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Although THE FORGERS begins with a gruesome scene that seems to presage a thrilling and engaging plot, the book turns out to be narrated in somewhat stilted language that puts distance between the characters and the reader. Descriptions of the book classify it as a thriller, but it is really more of a low simmer of a book, building slowly to a surprising but not shocking ending. In the book's opening pages, Adam Diehl, a wealthy and reclusive book collector, is found gruesomely murdered in his Montauk home. His hands are missing, and many of his most valuable inscribed first edition books are savagely damaged. His sister, Meg, is devastated, and her lover, Will, sets out to find the most likely suspect while remaining a “person of interest” himself. Will is recently released from prison, having been rightly convicted of forging literary documents and signatures, and he is slowly attempting to make his way back into the rare book business.
The book is narrated by Will, whose prose seems to have picked up the somewhat antiquated tone of the author he was most talented at forging: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This has the effect of putting the language of the book in the foreground with the plot in the background and placing the actors at some remove from the reader. However, the style perfectly fits the setting in the book world. Will guides the reader through that world, explaining how book buying and selling takes place and how an obsessive love of books can, in the right hands, lead to an embellishment of literary history through forgery.
Perhaps because Will narrates the book, and Will is an internal and self-involved character, Meg recedes into the background even as she stays with Will throughout the story. Will's motivations and behavior are described in detail, helping the reader understand how he got involved in forgery and why it is so hard for him to refrain from it after his release from prison. It is less clear why Meg acts as she does in supporting Will, however. The term "clueless" is an anachronism given the tenor of the book, but it seems to best describe Meg as she's portrayed in THE FORGERS. Other, minor characters, are equally opaque.
Although THE FORGERS is fairly short, at 258 pages, it is not a fast read. This is partly due to the style of writing and partly due to the complicated intertwining of characters and relationships within the world of rare books. As is to be expected in a book where the prose is more salient than the plot, the reader appreciates this book best when slowly savoring it.
§ Sharon Mensing is the Head of School of Emerald Mountain School, an independent school in the mountains of Colorado, where she lives, reads, and enjoys the outdoors.
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing, February 2015
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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