Damascus

Like Geoff Nicholson's Bleeding London, Damascus relies on a great deal of intersecting between characters, times and places. Beard uses this very interesting technique as well as a non-linear timeline to tell a compelling and often hilarious story. His characters are incredibly well developed and his writing is accomplished.

This is probably one of the most refreshing books I've read to date. It's rich form kept me interested, allowing me to finish it within a week between long hours at school and tons of homework. The parallel lives of the two main characters--meeting at certain points in their lives without ever knowing it--helped culminate a lovely, almost innocent love story. It's a novel about stepping out of your rut in life, taking chances and risks. I bet the next day was November 2, 1993 :-)

As the day, November 1, 1993, progresses from dawn to dusk, so do the lives of the characters beginning with the births of the principal characters, Hazel and Spencer. Strangely, all events in the story occur on that date. But the story does not follow a straightline progression but parallel courses (just like the characters' lives), because Beard switches cleverly from pivotal past events of each character's life (except for one) back to the present until the story's climax at which time all the lives intersect. This device enables us to watch the characters' lives develop so we can learn how they got to the present (and their current predicaments). Ultimately I found each character sympathetic. Overall, this is a book of effective, entertaining writing that enabled me to ignore a muggy gray Saturday.

In brief, Damascus weaves the stories of relatively anonymous people, any one of which could be your neighbor, or seated next to you on the train, by intertwining their past lives with their present lives. A well thought out and complex piece of fiction, this book is wholy worth reading based on the merits that after every chapter, it forces you to examine your own life, and to question your past, your present, and your future, both in parts and in totem. And not only does it provoke thought, it carries the reader through to the last page, always wanting to know more about the characters, the plot, and eventually the reader himself. Beard develops his plot with uncanny ability to combine what appear to be separate vignettes or snapshots of his characters lives into a cohesive story. The reader inevitably comes away from the book comparing him/herself to one of the characters, and knowing examples of all the others. For anyone who is intelligent and is up to the challenge of a book that will not only entertain but also make you think, Damascus proves an excellent choice.