The Curiosity: A Novel, by Stephen P Kiernan
Scientific fiction, adventure yarn, love story … Kiernan presents a round robin of 4 distinct narrators as he leads us from 1906 to the present, from Lynn, MA, to the Arctic, and back to Boston.
Kate Philo, PhD, beset by non conforming genius and an overbearing sister, finds herself staring at a giant block of “hard ice”, encased in a huge iceberg bobbing at the desolate boundary of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Sent there by Erastus Carthage, a pompous, germophobic practitioner of BIg Science, she is entrusted with the overall administration of obtaining flash frozen organic specimens for Carthage to attempt rejuvenation, the resurrection of flesh from solid ice.
Daniel Dixon, a hack science journalist whose cynicism and ignorance serve us well when it’s his turn to speak, is dumbstruck when he realises the team has found a man encased in ice. But this is no hapless sailor or prehistoric seal hunter. Rather it was Judge Jeremiah Rice, 38, who fell overboard while accompanying a daring exploratory journey out of the old sailing haunts just north of Boston.
These four distinct voices trade chapters as Kiernan explores a web of interests. Rice, blessed with a fertile, marveling mind, reflects on the unchanging nature of man and the rapid changes we have wrecked on the world around us over the past century. Dr. Philo, her career a poor substitute for human connection, finds herself fighting for Rice’s humanity in the midst of the prison like strictures Carthage has placed on the experiment which is the Judge’s re-awakening. And Dixon observes and comments on the weirdness which surrounds the whole enterprise, from the religious protestors (who believe only God can be reincarnate), to the Dead-head scientists, be-boping on headphones while charting the arousal of the frozen man.
The science actually takes a back seat to the social commentary and love story. Our modern media, especially the prespective of the reality show, devour and distort the efforts of Carthage, who has an honest, although mercenary drive to bring the dead back to life. While Kiernan plausibly draws back the curtain on the laboratory work and methodical record keeping which makes exciting scientific breakthroughs so dull in its detail, his real interest is in the friction and excitement of a man three generations removed from current affairs. Kate fitfuly tries to free Rice from Carthage’s clutches. The scenes at modern retail, Fenway Park, and finally in Rice’s old home town of Lynn, by the sea (where I was born as well), where Jeremiah and Kate conspire to simply be human, are the true heart of this well crafted tale.