This is the second in a series of six reviews of the Best Novel nominees for the Nebula Awards.
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak – Highly Reccomended
I’m going to come right out and say this is not the sort of book I would typically read. After all, it has feelings in it (this of course meant as a joke…kinda). With that diclaimer out of the way, I can tell you that I rather liked it, in fact. Despite it’s relatively short length, this is not a fast read. This is because Barzak writes so well, and with such subtlety, that one really needs to give it the time it deserves.
A quibble I can see many genre snobs having with this book is “its not really Fantasy”. I know this because I was of this opinion at first as well. One has to remember that Fantasy comes many shades. Not all of it is in the vein of the Tolkienesque sword and sorcery epic. Some novels take a more subtle line. Christoper Barzak certainly took this route in The Love We Share Without Knowing. There are no big battles at the bases of erupting volcanos, no Dark Lords, no magic spells, nor wonderous creatures. There’s “just” a bunch of intensely unhappy people in Japan…oh and the ghosts.
The unhappiness is universally tied in with the novel’s central theme, Love (you could have never guessed right). Almost every major slant on love is discussed: lost love, parent-child love, romantic love, unrequited love, and so on. Each is given a very subtle and sensitive treatment. Barzak seems to have a gift for writing about strong feelings that just feels right. In many cases his manner of expressing things is downright beautiful.
For some, the structure of the novel could be puzzleing. One would be forgiven for thinking that this is in actuality a book of short stories, as it is composed of several largely self-contained narritives. There are several things that separate distinguish this book as a novel, the first being unity of theme. Sure you can have a group of stories on the same topic and not have it be a novel, but here the stories support one another and are structured in such a way thay they would be less than they could be in isolation. Each builds on the others and, in the end, they come full circle.
Another thing that distinguishes The Love We Share Without Knowing as a novel is the interconnections between stories. A character briefly mentioned in one story is the the focus of another. So the girl Elijah meets on the subway in the first story will be with us again later in the book. This gives the novel an arc (though not a plot) which ties it together in an interesting way.
The cast is varied and everyone seems “fully realized”, with no one feeling like a cardboard cut-out. They all have real problems and react to them in a realistic way. These characters are variously self-absorbed, lonesome, guilt-ridden, resentful and at times downright delusional. Nevertheless, I found myself caught up in these problems, because the foibles are handled in a very sensitive way. In my mind this is the ultimate halmark of good writing.
Of course, no character recieves a more fleshed out portrayal than the main character, which in this case is Japan itself. This is one of those novels where place is everything. In this case Japan and Japanese culture are what make many of the situations in this novel possible. Barzak’s portrayal makes it clear that he has been a long-term visitor. He writes of Japan with a level of comfort and and detail that only one with a deep, personal familiarity can achieve, yet he writes with a clarity that is typically found from outsiders who typically notice things that natives take for granted. The result is a deeply engrossing experience that will leave you with a better understanding of a people and a culture.
Ultimately, The Love We Share Without Knowing is a sad but beautiful book. It is an example of excellent writing that actually trancends genre specification. This isn’t a great Fantasy book, it’s a great book in general and would be appreciated by anyone open to a quieter, more introspecitve reading experince.
