The Chemistry Within. (The Chymical Wedding - Lindsay Clarke)

Member Name: peel.rebekah

Product:	The Chymical Wedding - Lindsay Clarke
Date:	14/06/01 (152 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's very good.

Disadvantages: Nope (unless you don't like books, that is).

There is a book that will always stay firmly in my heart: There is no reason for this hidden in Clarke's style or language (although that helps some), not even in the choice of subject matter; however this secret love of mine rests in the man that gave me this book (and many others), and encouraged me to not only read, but also write (as well as to stand up, be counted, and to be proud).

In passing, I will mention this man by name, and hope that any of you who wander through Oxford will look him up and give him a big kiss from me: Nathan-Madonna Byers (silly name, silly man), will be more than happy to share his thoughts (and pints) with you.

And onto the review:

*The Story:

Alex Darkin has (with the help of his publisher and friend, Clive) ducked out of civilization for a while. A poet, an estranged husband and father, in search of that unnameable something to put him back in touch with himself. He seeks this uncertain meaning in the glossy glades of Norfolk; and while on his own personal quest, he stubbles across a couple of curiosities: Gypsy May (an original sheila-na-gig), and an age gap-ly challenged couple, making nooky in one of those glossy glades.

Alex also wonders a while over the short epitaph on an aging tombstone - that of Louisa Agnew (whose ancestor still lives in the area, has a penchant for lost poets, and whom Alex is soon to meet). Lousia?s history is also told by Clarke, running parallel to Alex's:

Daughter of Sir Henry Agnew and in tranquil servitude to her father's research; Louisa is a lamb of a girl (distant, reserved, yet loyal, trustworthy and empowered by education), who is in search of her own identity; that which is eclipsed by her father and his work, overshadowed by her mother's death in childbirth, and the new local priest.

Gypsy May is centerpiece in this world too:

'He stood, dumbfounded by her *Louisa's* frank smile - utterly other th
an the grotesque staring head of Gypsy May where the image squatted, high on the church wall, naked with drooping dugs, and both hands holding open the organ of her sex, as though she were about to drop a child in labour, or as though she might engorge a man.'

*What a wonderfully awful description*

Back into Alex's world, and he has the privilege of making the acquaintance of said mismatched couple (this time clothed), Edward Nesbit and his American lover, Laura (an artist and potter by trade). Seduced utterly by Laura's off handedness and somewhat by Edward's larger than life persona, Alex joins the couple in their story, their search; yet he remains uncomfortably outside their harmony throughout the book.

The two tales are tallied by the subject matter of the title - the Chymical Wedding, or the Hermetic Quest if you will (or turning base metals into gold on its most simple level): Edward and Laura request Alex's aid in investigating the Agnew family?s past, namely the diary and history of Louisa, in an attempt to discover the alchemycal truths that are held within.

To add more to the storyline would deprive you of the journey and discovery of this interweaving tale; a tale that will hold you steadfast until the last page (I promise).

*The Writing:

Is just so delectable. The Chymical Wedding far outweighs Clarke's other works (Sunday Whiteman and Alice's Masque), and was awarded the Whitbread prize in 1989.

The text is dripping with rich and sticky symbolism (Gypsy May aside) that would generally apply to a novel on such a subject. He leads us, with Alex, into an uncertain labyrinth of magical imagery (although subtly and gently taking us by the hand, rather than violently pushing us into the waters), that allow the mind to become entranced within the storyline:

At Alex's first Tarot reading, performed by Laura:

'Then, as I stared at the image, for
a terrifying hot instant I became it. The body of the tower was my body. I could feel the riot of flame within. The toppling crown of the parapet was my head lurching away into space under the impact of that excruciating stroke from the sky. Beneath me everything familiar had begun to keel and slide, and I was falling - not a free fall, but that sickening, bottomless plummet with which one sometimes jerks from sleep.'

Edward in discussion with Alex:

"Alchemy sees the world as a great dance of symbols. A delicate web of correspondences in which nothing is finally separable from everything else. It stars from this premise - from the experience - that the germ of life plays everywhere...We are implicate. We create only in our own image, like God, and therefore self-knowledge is of critical importance. Without it the consequences are diabolic."

*What it all means.

I suppose if this was America, and this book was a film, we would be looking at some sort of mystical road movie event. Luckily, it isn't, on both counts. Whether you wish to see the Chymical Wedding as a purely modern Hermetic tale or not is up to you; the comparable insights of Alex as he wanders through the book to the real Hermetic Quest are also there, as is his search for self and, in likeness, that of Louisa and Laura (one would add Edward, but he has become too sure and set in his ways).

Alchemy, and all its intrigue, becomes a codeword for personal insight and personal exceptance: Alex has to arrive at a point were he can except himself, his wife and his children (that sob for him in the distance). It's a bit like taking a year out or a holiday romance - all good and well for the adventure, intrigue and romance factor, but at some point, the call of reality will drag you back, and you'll have to deal with it - just maybe become a better man in between time, so that you can deal with it with insight.

The stories intertwine
to show us that these problems are ageless ones - we will always be in search of both ourselves, and the unobtainable. Worrying, but true.

*Conclusion.

I can't describe this book as a love story (although it does contain a bit of hootchie cootchie and a captivating obsession on Alex's part) or the magical mystery tour that the title suggests: It is simply a sweet (does that category exist?) book that deserves more attention (now that the years have passed and I see it on the shelves of many a charity shop). It is stunningly written (which leads to a BIG let down when you read other works by Clarke), wonderfully provocative, and downright charming.

Clarke (with this book) is my kind of writer: Lyrical, yet restrained; never telling his audience too much too soon; never over indulging himself in his descriptions (although they are truely wondrous at times), and, above all, writing to keep an audience entranced by his beautiful tale.

Big recommendation; no reservations, whatsoever; buy this book and thank me later.

Enjoy.

Summary: