Book Review of The Current
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Publisher: Yannick Thoraval (September, 2014)
Category: Literary Fiction, Climate Fiction
Tour Date: November, 2014
Available in: ebook, 312 Pages
Category: Literary Fiction, Climate Fiction
Tour Date: November, 2014
Available in: ebook, 312 Pages
Peter Van Dooren’s wealth and prestige mean that his
family wants for nothing – except a husband and a father.
When the president of a sinking tropical island in the
south pacific calls on the world’s most ingenious entrepreneurs to help save
his people, Van Dooren reckons his plan can save the island and its people’s
way of life.
If it works, Van Dooren’s plan will not only make him
richer, it could also change the very idea of nations and borders. After all,
changing the world is what Peter really wants to accomplish.
The thing is, not all of the islanders share Van
Dooren’s vision for their homeland. That won’t stop Peter from risking
everything to prove that nature can be tamed. Playing God may cost Van Dooren
his fortune and his own family.
While Peter plots a world away, his wife, son and
daughter sink deeper into their own personal abyss of retail therapy, amateur
pornography and Christian fundamentalism.
Everyone is adrift on the same tide of greed, lust and
fear. This is the current that shapes the world. It always has; it always
will.
Commended by judges of the prestigious, Victorian
Premier's Literary Awards for an Unpublished Manuscript and finalist in the
International Showcase Screenwriting Competition, 'The Current' is a novel
about the difference between having a house and losing a home. The style
of writing is literary (thoughtful but humorous), and will appeal to readers of
Jonathan Franzen (particularly Freedom),
Ian McEwan (particularly Solar) and Michel Houellebecq (particularly Platform). Stylistically, The Current offers readers a back and
forth split storyline and portent of danger comparable to Paul Thomas
Anderson's film, Magnolia (1999).
Praise for 'The Current':
“Ironic and
slyly, bleakly humorous. The Current is a story peopled by men and women
of the Renaissance who jog and contemplate their plane food and visit websites
and shopping malls, who seem both exhausted by and untiringly connected to
their technologies. Gently vexing and hauntingly memorable.”- Clare Allan, Writers
Victoria
"The
Current has all the elements of a literary mainstream novel that demands the
reader think about home, traditions, family, refugees and political and
commercial intervention. This is a story of belonging, of finding your fit
within family and your fit within the world.”–Amanda J. Spedding, Phoenix
Editing
About
Yannick Thoraval:
Yannick Thoraval is a professional communications
adviser and university lecturer.
Best known as an essayist, Thoraval has publishing
widely for both academic and general audiences.
He formally studied film, philosophy and American
political history, attaining a masters degree from the University of Melbourne
before leaving academia to pursue commercial writing interests. He ended up
working as a copywriter in marketing and communications.
Thoraval’s fiction has received critical acclaim. His
first screenplay, Kleftiko, was a
finalist in the International Showcase Screenwriting Awards. Judges of the
prestigious Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, Australia, highly commended
his first novel, The Current.
The novel draws from Thoraval’s personal and
professional experiences of working in the Victorian State Government,
particularly his work in international development with the nation of Timor-Leste.
He is a career migrant and has lived in the
Netherlands, France, Cyprus, Canada and Australia. Moving internationally from
a young age has left him feeling culturally stateless, despite holding three
passports.
Thoraval is a quiet advocate for refugees and asylum
seekers. He is a founding member of the World Writings Group, which helps
refugees write about their experiences of forced migration.
He has pledged to donate 10% of the proceeds of this
book to assist the settlement of refugees.
He currently lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he
teaches professional writing and editing.
He is working on his second novel.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/YannickThoraval
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008295216884
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008295216884
Buy ‘The Current’:
Excerpt
for Books Books
The pontoon boat churned through the water, choppy
waves banging hollow against its aluminum hull. The water was blue and clear,
and the flat seabed was visible beneath the surface, interrupted by the
occasional patch of coral. Peter felt the cool salt spray on his hands and face
and he breathed in deeply.
The boat rounded the island’s rough, pebbled
shoreline.
President Koyl’s diplomatic efforts to contain the
rising sea level had not been entirely in vain. A few small-scale projects
stood as evidence of the international community’s involvement on L’Eden Sur
Mer.
Small, individual sea walls had been built to
protect homes along the beach. The walls had gone up, separating neighbors into
little concrete pens along the foreshore.
But the walls hadn’t been strong enough. One by
one, the sea had breached them and concrete slabs now littered the beach like
an aborted game of giant dominoes.
Peter watched smoke rise from behind the little
houses, the only sign that anyone was home.
Past a shallow reef system the wind picked up
suddenly. The sea was darker here. It looked bluer, deeper, and colder. The
motor revved higher but they moved no faster through the water. They must be
fighting the same currents that droopy-faced Lieutenant Ball had noted in his
logbook.
Peter squinted at a silhouette in the distance. Not
a mountain. Not even a hill. It was more of a mound. Curly white waves broke
against its steep shore.
The motor quieted and the boat circled the little
island. Shards of broken glass and twisted metal from a collection of crumbling
buildings glinted in the sun.
“This is the Peak,” said Koyl gravely. “People used
to be able to walk to the mainland from here.”
The shoreline of L’Eden Sur Mer was only a few
yards away.
“Six years ago,” said Koyl, “we used a giant
machine, a dredger, to bring sand and rock from the bottom of the sea and put
it on the surface. This was already the highland, you see. So we made it
higher.” Koyl’s turned to the sandy, rocky formation outside the boat. His
audience did the same. “Locals call it the Peak,” he added quietly.
A dredger.
Cunning, thought Peter. All of this sand, these rocks and boulders had just
been lying, useless, on the seabed. For how long? Centuries? Millennia? Now
they’d been brought to the surface to do something useful.
The flood-resistant island within the island had
been the brainchild of the Öersk Development Corporation, a Danish company that
had been contracted by the government of L’Eden Sur Mer to build and settle the
new housing project. It was to be Öersk’s expansion project and serve as an
alternative model for international development.
“It was a good idea,” said Koyl. “But it didn’t
work.”
Some three hundred families had been persuaded to
relocate to the Peak, lured by the promise of new, two-bedroom apartments,
complete with air conditioning, double glazing and European appliances.
The boat circled the Peak a second time. A bent and
rusting metal sign said something aspirational. The writing was barely legible:
new, proud, construction, home. Only
the top of the government crest remained to be eaten by the rust. Whatever the
sign said was unimportant now. The experiment had failed. The
relocation had muddled the islanders’ traditional social ties, which had long
been based on their regional identity and their connection to ancestral land
holdings. On the Peak, people from the east of the island had been lumped in
with those from the west and it wasn’t long before in-fighting between families
over meaningless domestic issues assumed religious proportions.
A series of arson attacks within the development
had sparked an exodus, led by people with young children who felt they had too
much to lose by remaining at the Peak. A band of youths had briefly taken over
the burnt-out buildings but had been ‘moved on’.
The apartments lay vacant and served as giant nesting boxes for the
Pacific gulls that squawked as the boat passed by. Fittings and fixtures had
been torn out. Mounds of sand had blown in through shattered glass patio doors.
The wind whistled around the sharp and broken edges of the Peak.
No one spoke.
“The Peak has become a cursed place,” said Koyl. “Most people dare not
come here at all. Some have started to speak of it as an omen about the coming
end of time.”
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Review:
Interesting
concept for a novel that makes you think about the world and social issues on a
more personal level. Some parts of the
book are amazing and well thought out.
However it is somewhat disconnected with odd storylines sticking out
like loose threads. I am glad I read it
but still find myself with many unanswered questions and loose ends.
I
give this story 3.5 out of 5 clouds for the amazing imagery and writing.
This product or book may have been distributed for
review; this in no way affects my opinions or reviews.
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