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...reader on a chase through a house of mirrors. “Beatrice and Virgil” is slyly autobiographical and self-referential. It begins by telling the story of an author named Henry and his struggles to get his latest opus published. He has written a dual book and essay that seek to bring the Holocaust out of the stultifying realm of historical narrative and first-hand accounts into the realm of fiction. According to Henry, it is only in fiction that the memory can live forever and continue to grow, thus saving the Holocaust from the indignity...
Henry’s book is initially denied publication. According to Henry’s publishers, corporate bookstores would not know how to classify or market what Henry calls a “flip-book,” with a novel on one side and an essay on the other. The book, therefore, would be doomed from the start. So discouraged by this, Henry goes into a period of artistic withdrawal, in which he cannot bring himself to write. It almost seems that Martel is making a private joke, as he proceeds, in the rest of “Beatrice...
...those of Holocaust victims. Martel also appears to take umbrage at the idea that the Holocaust must always remain a static concept. According to Henry, first-hand accounts of past suffering cannot accomplish the same emotional and intellectual challenge that a piece of fiction can. Martel’s book is therefore a revolutionary move written in protest against the reluctance to portray the Holocaust outside of non-fiction. Yet a simple look at the corpus of contemporary Western literature shows that the Holocaust has made its way into fiction...
...Beatrice and Virgil” are dead. Martel refers often to the sound of an ancient tape recording of howler monkeys in the upper reaches of the Amazon, transforming this rather odd sound into a hauntingly beautiful melody. Moreover, the two eponymous heroes of the book, are a taxidermied donkey and howler monkey, their lively dialogues pure fantasy. Martel refers repeatedly to the image of taxidermied animals standing in a bestiary-like taxidermy shop, poised as if to move. Like the tape recording of the howler monkeys, the taxidermied animals are just a chilling memory of themselves, the consummate memento...
There is indeed no exit from “Beatrice and Virgil,” not even when the book culminates in its final moment of overwhelming crescendo, as Martel’s characters find themselves trapped in an eruption of hell-like flames. Like the echoing themes of a fugue, all the components of the Martel’s novel fit tightly together, leading up to one ultimate moment of terror...