The Egyptologist: A Novel

by Arthur Phillips | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0812972597 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 2/22/2017
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Wednesday, February 22, 2017
I found this fair-condition softcover at a local Savers thrift store, and at the price was glad to have another release copy of this book!

I first read this book via this BC copy from the Charleston convention some years back, and enjoyed it very much. I thoroughly enjoyed this somewhat convoluted tale, all the more because all of the narrators - the two main ones, Egyptologist Trillipush and detective Ferrell, as well as other characters whose letters, telegrams, or testimony we get to hear - tend to be unreliable, and a lot of the fun is in reading between the lines to reconstruct what actually happened. And even though most of the characters weren't all that likable (and some were downright nasty), I had a lot of fun following them along on their adventures and deductions. [For me, the most likable and, in his own way, trustworthy, character (and the one with the key to one of the central mysteries of the story) was the one with the smallest part - but then, there were excellent reasons why he did not have a larger part, and if he had, it might have made the rest of the story a good bit shorter!]

While much of the fun of the book was doing my own detective work - noticing, for example, that detective Ferrell was strongly homophobic, a trait that may have cost him some useful clues and that certainly altered the way he chose to conduct his investigation - the book's also interesting for its details about Egypt in the '20s, during the heyday of exploration, and of some of the seamier sides of life in Australian slums and in nouveau riche mansions in Boston. And the characters do have some depth: pathetically lonely Ferrell, reaching out for some recognition decades after his greatest case went only semi-solved; the increasingly frustrated and misunderstood Trillipush, whose academic brilliance isn't bringing him the success he knows he deserves; the bright Australian lad, Paul Caldwell, who was victimized by poverty and an oppressive class system... I remember getting quite angry at the people who kept picking on Paul! [Nothing like getting involved with characters who are only present in a second-hand account {wry grin}.]

But as well as being a wonderfully constructed story, it's very, very funny. Even at its darker moments (and some are very dark), there's a wry turn to it all. Ferrell recasting his own story to include his correspondent Macy as a sort of Watson to his own Holmes; Trillipush's attempts to chat up Howard Carter, and, when he doesn't receive as much respect as he thinks he's due, his casual downplaying of Carter's find (which the reader knows is actually to be the greatest find in all of Egyptology); and all through the writings, bits and pieces of the, um, amorous poetry of Atum-hadu...

A truly delightful book!

[After I read the book, I got the unabridged-audio version, and enjoyed that very much too; the narrator who read Ferrell's part used an Australian accent, which helped differentiate his segments from those of Trillipush and others, and the combination worked very well. The only aspect of the book that suffered a bit in audio was that the illustrations of the hieroglyphs and maps could not be shown. The narrator described the map-related points that were important to the story, but it was much easier to see what was happening when looking at the illustrations. And the very explicit hieroglyphs in the front of the book depicting the name of Atum-hadu - well, the audiobook narrator didn't even try to describe those, which is probably just as well! (According to the author's afterword, the specific symbol for sexual arousal used in Atum-hadu's name is a genuine hieroglyph; funny, that it never turned up in my school's classes on ancient Egypt...)]

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing at Andres Institute Of Art in Brookline, New Hampshire USA on Friday, February 24, 2017

Released 7 yrs ago (2/24/2017 UTC) at Andres Institute Of Art in Brookline, New Hampshire USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I left this book, bagged against the elements, on the ornamental gate at the entrance to the Andres Institute trails at around 4:15 or so. Hope the finder enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

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