them off on a new and potentially more hopeful trajectory.
The advance publicity for the novel compares it to Erin Morgenstern’s beautiful fantasy The Night Circus. But its grounding in, and strong evocation of, the gritty and often ugly reality of life in a major fin de secle American city reminded me much more of Emma Donaghue’s Frog Music, which I reviewed last year. As a result I was left less than convinced by either the series of happy coincidences upon which the plot depends or the optimism with which Parry’s characters greet the future. But if you are after a glimpse into the particular time and place in which it is set, Church of Marvels is probably worth the read.
https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/echoes-frog-music-tale-old-new-york
Leave a Reply