Chapter Five - Arcadia by Iain Pears

I love it when this happens. This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for about 3 years. It's never seemed the right time to read it or I've never felt much like starting it. There's always been other books I've moved to the top of my 'To Be Read' pile ahead of it for one reason or another. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver has suffered a similar fate but for an even longer period of time. I'll get to it eventually! Perhaps I should give it a chance now because it turns out I absolutely adored Arcadia and I wish, now, that I had read it straight away. It is only because of this blog that I have selected it. It was in serious danger of being purged in a charity shop clear out. What a crying shame that would have been.

Here's what the 'blurb' says (which is quite helpful since this is quite a complex tale):

April, 1960: In the cellar of a professor's house in Oxford, fifteen-year-old Rosie goes in search of a missing cat -- and instead finds herself in a different world.

Anterwold is a sun-drenched land of storytellers and prophecies. But is this world real -- and what happens if Rosie decides to stay?

Meanwhile, a rebellious scientist is trying to prove that time does not even exist -- with potentially devastating consequences.

As the three worlds come together, one question arises: who controls the future -- or the past...? 

This is a story of parallel universes and time travel. Immediately, I know, that will put off some readers. Yes, there is a certain amount of timey-wimey (to quote the Doctor) stuff to get your head around but nothing too difficult or challenging. This would not cause a reasonably sophisticated YA reader too much bother, I  reckon. After a lot of doom and gloom in my previous reads, I was looking for something more positive and a bit more fun. This was certainly a lot of fun and enjoyable. An engrossing story to get lost in. And from the very start, there was an abundance of visions of idyllic landscapes that had been eluding me. Here's a section from the very start of the novel to give you an idea:

Imagine a landscape. Bathed in sunshine, sweet-smelling from the gentle shower that fell overnight then stopped as dawn broke. A dense grove of holm oak stands at the foot of a hill, damp with the drops of soft-sounding water which leave the ground moist but firm underfoot. In the distance a sliver of water, bright and glittering, reflects the brightness of the sky. The wide river is of a blue so translucent that it is almost indistinguishable from the heavens above...

You get the gist. And what a welcome change from the horrors of Gilead and other post-apocalyptic/dystopian futures! I'm not going to attempt to get involved in trying to give you an idea of what goes on the novel. It would be difficult to do so in a short blog post without really ruining the book. What I will say is that Iain Pears deals with the intricacies of plotting in such a magnificent way that it is impossible to lose your way. No mean feat with a book stretching to well over 700 pages. There are some wonderfully memorable characters here. I really liked Professor Lytten, the creator of Anterwold, who has no idea what is lurking in his cellar. Rosie, who looks after his cat, is likable and refreshing. But Angela Meerson is the stand-out character for me. There is something rather Phoebe Waller-Bridge about her. These are all characters you feel rather sad to bid farewell to. I ended up slowing down my reading so as to delay reaching the end for as long as I could. Another indication of a great read.

The author also attempted to do something new and exciting when this was originally published back in 2015. There was an accompanying app (still available) within which you could read the full novel. However, the text was mapped out a bit like a tube map so that the reader could decide which character 'journey' to follow and which route to take through the book. The various points where their stories converge are set out like station stops on the map.

An interesting idea but it wasn't for me. I prefer to have a book in my hands and read it from start to finish. This might have worked if it was providing additional material not included in the main book but it's not the way I want to read a novel. If you'd like further info, here's a handy, short explanatory video:

I'd definitely give Arcadia a full 5 out of 5. Well worth a read. It just delivers on every level for me.

In one section of the book, we discover that Professor Lytten had, at one time, been close friends with J.R.R. Tolkien. They had met in the pub to discuss their writing. I thought this was a clever sub-plot and it was used brilliantly in the book. I've read The Lord of the Rings twice and loved it. Also, of course, loved the movie trilogy (not so much The Hobbit movies though). It struck me that I know little about Tolkien and his life. What inspired him to create Middle Earth? So, my next stop on the Never-ending Book Story will be a biography of Tolkien by Michael White. I hope you'll join me for that. 

Do share my blog with friends if you think they'd be interested and sign up for email reminders so you don't miss a step on the journey. As ever, I'd love to hear what you thought of Arcadia if you've read it and also your thoughts on Tolkien in advance of my next post. Feel free to leave comments below.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, here is what a holm oak looks like. A rather nice image to end on...