A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom
Author: John Boyne
Reviewer: Albert Sword
Supplier: Paiges Book Gallery
It feels like I have just finished reading the Bible. No, not because Traveller is a long book, it is, 431 delicious pages, but the reason I have paired it with reading the Bible is that
Boyne's wonderful book reads like dozens of parables. Actually, it is the same story told and retold and retold again and again. Sounds decidedly boring, no? NO. Although the story is the same, or similar; the cast never changes but their names do, so why retell? Well ...
The story originates in Palestine in the year one, and the book ends, with the final story set in the future in the year 2080, with a hop there from the tumultuous happenings of 2016. When I figured out that the same story was cropping up again and again, took me a while, the thought passed through my mind that maybe this might become repetitive and boring, but the contrary was the case. The characters are so well drawn that, although their names change every few pages, and their deeds change also, the reader manages to hold on to the truth of the characters as they bump into and bounce off some of the biggest happenings in world history, including contemporary happenings of the last few years.
What a huge feat of prose and intellect, yet this novel is not filled with pretension. Again, to the contrary, as Boyne threads his story/stories, 52 separate gems, with beautiful, simple prose.
Historian Joseph Campbell made claim to there being only three stories known to mankind, which were repeated by and within every race and every faith. It seems John Boyne has refined these three down to one. One story, with variations. A magnificent feat, and a must read.
