More Ordinary than Curious

I recently attended the American Library Association's annual conference in New Orleans where I had the pleasure of meeting and receiving complimentary copies of authors' books. One such book was "The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno" by Ellen Bryson. This is a book I saw on a B&N shelf not too long ago and thought it looked interesting. Well what with me thinking the book looked good, and having met the author, I was all ready to enjoy this novel....Anytime now...Crap.

I didn't.

The novel is about Barnum's Museum of Curiosities in New York City post Civil War (1865+ for you Canadians). The main character, Bartholomew Fortuno, is the world's thinnest man. We meet and see the daily lives of several other "curiosities", such as the fat lady, the elastic man, and a strong man, but one day a mysterious woman is added to the museum and Barty's world is tipped upside down. I applaud Ms Bryson for getting her first novel published. The idea is original and interesting, but it fell flat, like her characters.

The characters and plot were 2-D. They didn't jump off the page at you and I didn't feel there was anything or anyone to grab onto. The author made attempts at going beyond surface level, but I'm sorry to say her attempts failed. The main character, Barty, is annoying. He's like that whinny kid in class with no backbone. He knows all the rules by heart and isn't afraid to let everyone know it. I never warmed up to him and found his personality agitating.

The "mysteries" within the novel were not riveting. To say the least I was not turning the pages to figure out what happened. Had I not felt obligated to finish the book I would have put it down ages ago and been better for it. Nothing in the book moved me. Pieces of the plot felt loosely strung together and the "great reveals" were lacking. I wasn't surprised or intrigued.

I found nothing transforming about Bartholomew Fortuno. The author should have explored her characters more, made their relationships deeper, and their perspectives more pronounced and weighty. The curiosities are people who are outcast by the rest of society, but find a home in the Museum among others like them. This is a perspective that reaches all of us in one way or another, but I felt alienated from her characters and I don't feel Bryson tried to make the connection between her audience and the characters. Bryson tried to probe Barty's philosophy on the curiosities and how their presence in the world was a tool, but she never fully latched on to it.

After reading this book, I've decided to take Nancy Pearl's advice: if after 30-50 pages the book doesn't grab or interest you, just put it down. The world is full of books worth reading and life is too short to waste your time on an uninteresting read.