The Marvels

I listened to my first Brian Selznick novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. That’s right, I listened to it. It was so well done I had no clue the novel contained almost 300 pages of illustrations until I happened upon it in Barnes and Noble a few months later. Pictures! Such amazing pictures! I was hooked.

Selznick has long been celebrated for pioneering a new genre of literature – one that includes elements of a storybook, graphic novel, and prose novel. Somehow, Selznick brings elegance and order to the chaos of this wild form and manages a complex interweaving of storylines. It is impressive, to say the least.

As I lugged The Marvels out of Costco last week, the weight in my hands (665 pages, to be exact) and excitement I felt could only be compared to the last time I brought home a newly released J.K. Rowling novel – I anticipated a world of wonder, assured by past experience that what I was about to encounter would leave me breathless.

Sadly, I was still breathing normally by the end of this book.

The Marvels contains two separate, but united stories. The 390 page illustrated section starts in 1766, where the reader is introduced to Billy Marvel, who is aboard an American whaling ship that is caught in a storm and wrecks. As the sole survivor, his story continues as he makes a life for himself in London and becomes the patriarch to a long line of actors in the Royal Theater.

The prose portion begins in 1990. Joseph, a boarding school runaway, makes his way to his eccentric Uncle’s house in London. He seeks sanctuary with this man he has never met, who lives in a house that is as fascinating as it is odd. Here, the two narratives begin to intersect in unexpected ways.

I enjoyed this novel, but it didn’t have the charm of Selznick’s previous works. As always, Selznick’s illustrations were magnificent. The heavy pencil drawings are vivid and intricate. It amazes me how well a story can be told without words. In The Marvels, Selznick’s genius definitely lies in his pictures, not his text though. The text portion started off sharp, but began to drag about halfway through. When the final mystery was revealed, it was satisfactory, but not compelling. Though full of detail, the overall narrative was too heavy, even a bit morose and depressing at times.

Finally, there is a bit of a controversy (one that I was blissfully unaware of before purchasing and reading) surrounding this book. You can easily discover it through a Google search or by reading reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. Or, just by reading the novel yourself. Yes, I have my opinions on this topic. No, I don’t feel like sharing them here. :)

My advice for Selznick readers is to take your time while “reading” the drawings. It’s easy to flip through these quickly because you really want to see what happens. But slow down. Look for the details. They are there and they are important to understanding the entire narrative.

The Marvels didn’t make me want to run out and buy an “I heart Selznick” t-shirt (do they make those?), but it did leave me pondering how the past, real or imagined, can bring beauty and wonder to the present. And that’s worth the pain of hauling a 665 page tome out of Costco.