BOOK REVIEW: GARCIA'S HEART

Liam Durcan may have written his Opus Magnum, and if I were him, I would incredibly proud to have peaked with this novel. It is complex, beautifully written, and required me to google definitions, geography, history and art!   

I have not read his short stories, which was the first thing he published, but I did read The Measure of Darkness, which was well-done and a fascinating idea (an architect that loses both a portion of his vision and the ability to understand its loss i. e. neglect), but the character is not very sympathetic. 
In contrast, the protagonist in this story (one of only a few characters that is NOT a Garcia) is complex while still being sympathetic.

This is credited to being a "neurologic narrative" (Barbara Sibbald CMAJ), although I saw an interview where Dr. Durcan minimizes his role as neurologist in writing. Certainly, both novels I read do not overdo it, but have been certainly well-informed by his medical knowledge. I also learned in an interview that he doesn't do research, but his character Patrick refers to those who do as "narcissistic". 

I loved his imagery, and there were so many perfect phrases and sentences that, at first, I started writing them down, but had to stop, because I would have needed pages to note them all!

Here are a few gems:

"A boat. Affluence squared. The confluence of money and stretches of leisure time."

"The trumpet of Josh's raised righteous voice ushering them out."

"The allegations against Hernan outlined in the book were like anti-matter, altering the rules of the universe as he knew it."

"...causing his heart to make that thin-air no ropes climb into his throat."

When his heart started beating fast with emotion: "He knew the circuitry: pathways converging on his amygdala that, in response, fired like an automatic weapon, a heartbeat pattering after, spent shell casings bouncing off the floor."

And my favourite: "For all of the mighty tasks a brain was capable of doing, nothing was underrated as the ability to forget."

Here are some vocabulary words:

prosopagnosis - loss of ability to recognize faces
beatific - blissful
Shibboleth - the motto or catchphrase identifying yourself with a group (something that distinguishes outsiders from the group, as in Judges with the pronounciation of the Ephraimites of the word enough to betray them and have them killed

autodidact - a self-taught person
scion - descendent of a notable family
parse - analyze for underlying structure or meaning
redolent - fragrant

Some ideas:
Crying baby dilemma thought experiment and fMRI (solved by a mother in the novel) 
Classically utilitarianism says killing the child to save the village is worth it (John Stuart Mill) vs Deontology says that killing the child is wrong (Kant)

Declaration of Tokyo (hadn't read it!)

A physician shall not "countenance, condone or participate in the practice of torture" (boarding in ER with no lights being able to be switched off, etc.

Always the ornery editor, I thought the spelling "en-passant" strange coming from a Montrealer, and would have spelled it in French italics "en passant". I wondered if it was blooper on the beach at Scheveningen that the sand was between them and Germany, when I think it would have more like England. Lastly, he refers to something gravely important not to "bear repeating". I think it does bear repeating, but she doesn't. That should be described some other way. 

Still, nitpicking aside, this is a monumental work crafted sentence by sentence like Lin Manuel Miranda wrote the raps for Hamilton. It's worth the read, and a real credit to the writer.

I have two things I have to ask next time I see him on consult service: When is Flash Forward coming out (I look forward to a female protagonist), and what's the deal with the cover art? The brain is oriented upside down, where does Mercury and the letters K and S fit in, and is that a sea anemone?!

And if you need a reader for your next novel, I am happy to give my feedback! I am looking to transition to another career, and proof-reader would be one place I can see myself!

Read it! 4/5