The Tiger's Wife

Part of the hazard of reading a book at home is that unless I sequester myself in a back room, I’m probably going to be surrounded by noise. This past week was no exception. The combination of two hyper nephews, the clattering of legos, blocks, and unfortunate falls off the couch onto a wooden floor, and the incessant playing of Rock Band made the possibility of concentrating on what I read about as likely as having Laura decide she wants to listen to Mozart instead of watching Basketball! 

So, perhaps it was the noise pollution, but this book left me puzzled. 

I’m no stranger to magic realism. I discovered Isabel Allende and Gabriel García Márquez years ago. A world where parrots talk, certain cursed men never die, and women become pregnant simply by sitting in the moonlight is something that’s just part of the fabric of the story. Remarkable and unreasonable events are meant to spin the reader into an imbalanced world where what’s supposed to happen doesn’t happen. I like this kind irrationality and The Tiger’s Wife certainly had a lot of it. 

In a nutshell: The Tiger’s Wife is set in a fictionalized Balkan country and centers of the relationship between a grandfather and his granddaughter. Part of the book is narrated in the first-person by the granddaughter and the other is told through the grandfather’s stories to his granddaughter. A “deathless man” dominates the story, as does a deaf-mute girl who becomes the “tiger’s wife.” The Jungle Book is also crucial to the story line; though, I’m not sure how much. 

This book was unique and entertaining. I liked Obreht’s writing style (descriptive, but restrained), yet it was like a puzzle that didn’t quite fit together. Throughout the story I kept thinking, “where is this going?” “how is this going to fit together?” and I fully expected it to by the end of the book. It never quite did. Perhaps I missed the crucial passage that tied it all together while Jhordany and Vincent were reenacting the sword fight in Puss n’ Boots...