After my sojourn in the nineteenth century, a return to the modern world – and the Middle East in the brash seventies no less – was very pleasurable indeed. Tobsha Learner’s Sphinx had a page-turning quality that was not unlike an airport novel – in a good way. I think this page turning quality is highly admirable, I would like to know how to do it!
She is returning, here, to Witch of Cologne territory in the sense of the grand love that transcends time and place; and also the dialogue between the rational and the esoteric. Like Ruth and Detlef, the lovers Isabella and Oliver occupy different ends of the rational and mystical spectrum. Oliver the narrator is skeptical whereas Isabella recklessly and boldly pursues magic in the form of an agristrum, an ancient Egyptian device with the capacity to predict death and thus change the future. There is something of the quest novel in Sphinx and I guess this is where that racing thrust of the narrative comes from. It reminded me a little of The Amber Spyglass in that way, it’s a race for good to defeat evil, although the morality of this novel is refreshingly murky. Despite the intensity of their relationship, it seems Isabella and Oliver have not been entirely honest with each other. Oliver’s initial imperative to fulfill his dead wife’s quest for the astrarium becomes compromised by his own desires. All the characters have their compromises and their secrets.
There is something a little over the top about this novel that touches on melodrama. The historical settings of Tobsha’s previous novels The Witch of Cologne and Soul seemed to work a little better with this intensity. But I admired her attempt to explore these ideas in a more contemporary setting. I remember news reports that I didn’t quite understand about Sadat and the peace process when I was growing up. The ancient Egyptian side of things was rather fun, although a little teacherly in tone, but I didn’t mind that. It’s rather good fun to learn a thing or two about history through a rollicking narrative.
She is returning, here, to Witch of Cologne territory in the sense of the grand love that transcends time and place; and also the dialogue between the rational and the esoteric. Like Ruth and Detlef, the lovers Isabella and Oliver occupy different ends of the rational and mystical spectrum. Oliver the narrator is skeptical whereas Isabella recklessly and boldly pursues magic in the form of an agristrum, an ancient Egyptian device with the capacity to predict death and thus change the future. There is something of the quest novel in Sphinx and I guess this is where that racing thrust of the narrative comes from. It reminded me a little of The Amber Spyglass in that way, it’s a race for good to defeat evil, although the morality of this novel is refreshingly murky. Despite the intensity of their relationship, it seems Isabella and Oliver have not been entirely honest with each other. Oliver’s initial imperative to fulfill his dead wife’s quest for the astrarium becomes compromised by his own desires. All the characters have their compromises and their secrets.
There is something a little over the top about this novel that touches on melodrama. The historical settings of Tobsha’s previous novels The Witch of Cologne and Soul seemed to work a little better with this intensity. But I admired her attempt to explore these ideas in a more contemporary setting. I remember news reports that I didn’t quite understand about Sadat and the peace process when I was growing up. The ancient Egyptian side of things was rather fun, although a little teacherly in tone, but I didn’t mind that. It’s rather good fun to learn a thing or two about history through a rollicking narrative.
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