Iain Pears’s The Dream of Scipio, 2002, about hundred and sixty-five thousands words in three parts spanning 392 pages.
Three characters separated by time but connected by a single text. The first character writes the text, but only the second character is able to demonstrate the courage expressed in that text, while both the first and third fail. The narrative jumps from one story to the other with the connection only ‘understood’ at the end of the narrative.
You would be forgiven if you thought the above is about the film The Hours (2002, directed by Stephen Daldry) but actually it is about the novel The Dream of Scipio.
The novel adds complexity to the narrative by telling the three stories three times. The first part tells the three stories from beginning to end but concentrates on the beginning, the second part (the longest) concentrates on the middle part of the three stories and the last part (the shortest) concentrates on the ending of the three stories.
Another complexity is that the narration not only jumps from one story to the other but also jumps within the timeline of each story, so, for example, the novel opens with the death of the third character. The three parts are not divided into chapters but instead there is a paragraph space when the narrative jumps to another point.
Although all three stories are told in the first part they won’t be understood until the last part, so, for example, the death of the third character, which also closes the novel, will only be understood at the last page.
This twofold complexity makes the novel, somewhat, hard to read. The novel is described as “dense” and “erudite” on the back jacket and I agree.
I will not go into the plot, but it suffices to say that all three characters live in uncertain times facing important question which forces them to make moral and ethical choices, also all three are in love with a woman from a religious minority at a time when this minority is under attack.
The text that links all three is The Dream of Scipio a philosophical text written by the first character, the title is taken from a real text (by Cicero) but it is a fictitious one (unlike The Hours).
I’ve only read one other book by Pears and that is Death and Restoration part of his ‘Art History Mystery’ series. Unfortunately it is worthless pulp and not even a good mystery, avoid this series but give Iain Pears a try.
