Evidence of Things Unseen: A Novel
by Marianne Wiggins
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Book Summary Information
Author: Marianne WigginsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-05-25
ISBN: 0743258096
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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Book Reviews of Evidence of Things Unseen: A Novel
Book Review: A book that handles complex themes well, without simplifying them
Summary: 5 Stars
Evidence of Things Unseen tells it story through people. It sounds simple, almost all stories seem to be told through people, but a lot of fiction tells the story mainly through plot, allegories, or nifty literary devices-and while those stories can make for excellent reading, they don't have the power this book does.
I really enjoyed the book and was reading newspaper reviews of it, one review lamented while they enjoyed the good writing, they were not quite sure what Wiggins was trying to tell them between the lines, noting two obvious lessons, the atomic bomb was bad and love is good. However, from my interpretation of the book to understand its lessons you did not need to read between the lines to get the lessons of the book-you need only pay careful attention to the characters and their interactions to understand the book.
This book is a love story-me, being a male-with incredibly slowness did not catch on to that fact until mid-way through the book, but once I caught I understood the philosophy of the book better. Love is not a simple notion-it consists of a lot of different verbs and nouns like lust, trust, familiarity, friendship, empathy, forgiveness, sacrifice and other words-this book tracks over 25 years of a relationship-the book is not about romance, but love and delves into the complexities of it, even its shortcoming (Opal the wife, though she loves her husband feels unfulfilled due to her inability to get pregnant.)
One of the things that interested me in analyzing this novel was figuring out which voice was most associated with the author's voice. In the end, I felt the author's voice was spread out between the characters, but the tone the novel takes as it nears the climax most reminds me of Flash's voice, a friend of the main character, Fos (All the characters of symbolic names-Fos, Phos means light in Greek, his first name Ray is probably from X-Ray, Flash, who lives a fast pace life, Opal, and Lightfoot are the main characters name). Flash is probably the book's smartest character, is cynical about human nature, loves beauty, a romantic who hates phoniness, and has a way with words. On the other hand, it does seem odd, that a female author would voice herself most in a womanizing playboy, who as a almost forty year old man has an affair with a 14 year girl, gets her pregnant, and leads her to her death by taking her to a back alley abortion place, where the abortion is botched and the girl bleeds to death, yet despite the illogical choice, the novels tone eventually most resembles Flash's cynical, but optmistic take on life.
Two other aspects I thought this book did well, were implicating the theme of science into the book and the historical backdrop for the book. The use of science and nature in the language was impressive. The language not only included scientific principles and scenes of nature, but also with equal impressiveness captured the enthusiasm the people who follow science have and that lay people do not understand. If you ever watch the popular NOVA series on PBS for example, you will see famous world class scientist put difficult concepts into the simplest form they can for the general public in the hope of not only getting across the principle itself, but also the excitement they feel in the search of a natural physical truth along with the hope that their equations and theories will one day benefit human race both practically and intellectually. Most people think of science as boring, analytical subject, but this book does a good job at getting across the enthusiasm scientist, professional or amateur feel for the subject-even if in the end the book takes the cynical approach, science is only what people make of it.
The historical backdrop is so impressive because it reconstructs the time. This means more than just creating the correct physical setting, for example the right cars, technology, language, places, and events. What makes this historical backdrop impressive is it captures peoples outlook on life, the isolated outlook of people in the country, the need for people to form group in the cities, peoples belief in science, the advent of a more materialistic society, and all the other philosophical debates of that day. It does all that without imposing a modern viewpoint on the characters of the story, which so many books that use historical backdrops unwittingly do.
Overall I found this book to be though provoking and entertaining, a combination for a great book.
Summary of Evidence of Things Unseen: A Novel
This poetic novel, by the acclaimed author of John Dollar, describes America at the brink of the Atomic Age. In the years between the two world wars, the future held more promise than peril, but there was evidence of things unseen that would transfigure our unquestioned trust in a safe future.Fos has returned to Tennessee from the trenches of France. Intrigued with electricity, bioluminescence, and especially x-rays, he believes in science and the future of technology. On a trip to the Outer Banks to study the Perseid meteor shower, he falls in love with Opal, whose father is a glassblower who can spin color out of light.
Fos brings his new wife back to Knoxville where he runs a photography studio with his former Army buddy Flash. A witty rogue and a staunch disbeliever in Prohibition, Flash brings tragedy to the couple when his appetite for pleasure runs up against both the law and the Ku Klux Klan. Fos and Opal are forced to move to Opal's mother's farm on the Clinch River, and soon they have a son, Lightfoot. But when the New Deal claims their farm for the TVA, Fos seeks work at the Oak Ridge Laboratory -- Site X in the government's race to build the bomb.
And it is there, when Opal falls ill with radiation poisoning, that Fos's great faith in science deserts him. Their lives have traveled with touching inevitability from their innocence and fascination with "things that glow" to the new world of manmade suns.
Hypnotic and powerful, Evidence of Things Unseen constructs a heartbreaking arc through twentieth-century American life and belief.
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