Pilgrim : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Started Out Good But...
Review: While on a recent trip to the local library, I stumbled across Timothy Findley's "Pilgrim" and, intrigued by the plot as told on the dustjacket, checked it out and promptly began reading it. Though the novel is based on an extremely interesting idea, the reality of it was disappointing.

Set in the spring of 1912, the tale revolves around Pilgrim, an Englishman who, despite his best efforts, cannot die. At the advice of his friend, he is checked into a psychiatric clinic where he is placed under the care of Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, one of the many real people who exist in the story. Pilgrim's friend entrusts the patient's journals to Jung, who takes them home and reads them as a way to understand the mind of his ward. During his literary journeys, the famous doctor finds out that Pilgrim has had many lives - as Madonna Elisabetta del Gioconda (aka Mona Lisa), a shepherd boy who was friends with St. Teresa of Avila, and a literary friend of Oscar Wilde's.

While the book is seemingly about Pilgrim, it is truly about the psychiatrist who treats him. The title character in fact plays little part in the story, and when the passages begin to center more around his actual modern day experience, the novel tires and begins to lag. It started out good, but toward the end became drawn-out and boring.

One of the things that prevented me from fully appreciating the genius of this work was my limited knowledge of psychology. I had heard of Jung, but since I am not involved in mental health, much of it was over my head. Though the theories presented in the book were interesting, I got a bit lost in the descriptions of mental illness.

Like many other reviewers have said, the book has an interesting premise, but as it wears on it fails to deliver. And, though it is an interesting read (at least for the first half), I wouldn't buy it. Try checking it out of a local library instead.