Book #10: The Book of Air & Shadows

Book #10
Title: The Book Of Air & Shadows
Author: Michael Gruber
Pages: 464
Grade: A
Buyability: 7/10
Status: Owned (freebie)

Well at first glance, at least by the book's description, you might think, as I did, that this book is a Da Vinci code rip-off with a literary focus. And yes it's in the same wave - an intricately woven novel of suspense, mystery, and history mixing up a lost Shakespearean play with the stories of two men trying to get their lives on track. But Gruber refuses to fall into the that trap by creating fully realized, dynamic characters, using a lot less user friendly but more literary prose, and designing a book that doesn't read like a movie, but like a book.

The story alternates between the first-person perspective of Jake Mishkin, a sexaholic corporate lawyer whose background is in copyright law, and the third-person perspective of Al Crosetti, a late-twenties slacker who is stuck in a basement cataloguing antique books while he dreams of moving out of his parents house and going to film school. The two men's lives become intertwined upon the discovery of a set of letters from the 1600's that unlock some secrets to William Shakespeare's life - including the potential whereabouts of a hand-written Shakespeare play that was never produced. The twist? Well everyone and their mom (including Crosetti's mom) appears to want to grab a hold of the letters and subsequently the play - including the Russian mafia, the Jewish mafia, a number of professors including one who is tortured to death, librarians, historians, cryptographers and many many more!

Although I was at first overwhelmed by certain elements of the book - Mishkin's overbearing persona, the olde englysh (ha) of the Bracegirdle letters which mark the end of each chapter and the rather complicated act of encrypting the text - I eventually just got drawn in. The lengths of the chapters are appropriately spaced so reading one feels like a good bout of information, you can take a break, mull it over, and then come back. It was rare that I wanted to stop a chapter midway, and rare that I was able to consume more than 2 at a time.

I liked the massive number of questions that popped up as well - the book was not solely about the hunt for this manuscript, but a million other things as well. The payoff, as such, as not just about whether or not they found the manuscript and whether or not it was authentic either. The characters all had their own intriguing storylines and sub-plots that compelled me to read along - minor or major. I also liked the fact the book took style cues from a variety of genres - such as old mystery novels with last names, action books like The Da Vinci Code, literary fiction and so on...

My only warnings would be to be prepared to involve yourself a lot more heavily than you would have to with something written by Dan Brown. This is not exactly a book of light reading, but one of rewarding and enjoyable reading. The story manages to flow lightly and feeds you clues to the puzzle throughout making for an enchanting story that I quite literally could not put down last night just to finish it! My only other complaint would be the last three or four chapters seemed a bit rushed. There was so much slow boiling to the climax that it felt cramped with action of the movie variety.

All in all a great book and I look forward to seeing the response it receives from the reading community - Gruber is one to watch, that's for certain.