A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

An eight year old girl in war-torn Chechnya? Really?

It's a girl's book. I've never heard any guy talk about it. When it comes to the domestic sagas of overseas personages the females eat them up and the males don't even start. Which is why I had no intention of reading Anthony Marra's "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena."

It started with Marc's wife, he put her on the phone in a bar near midnight on the east coast and we started talking books. I told Abbie to read "We Are Not Ourselves" and she couldn't stop raving about "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena," did I know it?

It rang a distant bell. Didn't Daniel Glass send me a copy? Gift-giver extraordinaire, Mr. Glass frequently sends hardcovers from the local store in his Washington, Connecticut weekend homeplace, the Hickory Stick Bookshop. And when I went back to my kitchen table, there it was, ready for my consumption.

But I had to finish Hampton Sides's "In The Kingdom of Ice" first.

Mr. Sides's book got a great write-up in the "Wall Street Journal," and I bought it on my Kindle before my plane took off and wireless access ended and I started it and it was bone dry, but sometimes exciting. It's akin to "The Devil in the White City," have you read that? I won't spoil the story, but let's just say it's centered around the Chicago's World Fair of 1893. You marvel while you read, how advanced it was back then.

And the same thing in "Kingdom of Ice." It's a true story, so when you read about the shenanigans of the owner of the New York "Herald" you can't help but Google the details, to see if they're really true.

And "Kingdom of Ice" is about a search for a Northwest Passage, nearly a hundred and fifty years ago, but I had to get through a third of the book just to have the voyage begin, and it wasn't that the book was boring, but it didn't call out to me, I needed fiction.

That's right, the guys read non-fiction. Mostly business books. Sometimes biographies. They want information they can use. Whereas I've learned story is king, and fiction takes you away and illuminates life in a way that non-fiction never can.

Like "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena."

It's not the easiest read. It's the kind of book you have to read a few sentences past where you are to understand what's going on, and I hate that. I read super-comprehensively, I want to know what everything means, I want to miss no details, and therefore I was frustrated at first.

And the story...

Turns out the girl is not the focus, but the war is. A war most Americans, including myself, know nearly nothing about.

What happens when you're caught in the crossfire, victimized by circumstances, when everything you believe in no longer matters. Never mind your possessions, but how about electricity, and morality, and...

Everything is up for grabs.

But we all remain human and we all soldier on in the face of adversity.

Sonja basks in her self-satisfaction.

Akhmed lives for art but medicine is his profession. This is the conundrum facing so many in today's society, do you do what's expected of you or what you feel inside. And forget getting rich following your heart's desire, no one's getting rich in Chechnya, and the young girl has never seen a fat person, they don't exist.

And I'm not going to recite the plot, not that "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" can be ruined. I'm just saying you're going to go down the rabbit hole, and halfway through the book will start calling out to you, you will want to sacrifice your everyday life to read it. And when it ends, you'll be at loose ends.

That's what I hate most, when a good book ends. Then what? Sure, there are a zillion tomes, but few pull at the heartstrings, few excite you, few are of the same quality.

Not that "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" is the best book I've ever read. Once again, that's "Anna Karenina" (depends on the translation!), and Tolstoy is referenced throughout, but "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" is not in Leo's league, but it's not that far off. On an absolute scale, if "Anna Karenina" is an A, "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" is a B. And that's pretty damn good, because on an absolute scale "Unbroken" is a C- and so much of what's popular today fails completely.

Not that "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" is unpopular. But to get me to read it a constellation of factors had to align. I had to have a gifted copy lying around the house, it had to be referenced by someone as passionate about a great read as I am. And one of the reasons I gave "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" a chance is because Abbie hates so much. I hate those who love everything, they grant no perspective, their opinion is worthless, but when someone critical says they love something, I check it out.

And you should check "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" out. Because if you're alive, if you can pull yourself away from your smartphone, if you know the vagaries of love, the hardship of struggle, if you question the meaning of life, if you wrestle with your sense of duty, your eyes will bug out as the rest of the world fades away and you end up with a new understanding of those who are not privileged to live in the United States and a desire to journey to their homeland to feel alive.

"A Constellation of Vital Phenomena": http://amzn.to/1gmCjfn

http://www.randomhouse.com/book/220153/a-constellation-of-vital-phenomena-by-anthony-marra


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