The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson

First book finished in the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon. Technically I did start it a few days ago but I did finish about half of it today. I decided to blog about the books I read right after I read them so I remember them well. I started this book when I went on vacation but could not get into it. I think it is a book that needs to be read during long periods; not one that can be picked up and put down frequently.

Amazon.com gave the best description of the book stating, "The Gargoyle of the title is the narrator, a handsome young man who while driving stoned and drunk one night crashes his car into a ravine and is burned in the resulting fire. He finally awakens in a burns unit to find his body has been ravaged by the flames and he has entered his own version of hell. It is during this period that he meets Marianne Engel, a renowned sculptor who stuns him by suddenly announcing they were lovers seven hundred years ago in Germany and she has been searching for him since then." This is the premise of the book but there is much more to it. I am not very interested in philosophy so I had a difficult time getting into the book. There is a lot of talk about the existence of God and also the existence of Heaven and Hell in many different forms.

I did like the characters in this book; the narrator is really interesting and I love his point of view on things. Marianne was really interesting to me as a social worker because I could see her mental illness and how it gets worse over time. I know many people read this book and do not believe that she was mentally ill but I do think that the author must have taken characteristics from mentally ill people and added them to this character.

All in all the book was alright. I think that it just wasn't my type of book and I can recognize that it was very well written and many other people will enjoy it.

Time to push on and start another book. Hour 4 here I come!