Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Magic Realism

The CONSCIOUS VIRUS: An Aedgar Wisdom novel by Miki Mitayn – Native American Literature, Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction, Magic Realism Fiction

Dr. Nerida Green travels across Australia, tending to struggling communities and connecting with her wife Mari – as well as the three spirits who Mari channels through her body, in Miki Mitayn’s climate-fiction novel The Conscious Virus: An Aedgar Wisdom Novel.

Nerida works sporadic jobs as a doctor, from the mining community of Newman to the small town of Fitzroy Crossing, and back east to a disappointing stint at a naturopathy clinic in Byron Bay. Between her working hours, Nerida speaks with M’Hoq Toq, the Native American medicine man, Bartgrinn the Celtic druid, and Aedgar, an ancient being of the Earth. Nerida asks the spirits for their opinions on topics as broad as climate change and as narrow as her personal matters, engaging them in deep conversation.

While Nerida and Mari travel, the Coronavirus makes its appearance on the world stage, and shortly after that, Australia. Nerida manages to find them a safe place to live through quarantine, but her role as a doctor weighs heavily on her as the pandemic picks up steam. She turns to the advice of her ephemeral friends, who at once soothe her heart and spark her worries.

The Conscious Virus tackles current global issues, both through Nerida’s personal experience and the wisdom of the spirits.

Climate Change hurts the vulnerable people whom Nerida cares for, and as the spirits tell her, disrupts the natural systems and energies of the planet. Covid-19 spreads amongst people who are profoundly unprepared for a pandemic, while the entities try to communicate the metaphysical nature of the pandemic.

All three spirits have distinct voices, filling their conversations with personality and the unique word-choice of people who haven’t walked the Earth in centuries. Their beliefs mesh with Nerida’s as often as they clash. She connects with them through their philosophy and deep thoughts on the world, but she struggles to understand their often very unscientific perspectives. How much of what they say is metaphorical, and how much is literal? Will Nerida side with the wisdom of the spirits or with the research and knowledge of her peers?

Between Nerida’s lengthy conversations with the spirits, she and Mari experience the beauty and difficulties of the material world. Mitayn paints Australia with beautiful descriptions, full of color and heat and smells. The world becomes tangible as Nerida walks and drives through it. Her life with Mari is a grounded and realistic one, concerned with whether the air conditioning will keep working, how they’re going to find a place to stay along their travels, and how they should treat each other to maintain a relationship of love and respect. They meet and reconnect with many interesting people, creating a collection of vignettes across their journey.

This story explores many facets of the modern world and its struggles.

The lives and work of Aboriginal people often take center stage, as Nerida – an Aboriginal woman herself – understands the unique challenges they face. Nerida, Mari, and the spirits tell an engaging and deeply thoughtful story about LGBT+ identity, racist systems, and how entire groups of people are pushed down by the interests of the rich and powerful. Mitayn takes none of these issues lightly but instead gives them the time and consideration that they deserve.

Jumping between past, present, and future, The Conscious Virus creates not just a compelling image of the modern world – but also of how the future might play out depending on whether people face their trials with wisdom and compassion – or something so pointless as greed.

September 27, 2021
CELIA’s HEAVEN by Nancy Canyon – Magic Realism, Family Saga, Contemporary Literature

It’s as if a large chunk of her heart was wrenched away in an instant. Celia’s twin sister died suddenly in a terrible accident. Now Celia is haunted by this dear sister who is gone forever. Moreover, the emotional distance between herself and her parents, the only family that’s left behind, is painful. From her hell on earth, she yearns for her own, Celia’s Heaven, where all could be right again. But the road to Heaven is paved with broken promises and a shattering revelation.

Celia leads an unsatisfying life. The residents in her town are repulsed by her because she works as a stripper. Her father berates her for her life choices. She gets it, but she makes good money, and money is hard to turn down. Although Celia’s boyfriend asks her to marry him, she still likes to be with other men and acts on her impulses. Amid the emotional chaos, Celia continues to look for a miracle. The only thing on the horizon, however, is the worst winter snowstorm in years, and it could be deadly.

On the anniversary of her twin’s death, Celia reminisces about the times the two shared together. But something weird is happening, she is seeing glimpses of her twin – even hearing messages from her. What is she trying to say? Is there some warning to communicate? Or is it some secret she needs Celia to know? Her sister’s spirit is restless, and Celia is trying to understand and help. Perhaps by helping her sister, she will be helping herself as well.

Nancy Canyon’s beautifully written story has a smooth, crisp, surface tone with an underlying, pulsing energy. Fascinating, conflicted characters will grab any reader’s interest right from the start. Even the dialogue is masterful for what is said and what is left unsaid. All in all, Canyon shines at painting detailed, intense character portraits that spring to life and find their way right into the heart of the reader. Each character struggles to reconcile the choices they’ve made that affect them and those around them. But now they face fears about what is to come. The powerful writing takes the reader into the intimate journeys of Celia, her boyfriend, and others including her sister. These are women and men who live in quiet desperation, and thoughtfulness, praying for a better life and hoping to survive.

Set against a backdrop of a nightmarish snowstorm, Canyon’s characters are put to the test, trying to survive the current situation that seems to have supernatural strength and the emotional turmoil they each face. Is peace a possibility? Is happiness and love too much to hope for? Celia’s twin may know something that will change lives forever if only Celia discovers the key to unlock her message.

Celia’s Heaven won First in Category in the CIBAs 2013 PARANORMAL Awards.

July 17, 2020
JETTY CAT PALACE CAFÉ by Judy Keeslar Santamaria – Magic Realism, Psychological Literary Fiction, Literary Fiction

Judy Keeslar Santamaria’s skillfully crafted debut novel, Jetty Cat Palace Café, takes the reader from the sophisticated urban areas of Washington state to its remote cranberry coast, accompanying professor Morgen Marín on a life-altering quest.

Like a present-day recipient of a DNA test gone wrong, when 34-year old Morgen, celebrated pianist and music professor, leaves after visiting her elderly grandmother Eleanor, her mind is spinning. Eleanor, preparing for the inevitable, shared family history, documents, and longstanding questions, which blindsided her granddaughter.

Everything Morgen believed about herself is wrong—not an uncommon experience, but still . . .

For Morgen, clarity is often elusive. She frequently misperceives the world around her. Like Alice, after she walked through the looking glass, Morgen exists in a kind of alternative universe. While Alice’s experiences were novel, magical even, Morgen’s are not. She lives on the autism spectrum.

Setting out with her mother’s restored Volkswagen bus and the keys to a storage unit containing family papers and memorabilia, Morgen has a clear sense of purpose. She is on a single-minded journey to find her mother’s stolen cremation urn, learn the identity of her biological father, and free herself from the man who has dominated and abused her for years.

Her search takes her to a remote fish camp on Washington’s cranberry coast, miles away from the hectic, affluent areas bordering the Puget Sound. The cast of characters she meets are society’s flotsam and jetsam who drifted in on random currents and found safe harbor in this isolated place, straight into the Jetty Cat Palace Café. With the locals’ claims of the place being haunted, the café binds the motley group together with unseen ties.

How these random people, in this unlikely place, are melded into parts of Morgen’s past and future creates a story that stretches readers’ credulity and imagination. And, as in looking glass land, Morgen learns that things are not always as they seem, random events have meaning within their own context, and actions from the past exist as long as there is someone left to perceive them.

In Jetty Cat Palace Café, Judy Keeslar Santamaria’s often lyrical, meticulous writing, engaging characters, vivid imagery, and intricate plot work together to create a winner.

March 20, 2020
AFTER OLYMPUS: A Work of Quasi-Fiction by Santiago Xaman – Magic Realism, Literary Fiction, Multi-Cultural

Reviewers note: Consider the term, “quasi-fiction” in the subtitle of this novel by Santiago Xaman. It’s key to reading and understanding this deeply compelling and innovative work. The book begins with two definitions of quasi-fiction: 1. A narrative combining fictional characters with published facts of minor historical significance. 2. The form of realism evoked by quasi-fictional content. Having completed the book, I find I must smile at the term, “realism,” as used in the second definition.

In this groundbreaking novel, what is real – and what isn’t – is always the heart of the matter. There are elements of reality in the fantastical, and there are elements of magic realism in the rather ordinary. After Olympus is a novel about characters who don’t just think outside the box; they are outside the box.

Intrigued? You should be. We don’t see novels like this every day, but this one will find its way into the hands of the most discerning readers.

After Olympus is arranged into six sections: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delton, Epsilon, and Omega. Yes, Greek letters, very appropriate for a work laced with mythic associations, associations that will take the reader, as the title notes. Santiago Xaman tells his story via a manuscript found on his property in California. We learn of his childhood in Guatemala in the 1950s and early 1960s, his plea to Xaman Ek, the North Star, for the power of invisibility. We meet his sister who wants to fly like the Mancho bird that nests where the rainbow ends. A fire will change the tide of Santiago’s life, eventually bringing him to the United States, where adoptive American parents raise him.

Throughout his adult life, he will live with a Russian woman raised in the communist Soviet Union and who has burdensome secrets that will impact Santiago’s life in ordinary and extraordinary ways. One night, Santiago witnesses what he thinks is a falling star but is fuselage falling from a Soviet spacecraft. The event brings two international Stanford scientists to his door and a puzzle of a quest begins, one that will encompass the themes of schism and reconciliation, myopia and sight, and inequity and prosperity.

Gus, a businessman with a dream to be the “Yahoo of the medical world,” will join this group that Santiago comes to refer to as “magicians.” They will accomplish things that might seem magical, but just as one must carefully observe a magician for sleight of hand, the reader should follow the words of this enigmatic narrative with complete focus.

The magicians’ projects include designing new frameworks to analyze and make use of neuropsychological testing, intersections of social and political media, employment opportunities for young women with small children, and a gamut of concepts intended to make the world a better place through the removal of hurdles and the dissolving of problems. If technical innovation can be decapitalized and the profits realized by those most deserving of them, the economy can be reinvented. But there are villains on the scene as well and what they do to counter the magicians’ is astounding.

The ultimate triumph of After Olympus is that it’s not just one book. It will be different books for different people. Included in it is the old and classic story of the blind men who describe an elephant in entirely different ways. What one brings to this book may influence what one thinks they’re reading. The ending alone will make readers wonder if they really know the difference between tusk and tail.

After Olympus is a superb selection for any book group interested in a novel that is so thoroughly outside the box, so uncaged, that it’s a bit wild, in the best of ways.

October 26, 2019
Daughter of Aithne: The Silver Web Series, Book 3 by Karin Rita Gastreich – Romance Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Magic Realism

Writer and ecologist Karin Rita Gastreich draws inspiration from her trips to the magical forests of Costa Rica to bring life to the Silver Web series. An unforgettable journey, Daughter of Aithne, is the finale to the epic story of Queen Eolyn the High Maga, set in a world of seemingly never-ending war where female practitioners of magic (maga) are feared.

Set ten years after the conclusion of Gastreich’s second installment in the series Sword of Shadows, Daughter of Aithne begins during an era of abundant peace. That peace quickly turns to turmoil when a group of Eolyn’s magical progeny commits an act of grave betrayal by kidnapping Princess Elisara, daughter of the former Queen Taesara.

The Mage King Akmael immediately orders all maga to lay down their arms and have their magic bound. For years magas have been prosecuted for having magic and were all but annihilated by the crown. Except for a small amount that managed to escape hoping to one day be able to live their lives of magic according to their beloved culture. Fear of women’s magic is still alive in the kingdom, and the King, wishing only to protect his queen and her daughters, attempts to avoid an outbreak of war by banning all magas use of their craft.

Gastreich uses vivid language to transport readers into the story. An overarching theme of distrust and vying for loyalties in and among kingdoms presented in this third installment of the Silver Web series is reminiscent of other high fantasy series such as George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. Gastreich masterfully executes an effective use of narrative misdirection throughout the story.

Karin Rita Gastreich has an apparent love for the magic of nature and breathes that into the heart of her books, but she also successfully sets real-world issues at the forefront. She follows a common trope within the Young Adult genre by taking an issue from today and melding it into her narrative. Here, the main element in the Silver Web trilogy is the stark contrast of beliefs and opinions centering around magic and especially female magic welders. Many fear their magic and believe magas are dangerous, but then have little or no issue with male mages.

A triumphant story of adversity, Daughter of Aithne is the exciting conclusion to the Silver Web series. Readers of all ages may hope this is not the last time Gastreich will return to her fantastical world of magic.

Daughter of Aithne won 1^st Place in the CIBA 2017 OZMA Awards for Fantasy novels.

October 14, 2019
The ALEXANDRITE: A HOLLYWOOD TIME-TRAVEL NOIR by Rick Lenz – Magic Realism, Hollywood, Time Travel

Time-travel Noir becomes High Art with a wicked sense of humor in this fast-paced novel that offers up alternate views of Hollywood’s past and present.

Washed-out and with the doors of opportunity slamming shut on all sides, actor Jack Cade is the poster boy for the “bad things happen in threes” mantra. Getting cut from a crappy, no-pay play was just the tip of his career-crushing iceberg. His agent, who lost faith in Jack way back in another epoch, manages to dig up a temporary life preserver – an audition for a part that has Jack written all over it. An audition he misses. And Jack’s wife, no longer able to stay afloat in his sinkhole of alcohol and “bleeding actor’s ego,” jumps ship.

Just when it starts looking like it’s lights-out for Jack, an anonymous envelope lands in his mailbox. Inside is a pawn ticket that leads him to an Alexandrite ring and a psycho-physicist who claims to hold the secret of time travel. With Jack’s personal and professional lives collapsing in on him like a black hole, he walks out of 1996 and into the heyday of mid-Century Hollywood. He also walks into another man’s shoes, not to mention the scene of his recurring nightmare. Armed with “fore-knowledge” Jack has a chance to make things right in two different time periods. The only question is, how many times will he have to jump across the spectrum of an alternate reality to get it right?

Drawing from his extensive experience in the entertainment industry, author Rick Lenz delivers a stellar and believable cast of characters. From Jack Cade, whose love-hate relationship with the movie industry keeps him on the razor’s edge of failure, to Jack’s 1956 incarnation – or possibly alter-ego – Richard Blake, a movie-star handsome gemologist, whose an angry alcoholic wife and sultry, mentally impaired sister-in-law set the stage for their own rendition of a sweaty Tennessee Williams play. And there’s the incomparably complex, multi-faceted Marilyn Monroe, at the peak of her career—the golden thread that weaves everyone’s story together.

Steeped in Hollywood history and culture, The Alexandrite entices the reader with snippets of iconic set locations, facades, meeting places, studios, and stars. But the novel is more than a torch song to the movie industry. It is also a paean to hard-working actors whose careers, like Jack’s, straddle a razor.

Somerset Grand Prize award winner for Literary and Contemporary Fiction along with multiple other literary awards, The Alexandrite by Rick Lenz playfully challenges the reader to ask questions about a world that exists outside of the four dimensions in which we live. A must-read for anyone and everyone who has been touched by the magic of Hollywood.

November 6, 2017