[.ca] An Obvious Enchantment: A Novel (ISBN 0375758208)

From Amazon.com:
Tucker Malarkey's accomplished first novel follows the trail of a young anthropology researcher as she tries to locate her beloved elderly mentor, who appears to be missing. Ingrid Holtz knows that Professor Templeton has been searching for clues to the existence of an African king who he believes brought monotheism to the Swahili Coast as much as three centuries before the arrival of Islam, paving the way for the quick conversion of the region. She worries that Templeton (a figure not unlike her father) may be losing his mind, or that he has put himself in danger. Although there is a European enclave on the island of Pelat, none of the colonials seem especially helpful to Ingrid. They barely know Templeton, who avoided their hangout at the Salama Hotel bar, and what little they know his student must slowly prize free over afternoon beers. The natives and the Kenyan-born whites are another matter; they know a great deal, she suspects, but she must constantly battle their sexism and their distrust. One night Ingrid goes to the Salama with notes from Templeton's journals, hoping to attract the assistance of Finn Bergmann, a handsome yet chronically drunk and evasive European-Kenyan, whose father built the Salama Hotel. But Bergmann slinks away, and Ingrid is left writing anguished, talismanic notes on a cocktail napkin: "Templeton, I need you. Please appear." She let the ink of her pen bleed onto the words until they were illegible, suddenly certain that he was not coming. She finished her whiskey and, when she felt the panic surging back, ordered another. What are you afraid of, Ingrid? Tricks of momentum? Why have you come all this way? Ingrid is left to find her own strange allies on the island, as well as unexpected enemies. Along the way, she must continue to adjust her ideas of what it means to be a woman and alone, surrounded by people who believe in the unseen and who watch her for signs of possession by an evil spirit. The real question is whether Malarkey's heroine is the sheep or the shepherd in her search for the elusive Templeton. Despite a few stock characters and some stiff, unlikely dialogue, An Obvious Enchantment offers suspenseful, escapist reading for a lazy Sunday or a dark and stormy night. --Regina Marler

fabulous first novel:
Ingrid is a fabulously complex character; the real mystery here was not whether she would find her mentor-professor, but whether she would come to discover something about herself. I thought the portrait of the expatriates was right on target, too. I read this book straight through in two nights.

Broken Promises:
There is the tale and there is the telling of the tale. In the case of "An Obvious Enchantment," Tucker Malarkey displays a remarkable gift for the telling. The tale, however, does not begin to deliver what it promises. Ingrid, a graduate student of anthropology, follows her reluctant, elderly, utterly opaque major professor, Nick Templeton, on a mysterious (and never quite clear) quest to an island off the coast of Kenya. The elusive Templeton leads a shadowy existence throughout most of the story and while the reader waits to discover if Templeton is the true object of Ingrid's affection or merely a father substitute, Ingrid bounces indecisively from one drunken, dysfunctional expatriate to another--from Danny to Finn to Wickes--searching more for her own direction than for Templeton or the mystery of when and how Islam reached the Kenyan Coast. Although promised, there are no meaningul insights into the Koran, Kenya or even anthropology. (There is some pretty good lore on marlin fishing, though I haven't the foggiest what that has to do with the story.) As an exercise in self-absorption, gauzy description of exotic locales and pointless narrative vignettes and pirouettes, "An Obvious Enchantment" has some appeal, if not enchantment. Ms. Malarkey has much to learn about the craft of telling a tale. We may all hope that she, her agent, her editor and her publisher will become more disciplined and less enchanted before her next work appears.

Best I've read in a long time:
I read this book over the weekend in one sitting. I could not put it down! I tried to slow down in the last few chapters to make it last longer.... Malarkey's lush settings and superb character description pulled me in so completely. Ingrid was wonderful. And Finn! I think I fell in love with Finn.... The tension between the two characters was sublime. Templeton was a great guy, even if he did \omake me mad\c. These characters came to life. Malarkey is a promising author, and I hope to see many more books from her in the future.

BRILLIANT!:
This book is brilliant and beautiful. You really do have to read it, then you will understand-- it's like poetry.

Wishing Well:
This novel starts off in Egypt. Ingrid Holtz is on the trail of the Pharaoh Hatshepsut, one of the most intriguing kings in Egyptian history, mainly because she was in fact a woman. Ingrid seems to be prone to impulse and boredom - she had originally begun her research on Akhenaten, the Pharaoh who abolished all the Egyptian gods and introduced monotheism and worship of the sun, paving the way for Egypt's acceptance of Christianity. Her mentor, Professor Nick Templeton, is working on similar lines, but has disappeared whilst researching on the Swahili coast. Rather improbably, Ingrid persuades her faculty to let her go to Pelat Island too. As the board notices, Ingrid's quest seems to be for Templeton himself, rather than research into monotheism. Templeton believes that an African King brought Islam to the Swahili coast, three centuries before Persian traders supposedly did so. Ingrid is interested in drawing links between this African King and Akhenaten. However, Templeton has a tendency to lose himself in his work, and no one can be sure of the validity of his claims for such an African King. His research methods, although often brilliant, are quite unconventional. Ingrid arrives on Pelat, but there is no sign of Templeton. Neither is Finn Bergmann visible, with whom she has already had a brief fumble. Finn is the son of the founder of the Salama Hotel, the main point of Western civilization on the island. It's not long before Ingrid finds that the island has been divided into two communities by the arrival of the hotel. There's the community that supports and works in the hotel, and the community that abhors it. Like many of the inhabitants, Finn spends his time emptying a perpetual glass. This is one place where Islam and alcohol mix uneasily. There are also other, less Western drugs, that are consumed upon the island - Miraa is a kind of amphetamine. There are hints that Ingrid may be in love with Templeton to some degree. She certainly finds out where he has been staying soon enough, but discovers only his papers. Her search is also hindered by the fact that Finn seems indifferent to her now. There's also Danny, but he's even more drunk than Finn. Ingrid stays in Abdul's house, where she is intrigued by glimpses of Abdul's new wife. Ali permanently attends her to, whether she likes it or not. On the far side of the island, Stanley Wicks is also building a hotel. Stanley has a troubled relationship with his wife, and suspects her of sleeping with her personal trainer, who's called Adolpho. None of the English characters in the book are particularly savory. Stanley is likeable enough, but he seems to have been drawn from quite a stereotypical American view of the English - one of the stumbling blocks to his marriage, we are told, is that he and his wife come from different classes. By the end of the book, you cannot help but feel more than a little sorry for Stanley, even although a misdeed of his forms the catalyst of the book. Less sympathetic is Templeton, who's only seen briefly throughout. Ingrid seems to represent a bumbling, naive America, fresh and new when compared to a decayed and crumbling Europe. The Anglo-Africans seem to have lost their sense of identity, unsure of whether they are European or African. Although colonialism also runs through Ingrid's blood, she puts on a much brasher front, because she's part of the majority in the US. Ingrid treads carefully, which is just as well, because she is always limping for one reason or another. She picks up clues here and there, both concerning Templeton's African King, and Templeton himself. Finn observes that like many academics, she seems to pull facts from the air. At the beginning of the novel, Louis asserts that the famous Egyptian pyramids were built in the pattern of the Belt of Orion. Yet one feels uneasy about this, because such ideas are still in the realm of Graham Hancock's pseudo-science, and have not been accepted by serious academics, to my knowledge. But then Templeton questions the very foundation of truth and facts in the book, since his truth seems more dependent on faith. Extracts from the Koran abound in the book, and another mystery emerges: why is there such a schism between the faiths when many of them share the same tales? This is an intriguing book, often difficult to get to grips with, and far more rewarding on the second or third reading. It's not perfect - perhaps some more of the book could have been excised, and it does lead to quite an unusual conclusion. Perhaps Tucker Malarkey's writing is a bit too subtle at times, and a tad over-ambitious. I couldn't help thinking of Patricia Highsmith's 'The Tremor of Forgery' as a comparison, and Highsmith's is the more compelling book and much more satisfying. The delights of An Obvious Enchantment are much harder to dig for, despite the title - but please do it read it again.