[K5O]∎ Read Gratis The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards A Novel ALA Notable Books for Adults Kristopher Jansma 9780670026005 Books

The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards A Novel ALA Notable Books for Adults Kristopher Jansma 9780670026005 Books

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The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards A Novel ALA Notable Books for Adults Kristopher Jansma 9780670026005 Books

THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS is a story within a story within a story, and all, none, or just some of it is true. You suspect this might be a puzzling, mind-bending book when before you get to the first page you read this:

If you believe that you are the author of this book, please contact Haslett & Grouse Publishers (New York, New York) at your first convenience

And so it begins, this dizzying little excursion. It's oh so much fun!

The novel contains a dozen interconnecting, sometimes overlapping, stories. All but one appears to be from the voice of the author, whomever that is. I do not believe we learn his real name, ever. He is a would be writer, believing that being a great liar is his key to achieving that goal. So he is loose with the truth, even in his personal life, and throughout the novel undergoes a variety of personas, going by a variety of names: Timothy Wallace, Pinkerton, Outis, Walter Hartright. Even his closest friend accuses him of seeing him as nothing more than a character he's created. Each chapter, story, is a slight retelling or reworking of the same theme, though most times well disguised. Names change, places change, events skewed. So the reader is left with to wonder, how much is real, or is it all a lie? As the author says at the end of his first bit of notes: "These stories are all true, but only somewhere else." [8]

The author is jealous of his best friend and sometime roommate's literary ability. At times named Julian, or Jeffrey, or Anton, depending on the retelling, he is a talented, though tortured soul. Their relationship reminded me somewhat of that between Charles Ryder and Sebastian in Evelyn Waugh's BRIDESHEAD REVISITED. There is much more to this novel which I won't go into, the coming of age story, the author's search for the love of his life, the travelogue aspect in Dubai, Ghana, Luxembourg, the quest for literary fame and fortune, the demarcation between truth and lies, fantasy and reality.

Scattered throughout, there is a recurring motif: the game of checkers. In the game of checkers, if one has managed to move a piece all the way across the board to a square on the final row in enemy territory, it is "kinged" and now inherits the abililty to move back to where it began. The novel itself is recursive, finally seeming to return to the beginning.

After reading it once, skimming back over it again, and then giving it much thought, I'm still not quite sure I have my head around this novel. It is surely one I will want to come back to again in the near future. It's wonderful.


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The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards A Novel ALA Notable Books for Adults Kristopher Jansma 9780670026005 Books Reviews

"Somewhere in this empty space, between my lies and fictions, is the truth." With those bold and arresting words, Kristopher Jansma - certainly one of the most inventive and imaginative writers I've read lately - launches his ode to storytelling.

He starts with a basic template that most of us have read in various iterations an aspiring boy from a not-so-great background falls under the spell of a far more worldly and insanely talented friend. Both would-be writers identify each other as worthy competitors. And to complicate things, our narrator begins to develop feelings for a mesmerizing stage actress - a friend of his competitor - who has ambitions of her own.

So far so good. Been there, done that. But now the story begins shifting. The talented classmate becomes, in turn, Julian, Jeffrey or Anton. The actress? In any given part of the novel, she may be married to a famous Indian geologist (whom she exchanges vows with at the rim of the Grand Canyon!), a Japanese royal, or a Luxembourg prince in line for the throne.

The narrator, too, shifts identities. At one point, he is a debutante's escort...in another, he's a professor of journalism, teaching under an assumed name...in still another, he's Outis - a Greek name from The Odyssey - who writes false term papers for spoiled Dubai scions. His personal odyssey follows a path from North Carolina to a city college in New York City...from Dubai to Sri Lana and Ghana...and finally, to an obscure writer's colony in Iceland.

This is a writer's book and a reader's book as well. We see the narrator struggling with his creative muse and even peek over his shoulder as he writes stories within stories. There's subtle humor (one of his earlier rejected stories gives a nod to Dorothy Allison, with the title Just Another Bastard Out Of Carolina.)

As the novel progresses, it begins to tilt towards zaniness as it lets loose its moorings. The effect is a sort of gimmicky distancing, which makes this novel - for me - a 4.5. Yet the book is so fresh and original, so fascinating as it shines its spotlight on truth and storytelling, that I am upping it to a 5. Who can NOT love a book that starts this way "If you believe you are the author of this book, please contact Haslett & Grouse Publishers (New York, New York) at your first convenience." It's all uphill from there.
THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS is a story within a story within a story, and all, none, or just some of it is true. You suspect this might be a puzzling, mind-bending book when before you get to the first page you read this

If you believe that you are the author of this book, please contact Haslett & Grouse Publishers (New York, New York) at your first convenience

And so it begins, this dizzying little excursion. It's oh so much fun!

The novel contains a dozen interconnecting, sometimes overlapping, stories. All but one appears to be from the voice of the author, whomever that is. I do not believe we learn his real name, ever. He is a would be writer, believing that being a great liar is his key to achieving that goal. So he is loose with the truth, even in his personal life, and throughout the novel undergoes a variety of personas, going by a variety of names Timothy Wallace, Pinkerton, Outis, Walter Hartright. Even his closest friend accuses him of seeing him as nothing more than a character he's created. Each chapter, story, is a slight retelling or reworking of the same theme, though most times well disguised. Names change, places change, events skewed. So the reader is left with to wonder, how much is real, or is it all a lie? As the author says at the end of his first bit of notes "These stories are all true, but only somewhere else." [8]

The author is jealous of his best friend and sometime roommate's literary ability. At times named Julian, or Jeffrey, or Anton, depending on the retelling, he is a talented, though tortured soul. Their relationship reminded me somewhat of that between Charles Ryder and Sebastian in Evelyn Waugh's BRIDESHEAD REVISITED. There is much more to this novel which I won't go into, the coming of age story, the author's search for the love of his life, the travelogue aspect in Dubai, Ghana, Luxembourg, the quest for literary fame and fortune, the demarcation between truth and lies, fantasy and reality.

Scattered throughout, there is a recurring motif the game of checkers. In the game of checkers, if one has managed to move a piece all the way across the board to a square on the final row in enemy territory, it is "kinged" and now inherits the abililty to move back to where it began. The novel itself is recursive, finally seeming to return to the beginning.

After reading it once, skimming back over it again, and then giving it much thought, I'm still not quite sure I have my head around this novel. It is surely one I will want to come back to again in the near future. It's wonderful.