In The Book of Madness
and Cures, Regina O’Melveny takes us on a wide-ranging circuit of emotion
and redemption, and we get a tour of the known world into the bargain. Set in
1590, this splendid debut novel follows the travels of young Gabriella Mondini
from her native Venice all the way to Scotland, and thence to Morocco, all in
search of her absented father, who is a doctor. This will reward the fortunate
reader, who will learn how medieval physicians viewed illness and fevers, but
more importantly, will get to follow Gabriella’s quest, where she encounters
love, death, security, and life-threatening danger. Gabriella’s quest is
important because it tempers her, it leads her to accept a final end to her
wanderings, and affords her a closure she barely dreamed of at its outset.
Signorina Gabriella is actually Dottoressa Mondini, an insightful and compassionate physician in
her own right, but the medical guild of her Venice home drums her out – women
are not allowed to practice. If this were not enough, Gabriella hasn’t received
a letter from her itinerant father for months, and she doesn’t know how long it
took the last one to reach her. She sets out, bringing two beloved servants
with her, and makes a daunting, almost heroic trip across Europe, with stops in
northern Italy, southern France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Scotland. At
every stop, she meets doctors who knew her father, and they relate an
ever-worsening picture. Increasingly, they think him unhinged, and she must
play dogged detective until she finds herself in a small desert settlement in
Morocco. I found the payoff here quite satisfying.
This denouement has everything: bewilderment and heartache,
as well as acceptance, affirmation, and the promise of a full, rewarding life. This
debut work promises brightly for its author, for the effects of fine fiction
are here: deep and real characters, a plot framework that builds our interest
and holds our sympathy. Ms. O’Melveny completes fiction’s oldest, and I
consider most difficult tasks: she captures our hearts’ sympathy, and our minds’
discernment, with her wonderful first-person heroine. Lesser characters are
also fully nuanced and believable, although not always so sympathetic.
The Book of Madness
and Cures ultimately contains the story of Gabriella’s own “madness,” her questing,
striving heart. Take this book up, for I know you will be as pleased as I was
at the balm contained in it for us all.
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