Radiant City [Hardcover]

 

 

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George Orwell's 1933 Down and Out in Paris and London, comes to mind when reading Lauren B. Davis's thought-provoking novel. Orwell, having lived among the downtrodden, intimately portrayed poverty, misery and despondency in the first decades of the twentieth century. Davis sets her story against the backdrop of a contemporary version of Paris' underbelly. Far away from the tourist sites and the city's glamour, her characters are refugees, immigrants and survivors of violence and war, seeking forgetting , physical and emotional healing or redemption in the anonymity of the "radiant city".

The novel centres around war correspondent Matthew Bowles, who, having witnessed most of the world's recent wars and civil conflicts, is struggling with accumulative post-traumatic stress. He is "hiding" in a tiny attic flat in the 8th arrondissement, attempting to write his memoirs, courtesy of a solid book advance. Sometimes, images of recent trauma are so immediate and overpowering that he has to escape into drink and the haze of sleeping pills. He runs into a former colleague, Jack Saddler, Vietnam vet, ex mercenary and now photographer, who has his own demons to fight. The shady bar scene, the dark corners and alleyways of the city's immigrant quarters bring as much temptation as danger to body and soul of the vulnerable. Matthew is drifting into a downward spiral of mental fog and easy violence. Will he be able to save himself?

A kind of counterbalance to these "walking wounded" is Saida Ferhat, who runs the Lebanese cafe across the square from Matthew's place. She exudes calm and competence on the outside, yet under the surface she also has to struggle with her own traumas and memories. Increasingly, she is also deeply worried about her sixteen-year old, impressible son Joseph. She hopes and prays that Matthew and his friends can influence the boy away from the gangs and dangers in the neighbourhood...

Davis's novel depicts a colourful cast of characters: each is trying to deal with life and the obstacles, real or imagined, that stand in the way. She astutely captures the vulnerabilities and the dramatically and constantly changing moods of her primary protagonists. In small doses, the back story to each of them comes to light, allowing for a fuller understanding of their current conditions. Her straight forward and precise descriptions and her detached tone, even when recounting highly disturbing incidents, create, in this reader's view at least, a sense of distance and detachment from the characters. We can observe without much engagement. Matthew and to a lesser degree Saida, are the only characters allowing the reader some insights into their inner self, their emotional turmoil and struggle to cope and to attempt recovery.

Paris is an exciting and vividly evoked setting, the author's intimate knowledge of the city is evident. Having lived in Paris for some ten years, she leads the way through back streets and alleyways just as confidently as she depicts the steamy and lewd nightlife in the Bois de Boulogne. At times, however, the elaborate details are in danger of moving the reader away from the essence of the story. [Friederike Knabe]

How much pain and tragedy can one person absorb? How do such experiences change us? This is the riveting story of a war correspondent who has seen recent history up close and way too personal, his friends who have dealt with their own measure of violence, and an exiled Lebanese family he befriends. These are people whose personal suffering forces them to grapple with responsibility in new and different ways. Set in Paris, where the author has lived, and whose neighborhoods and changing immigrant face are vividly portrayed, the novel is finely written. Some passages, even when they are describing impossibly difficult issues, are extraordinary.

I've just finished The Radiant City and feel almost bereft. I hated to leave the characters in the story, so many of whom I had come to deeply care for. The book is brilliant - exquisitely written, metaphorically stunning and so rich in detail and philosophy that words fail me when it comes to describing the intensity of my reading experience with it. The book hangs on a terrific story but at the same time is a meditation on cultural and class relations, family dynamics, friendship, good and evil and that tricky blurred area in between those extremes. It also explores how so many of us are wounded at the core and the way that past trauma somehow always lives in the present despite our best efforts to move on. The characters in the story are deeply drawn and the descriptions of Paris are lush with contrasts. The author puts you right into each scene and you can see, taste, hear and smell the Paris of this story and the people in it as you might while watching a beautifully made film or having a very vivid dream. Highly recommended for anyone who likes a great story that also makes you think.

Ann Fischer

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5.0 out of 5 stars An important bovel
Lauren B Davis is one of the significant expatriate Canadian novelists of the 21st century, and The Radiant City explores vital contemporary issues of war, loyalty, violence, and... Read more

Published 15 months ago by Todd Swift

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant. A must read.
Although the POV, (3rd person present tense), was startling at first, Davis's easy style and the story's beautiful language draws this reader in effortlessly. Read more

Published 20 months ago by Renee Miller

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic
The Radiant City is written in beautiful language. The author really is a master story-teller, and it's clear that there was much meticulous research done. Read more

Published on Jan 8 2009 by lucinda

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