Andrew Davidson’s debut novel The Gargoyle, is the kind of book that gives me nextbookaphobia.

This is a condition marked by great fear of starting a new book because there is no way that it can possibly live up to the last book you read, because that last book was really fucking good. I’ve experienced this condition exactly twice this year. First with Ethan Canin’s America America and then again with Elizabeth McCracken’s An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination.

It’s a little hard to write (or talk) about The Gargoyle without sounding like a cross between a really excited four-year-old or a complete stoner. When trying to describe the books there’s a lot of disconnected “and then and thens.” Here, I’ll show you:

So there’s this pornstar who is in a terrible car accident while he’s driving coked up and drunk, and he spills bourbon in his lap, and then is burned over most of his body — losing his penis in the process. So then he’s in the hospital and this mysterious schizophrenic woman named Marianne comes to visit him and she says they were married in a past life like 700 years ago and she’s been waiting for him for all this time. And then so they become friends and oh Marianne is a sculptor who carves gargoyles out of stone and oh during the unnamed narrator’s recovery she tells him stories not just of their past together (she was an Englethal nun in Germany in the 1300s who worked at a scriptorium) but about some great love stories of the past. There is some other stuff too.

Want more about The Gargoyle
Read an excerpt
Visit Burned By Love to read about or share intense love stories
Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay

See what I mean? Crazy. This is a big, big book about all-consuming love. The story is so engaging that even my irrepressible editor was suppressed through most of the book (there were a few overblown sentences or descriptions that caused a bit of eye-rolling). After I read this book I quickly dubbed it the new Time-Traveler’s Wife (which is a high compliment).

Like The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Gargoyle is a big, beautiful, goobery romance wrapped up in a wonderful, engaging concept.

This has become the new book that I am trying to push off on anyone who will listen, because it was that much fun and I can’t imagine a single literate person who would dislike the journey that Davidson takes the reader on.

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I met Jenn, an elementary school teacher, at a party this summer. We bonded over the Olympics and avoiding the attentions of a really weird drunk guy. Since then we began e-mailing back and forth. What struck me about our correspondence was the way she wrote about books. So, much like a sweaty-palmed eighth grader asking the captain of the basketball team to the Sadie Hawkins dance, I asked her if she’d be interested in contributing to MN Reads. I was thrilled when she said yes. Look for her reviews on the pages of MN Reads in the coming days (or weeks, it’s getting to be that busy time of year).

What book(s) are you currently reading?
White Teeth by Zadie Smith and Until I Find You by John Irving

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? Who?
Well…I’ve never had a crush on any fictional characters in books I’ve read all the way through. But I do have a crush on Mr. Darcy (the Colin Firth diving-into-the-pond Mr. Darcy.) I guess I’ve done and outed myself as someone who has not, in fact, actually finished Pride and Prejudice (I’ll duck now so that I don’t get hit by the stones that I’m sure will be thrown at me.)

If your favorite author came to Minnesota, who would it be and what bar would you take him/her to?
One author? I absolutely cannot answer that question. I am incapable of choosing one. I’d rather have a dinner party, and invite Toni Morrison, Jennifer Weiner, David Sedaris, John Irving, Stephen King, Kate DiCamillo, Jodi Picoult, Ethan Canin, and Ruth Reichl - that’d be quite an interesting dinner. I hope it’s successful.

What was your favorite first book?
The first favorite book I can remember is Charlotte’s Web. I remember grinding my teeth so that I wouldn’t cry because I never knew that books could make you cry, and it scared me a little. I was also more than a little fanatical about The Black Stallion series - it inspired me to learn how to play guitar for the single purpose of writing a song about a horse. Never actually did that - write a song OR learn the guitar.

Let’s say Fahrenheit 451 comes to life, who book would you become in order to save it from annihilation?
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. Yes, a children’s book, but it had a very, very significant impact on me and came to me at a time in my life when I needed it most. Kate DiCamillo has a way of writing about sadness that is, to me, delicate and devastating at the same time.

What is one book you haven’t read but want to read before you die?
Well, I guess I better finish Pride and Prejudice.

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In the year 2006, I road tripped to Boise, Idaho, to aid in relocating my sister-in-law. To aid me in making this journey, I borrowed two books on compact disc: Nicholas Sparks’ The Wedding and Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation. I practically cut off my ears during The Wedding (it was one of several book club disasters) during the drive through Minnesota and North Dakota. Assassination Vacation accompanied me in Montana, from Billings to Bozeman (a place I later learned Vowell worked as a college radio newscaster), leading eventually to Boise where my girlfriend and I delivered Kelli to her new abode.

When I heard about Vowell’s latest work The Wordy Shipmates, I gleefully recalled the humor and historical commentary Vowell delivered in Assassination Vacation. The Wordy Shipmates continued this through a careful dissection of John Winthrop, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the Puritan framework of these early European settlers. Vowell examined religion’s role in shaping the worldview of not only the Puritans, but also of Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and the English environment that made these people set sail for North America. Vowell also wrote about how these settlers treated the Native Americans (especially the slaughter of the Pequot).

As a fan of both religion and history, I geeked out on this book. I have studied these people before and I laughed during several of Vowell’s pokes at these often-funny people. For example, I studied Roger Williams during a course on Religion in America and I remembered his eccentric and libertarian views on religion and the state. I giggled when Vowell wrote, “John Cotton arrives in 1633 just in time to help Massachusetts Bay board up its theological windows. Hurricane Roger is coming” (pg. 112). I chucked again when Vowell again talked about Williams’ desire to allow all forms of religious worship while at the same time having disdain for their views. Vowell said, “Not that Williams will be hosting any interfaith prayer breakfasts” (pg. 136). It made me laugh because I am a religion geek.

I believe one of Vowell’s many talents is connecting these historical events of long ago to both modern pop culture and to me personally. It was funny when she talked about how she was originally educated about the Puritans and Pilgrims from the Brady Bunch. Vowell connected to me personally by talking about how the circumstances leading up to the Pequot War was like the frustration and disgust that drives skateboarders to focus (intentionally break in half) their skateboards after missing a trick. Even my disdain for the murderous and bigoted former United States President Andrew Jackson was shared by Vowell’s sister (and undoubtedly by Vowell herself) when they noticed a plaque at the Royal Mohegan Burial Ground that was dedicated by said President. Vowell’s sister said, “Figures, one asshole [Jackson] honoring another [Uncas, a Mohegan sachem who sided with the English during the slaughter of the Pequot at the Mystic Fort and later against the Narragansett tribe]” (pg. 201).

I only have one small criticism of this book. Vowell does not cite her sources during the text of the book, opting instead to create a short list of primary sources at the end. While this may be a small deal to most readers, geeks like me see it as a big deal because I am unable to pull out which source Vowell used for her claims. However, since she wrote the book for geeks like me, I am going to give her the benefit of the doubt because I know the religious information is dead on accurate.

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