The Book of Air and Shadows
Michael Gruber
pub. William Morrow, 480pp
This literary thriller tells the story of several characters and their involvement with a discovered manuscript purportedly revealing the existence and location of a hitherto unknown Shakespeare play. The principal narrator is a wealthy IP lawyer, Jake Mishkin, who also happens to be a heavyweight lifter and something of a philanderer. While his attitude toward women was initially off-putting, the character harkens back to the noire detectives of yesteryear, albeit with a modern awareness of his flaws, and he truly grew on me.
The story grows convoluted in a good way with multi-layered lies, cons, double crosses, Russian and Israeli gangsters, kidnapping, bookbinding, 17th century espionage, love both fulfilled and unrequited, classic movies, and of course a good chase at the end all thrown in.
I think what sold me though, was the book’s mix of genres. It is at times a thriller, at times historical, but always literary and even literate. Yes, this publishing trend to capitalize on the success of The DaVinci Code -which, I might add, cannot hold a candle to the best of them all, Eco’s The Name of the Rose – has produced many not-so-good books. However, Gruber, the author, uses a the device of switching narrators -there are two modern narrators as well as the original 17th century manuscript – and thereby genres, to keeps thing interesting and provide several different points of view of the same set of events. While there are a few places where this causes the narrative to loop back on itself a bit chronologically – something I found inconsistent and a bit distracting – for the most part it is handled quite well and the book has a good pace.
While, ultimately, I enjoyed the book a great deal, I was disappointed by the ending as I found it a bit quick and almost anti-climactic. However, if you look at it as being about the ride and not the destination, this was definitely a nice piece of entertainment. Nothing earth-shattering, but a good way to pass some time.
Overall rating: 
3.5
