Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“The Book of Doors” (A Novel)
By: Gareth Brown
Narrated by: Miranda Raison
Gareth Brown (Scottish author, his first published novel.)
Gareth Brown envisions the power of books and those who read or listen to them. Brown infers books are the source of the world’s joys and troubles. The heroine of his story is Cassie Andrews. She is introduced as an employee of a bookstore. The book begins with a conversation between her and a customer. The customer is old but treated with curtesy and interest by Cassie. They talk about books they have read and enjoyed. Their last conversation is about “The Count of Monte Christo” and their mutual appreciation of its story.
The old man slumps and dies in the bookstore after his conversation with Cassie. He leaves a book on a table near him. It is titled “The Book of Doors”. After the police arrive and the body is removed from the store, Cassie sees the book and picks it up.
“The Book of Doors” is a metaphor for the power of books to transport one’s mind to the past, present, and future–particularly when it is well written.
A note in the book is to Cassie telling her it is a gift to her. Gareth Brown’s imaginative story begins. Brown creates a story about a book that gives the power of time travel to the one who possesses it. Nearly as significant, Brown reports there are a series of books like “The Book of Doors” that have the power to control all the good and bad things that happen in the world.
As with all popular books classified as fantasy, Brown tells a story that has basis in truth. Reading books influences human thought and action in the world.
Brown takes a giant step beyond influence by suggesting books control human thought and action. He tells a story of a secret library with a series of books with titles like “The Book of Pain”, “The Book of Joy”, “The Book of Matter” and others that are the source of human experience. The owner of that library in Brown’s story is Drummond Fox, a Scottish aristocrat and librarian.
Cassie chooses to briefly escape the world because of what she thinks is the loss of her close friend. She travels to a “nowhere” place to think and do nothing.
The cleverly written adventures of Cassie in Brown’s story are the attraction of the book. However, there are unresolved puzzles in “The Book of Doors”, even though the adventures are thrilling. Cassie believes earlier travel to the “nowhere place” was the original source of the book’s creation. She thinks she may have been the source of their writing. As she decides to return to the world, she reasons she may have created the books in this “nowhere” reality.
Questions never answered are whether the books should be destroyed, how or why Cassie may have been the books’ creator, and whether Cassie is immortal or destined to die.
REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE 