This week, we're trying something a little different.
Javier Marias' novel Voyage Along The Horizon, recently translated and published in America by Believer, a subsidiary of the nobel McSweeney's publishing enterprise, is a fascinating homage to the adventure novels (Seawolf comes to mind, as does really, any Jack London) of the late nineteenth century. Written in the earlier years of Marias' life, published when he was twenty-two (and even then, his second novel!), it seems a much mature work than one should be capable of at that age, urging me to seek out the remainder of his body of work.
Fascinatingly, the book concerns the reading of a novel, also titled Voyage Along The Horizon, that a gentleman intends to publish, having discovered it among his deceased friend's effects, and wishing to bring him posthumous renown. It is read out loud to two parties, one interested, the other, our framing narrator, less so. Within this story, already contained in our framing story, are other stories, within stories within stories and so on, to the effect of a collection of Russian stacking dolls. The stories are all immediately engaging, and leave you in suspense for what's happening one layer above you while you read through the currently engrossing tale preventing you from returning to the mystery already laid out in front of you.
Of particular interest is the fact that two nights ago I attended a screening of The Saragossa Manuscript, a Polish film from the 1960s documented to be a personal favorite of Coppola, Scorsese, Jerry Garcia, and Neil Gaiman. Based on a novel published in 1815, unfinished after the sudden (and decidedly strange) suicide of its author, this film, set in Spain, concerns two opposing soldiers who stumble upon a manuscript in an inn in the middle of an intense battle, and sit down together, as if old friends, and begin to pore over the tale told within. Realizing it concerns the grandfather of one of the two soldiers, their interest heightens, and they delve into the passages, no longer heeding the cannon-fire raging around them.
A simple framing narrative gives way to more Russian stacking dolls, as the story focuses on a Spanish captain of the Waloon Guard, who is searching for a short pass through the mountains. When he stays the night at an abandoned inn, he finds there are two ghostly women waiting for him, and after a strange encounter, wakes up at the foot of the gallows beneath two hanged men. His adventures in the country-side continue, and each time, he blacks out encountering a new visage of the two women, and wakes up beneath the gallows. Soon, he encounters others who have stories to tell, and characters in their stories have further fables to reveal, and anecdotes to share. Eventually, captured by the Inquisition, the captain of the guard finds himself fortunate enough to be saved by a Qabbalist, who gives him sanctuary. When a gypsy captain arrives, he begins to regale them with tales of his life, as they eat dinner, and again, the tales stack like turtle shells all the way down. They range from ghost stories to love stories to morality plays and back, and eventually the characters start to intertwine, as the Waloon captain's father makes an appearance in the gypsy captain's tale.
Panscheco, a man driven mad by the two ghostly sisters, tells his tale, as full of tragedy and heartbreak, and ruthlessness as the tale Victor Arledge relates to the crew of the Tallahassee in Voyage about their Captain Kerrigan, explaining the behavior that has confined him to his cabin under guard. Similarly, the tales focus on the privileged, a high-ranking officer, and artists and poets, who contrast with those they interact with, be it gypsys, holy men, or sailors.
The narrator of Voyage Along the Horizon (the novel within the novel, that is), is decidedly unreliable, as he was not on the strange sea voyage that is the subject of the book, and certain details begin to not add up, and are commented on within the framing device. The Manuscript found in Saragossa is similarly untrustworthy, as, even if it does present everything that happened at face value, there is strong insinuation that the majority of the events are staged for the benefit of the Waloon captain, and the narrator who wrote the manuscript would have been aware of this, as he may have been the one who set the extraordinary chain of events in motion.
A surrealist and strange ending, wherein our captain literally rides away into the sunset after encountering himself, leaves us with the same idea that it's the stories that are important, not the endings, that we get from Voyage Along The Horizon.
The characters of Voyage and The Saragossa Manuscript, and the tales they tell, are of more importance than the actual framing device. These tales are how the main characters while away their evenings, and it's how we should too. In a similar fashion, The Canterbury Tales has no ending, as it also, was unfinished.
"The end of a novel isn't usually very important. In fact, people never seem to remember the endings of novels and movies. Conclusions and final explanations are often the most irrelevant- and disappointing- parts of a novel. What counts the most- and what we remember the most- is the atmosphere, the style, the path, the journey, and the world in which we have immersed ourselves for a few hours or a few days while reading a novel or watching a movie. What matters, then, is the journey along the horizon- in other words, the journey that never ends." - Javier Marias
Voyage Along the Horizon: A
The Saragossa Manuscript: A
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