Book Nook: Review of The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma

If you like your books to proceed in a nice linear fashion this is not the book for you. Amid the 614 pages of this behemoth you will find yourself twisted around the finger of the narrator who only reveals the path of your convoluted journey in drips and drabs. I don't mean this in a bad way, the ride is immensely enjoyable. Set in three distinct sections, the book either needs to be read in a rapid session so as not to lose the various threads that are holding the story together, or to take each part as a separate novel connected by setting and characters.

Reading this book felt very similar to how Cathrynne Valente draws you into her world of the Orphan Tales by telling you the beginning of stories without revealing their endings only to launch into a completely new story in the telling. The language is exquisite, even after being translated from its native Spanish. It is impressive how the author is able to weave together the events of the Ripper murders, H.G. Well's publication of the Time Machine, and the various minutiae of ordinary lives. There were certain moments that felt like peering through the window into a part of history, while at the same time knowing that what you just read is a complete work of fiction. Certain characters just seemed so real. For me the authors depiction of Tom Blunt and H.G. Wells seemed the most real while Gilliam Murphy felt like a caricature of a well dressed thug. Although, I can't be sure that Palma didn't plan it that way.

That's what I liked about this book. Palma constantly makes you question what you've just read. He's an unreliable narrator to the core. Instead of lying to you outright, he leads you along to a certain outcome. However, instead of feeling cheated, there is this sense of "well what if things had happened the way you say?" While the characters have their own existential crises, the reader is forced to have one of their own. 

I had no idea of the journey I was about to go on when I began this book, but it is certainly an experience. While I personally enjoyed the uncertainty of the story, I can see it being very unnerving to certain readers. There is a leap of faith required by the reader that cannot or will not be reached by everyone. If you don't mind the figures of history jumping out of their neatly ordered lives to participate in an adventure you might enjoy this. Fans of rich detail and an expertly wielded pen would also enjoy this book regardless of its twists and turns. Yet, like I said at the beginning of this review, if you want your story to progress in a manner that is similar to how we proceed through time then this will confuse, discombobulate, and annoy.