The Body Library is a brilliant piece of writing that does a satisfying job of merging noir, magical realism, and a love of all things literary. John Nyquist, a small town investigator, is back in his second book (following A Man of Shadows), and he’s on a case that started out as a short story, a way to make ends meet, but has quickly become a larger work, one that may draw all the characters in this town into its arc. Once you start it, you’ll find yourself drawn in as well, and you may never look at books the same way again.
The streets of Storyville aren’t just mean, they’re metastasizing narratives woven around its denizens. In Storyville, noir meets magical realism with a literary motif. It’s hard to say whether books are a metaphor in which its inhabitants immerse themselves, or if there’s more going on. There’s the police, like there always are, but they’re nothing compared to the Narrative Council. As one character says, “I hate those bastards. They should leave well enough alone. Let the people live the stores they want to live.” The council sends monitors around to keep track of everyone’s stories, and they’re rumored to have ways of getting through your block if the story isn’t forthcoming. As a private investigator, John is used to shading his tales a bit to protect the innocent, or his clients. But as this case unfolds, he must go to new levels of redaction to stay on the street, because in a town that already boggles the mind, things are getting strange.
Nyquist follows his quarry into what seems like an abandoned apartment building, and that’s when thing start to get weird. Hotel California weird. He winds up getting attacked by the man he was supposed to “just keep an eye on,” tangled up with a poetic prostitute, and beaten to a pulp by characters whose story is tied up with what’s going on in the building, which is where the magical realism kicks into high gear. Nyquist winds up back on the street with more than one murder to deal with, and more lost and alone than ever.
Moreover, something is going on with a mysterious book called “The Body Library,” and a drug epidemic that leaves victims with words crawling all over their skin, never making any sense, but creating a compelling narrative. Somehow, it’s all tied to the building, but Nyquist is only human and the affairs here seem beyond his ken. All the same, he’s the one person with a chance to figure it out. He has this story he’s chasing, filled with danger, loss, and the hope of redemption, and it isn’t one he can put down.
In the theme song for the Bond movie You Only Live Twice, Nancy Sinatra tells us that you get one life for yourself, and one for your dreams. In The Body Library, author Jeff Noon adds the inevitable consequence that twice is the way you die as well.
To get Noon’s writing, you must let your mind go and just follow where he leads, even if it takes you through dark and twisty paths. If you can do that, if you can just close your eyes and fall back into his writing, he’ll catch you and the experience will be immensely satisfying. His prose is as crisp as Chandler’s, his imagination is on the order of Lovecraft, and his understanding of the human condition ranks with Bradbury.
The Body Library is an exceptional treat for lovers of any and all the genres. I’m looking forward to more from Jeff Noon, and who knows, maybe John Nyquest will make some headway with the novel stuck in his typewriter: A Man of Shadows.