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James Elkins: Stories, Like Illnesses
As I have mentioned several times previously the sort of novel that really attracts me is one where there is an overarching plot, a series of tangential stories which may or may not merge with one another and/or with the main part and a whole load of interesting ideas. This book meets these criteria perfectly.
Our hero is Samuel Emmer. He is an American originally from Watkins Glen but, as an adult, he works as a water engine engineer inGuelph, Canada. The the the Guelphs and Gibellines belonged to opposing fractions in mediaeval Italy, fthe former favouring the pope, the latter the Holy Roman Emperor. This is relevant because Dante was aGuelph, and he will pop up in this book, initially not named but it is clearly him. Yes, as I said, there are a lot of tangents in this book.
Little Sam, as he calls himself was a nature lover and we see examples of this. It is initially his love of nature. that gets him interested in science and particularly in studying amoebas. Indeed, he actually talks to the amoebas. Reading this book. You will learn a lot about amoebas. One of the features of the book is that it is accompanied by photos and line drawings and if you have ever wondered what an amoeba looks like or indeed, what it does, you will learn it here. Do not let this put you off. Frankly, I found it fascinating. Samuel is a scientist and this is something he inherited from his mother. She was a keen student of mushrooms and, yes, you are going to learn a lot about mushrooms, particularly rare ones in this book. There are lots of other scientific fields you are going to learn a lot about from animals that eat faeces to crystals, both crystallography and the use of crystals for healing,from the constellation Boötes and celestial mechanics to bats, and much, much more.
A lot of these subjects are mixed in with the plot and we learn, inevitably, a lot about Samuel. His mother had had a previous marriage and a daughter and had lost both husband and daughter and it soon becomes apparent to him that she had been far more devoted to them than she was to her current family, namely her husband and three sons . Samuel himself is not overly keen on his two brothers, Alec and Tee though he does initially have a reasonable relationship withTee. During the course of the book he will make a conscious decision to cut off relations with both brothers.
He does not do too much better in his romantic life. He has been married to.Adela, a woman of Slovak origin but she gradually slips away from him. I knew the first year we were married that I was eventually going to let Adela go. But I knew it in a quiet way, without thinking. Indeed, he seems to have quite a sceptical view of life, for example if children could be shown what they’d feel like later in life, they’d just give up..
At the beginning of the book, the older Samuel meets little Sam and tells him about life and it is not positive. When talking about astronomical voids, large areas of space where there is absolutely nothing, he comments the universe is full of them, and they’re all growing and merging like bubbles in your bath. In the future there will be almost nothing left. The universe will will be empty, just one big bubble, so don’t worry..
It is not all miserable. He does not get on well with his boss and one or two of his colleagues but he enjoys his teaching, where the students seem to contribute almost as much as he does on the various relevant subjects such as a dysentery and other things that can happen related to water.
More importantly, he starts a relationship with a colleague, Rosie, who, like others in this book is somewhat weird. She enlists. his help to hide garnets. in her family’s rather decrepit farmhouse as she feels that will they will heal them from their somewhat weirdness. Incidentally, garnets are just one of the many subjects we will learn a lot about.
I have not yet mentioned Viperine, one of his students contributes much to the class and she is very knowledgeable and contributes a lot but, of course, she is somewhat weird.
one of the major themes of this book is people trying to make sense of the world in their own way. Examples including one of the characters whose father required her to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica all the way through and we get to very interesting examples in comments from this work as well and how knowledgeable she has become.
One example I cannot resist quoting is that there is the species of mushroom which has around 24,00 sexes.
Other examples include Samuel’s mother who spends her time doing increasingly complicated jigsaw puzzles. Naturally various scientist study in their various subjects in various ways to make sense of the world or at least the part of the world that they are dealing with. On the whole they do not always lly seem to succeed. he more you know, the more you hurt. The more knowledge, the more grief
is a quote from the Bible which is mentioned here and may well be relevant.
Another major theme his memory. Of course we remember things in various ways, not always the same way and not always the best way. One of the stories tells of a woman from Moldova who is suffering from dementia and remembers her husband’s increasing infidelities, if they did indeed happen, which her daughter doubts . She comes up with increasingly complex stories about her late husband but then gradually, as the dementia increases, she forgets the bad things and remembers of the good things about him. Draw your own conclusions. Memories are assembled of pieces and parts of the world, seen from different perspectives, stirred with distorted ideas recalled from unrelated moments in our lives, all condensed into pictures for us to view. is another perspective mentioned.
We are told at the end, that there are 75 different stories. However, the book ends with music. Sam links various, generally relatively obscure classical composers to six people, one man, five women, who were key in his life and gives us not only me the details of the composer and his work also puts in scores and tells us that we can play these if we play the appropriate instrument. I do not so I have not.
This is a long book of 510 pages so I have only given a glimpse of what it has to offer. However I would certainly say from my perspective it was a thoroughly enjoyable book with lots and lots of fascinating information. The story about Samuel and his often complicated and mixed-up. life and there are a host of other characters who, may themselves be somewhat complex and weird. If you do read this book which I thoroughly recommend you will learn a lot of information. You never thought you wanted to know which is fascinating. The author is incredibly knowledgeable or did a lot of homework or, as I suspect, some of both. Whatever the case he has produced a first class read.
Publishing history
First published in 2026 by Unnamed Press