The Canticle of Ibiza
by Justin Kurian
Style: Literary Fiction / Guide Membership Fiction
ISBN: 9781963296235
Print Size: 358 pages
Reviewed by Peggy Kurkowski
A person leaves behind his profitable New York Metropolis hedge fund profession to hunt redemption—and a long-lost pal—on Ibiza, the island of “second probabilities.”
After fifteen years promoting his soul to excessive finance, thirty-something John Balkus arrives in Ibiza to seek out his means again to himself in Justin Kurian’s ethereal novel The Canticle of Ibiza.
After promoting his cavernous house in Manhattan’s Higher East Facet, John arrives on the Spanish island of Ibiza looking for solutions to life. Fueled by rumors that his faculty pal, Gunther, lives someplace on the island, John is set to seek out him. Fifteen years in the past, the 2 shut pals deliberate diligently to launch a philosophical-theology journal collectively. However the temptation of a high-paying company job in New York Metropolis lured John away, thereby torpedoing the journal and their friendship.
Earlier than he begins to discover the island and ask round for Gunther, an enigmatic but forceful ladies thirty years John’s senior approaches him at an out of doors café. Angela is an island resident who takes an uncommon curiosity in John who, she says, reminds her of “the ghost of my husband.”
Taking pity on the widow, John lets Angela present him round Ibiza and introduce him to her high-placed pals at posh dinners and wild Ibizan events. Kurian captures the heartbeat of Ibiza with lush visualizations of the seashores, the markets, and the distinctive folks. Right here, philosophy and the day by day quest to dwell freely and totally are maxims that information the eclectic townspeople John meets in his forays.
Kurian populates this wealthy novel with human flora of all varieties: hippies, communists, kayakers, musicians, monks, marijuana farmers, nudists, and ravenous artists (generally fairly actually). As John asks round about Gunther, he collects shreds of data whereas Ibiza’s folks start to reshape his understanding of life. Kurian chronicles this shift in John’s perceptions in a spot the place “everyone seems to be right here to really feel good.”
“A rudimentary concept, however in spite of everything his years within the monetary sector, fairly a novel one. In that world, if one thing interfered with high quality, it was exterminated; chilly and easy.”
John grasps this easy acceptance of everybody and their talents as a revelation. He additionally has one thing to supply others as properly. With Andre, an area artist who lives in a rat-infested tent within the forest, he begins a friendship that finally helps Andre to face up for himself as an artist and a person. Essentially the most pleasant shock is Diana Clarke, a vivacious and witty DJ from Yorkshire, England, who catches John’s eye and curiosity…a lot to the disgust of Angela, who turns into more and more disagreeable to John all through the story.
As John’s seek for Gunther nears its climax, it’s Ibiza that stands out “because the magical host” for folks’s goals and aspirations. Kurian writes as one in love when describing the pure fantastic thing about the seashores, forests, and climate patterns:
“Openings of rainfalls are like the beginning of symphonies: the preliminary notes seize your consideration.”
It’s apparent the creator is aware of of what he writes, lending authority to his clever descriptions of Ibiza’s beachfronts and forested interiors, redolent with the scents of pine and cedar. Kurian provides in a thundercloud of foreboding, nonetheless, that takes an explosive flip by the novel’s finish (which is at odds with the story’s gauzy, philosophical arc). As properly, barely stilted dialogue conventions turn into extra noticeable because the novel proceeds, lending an odd Elizabethan air that may distract.
The Canticle of Ibiza is a rewarding story of redemption, love, and second probabilities set in an earthly paradise.
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