Two Novels, One Book
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It seems the more I know about a book, the more I like it, and that is certainly the case with this novel, which by the way, I was given a free copy by the publisher in return for an honest review.
Let me tell you the basic story, and my original take on it. Then I’ll share my research with you as I arrive at the conclusion that this is a book you should investigate.
The story line:
Jonathan Derwood is the name of a writer who had been hugely successful for his brilliant literary fiction. He disappeared over a decade ago. Now, however, his publishers have received a new novel by him. Its title is Russian Doll, and it is a spy story, a genre that Jonathan had never written.
As the book jacket for The Final Chapter says, the new book is “an espionage novel full of all-too-stereotypical spy craft and James Bond-like twists.” In the novel, the publisher asks the author’s best friend and fellow author “to annotate the novel with details from real life to give the strange novel context within [Derwood’s] larger oeuvre.”
The structure of the book is to give a chapter from Russian Doll followed by a chapter with various notes and background information from the friend. The reader soon realizes the real story might be in the notes.
My original take on the book:
Books of espionage and spy craft are not my usual genre, so the likelihood of my loving such a story is not high. Indeed, this book with its many twists and turns knotted my brain so much that I needed to research it to figure out what to say about it.
The starting point of my research was the author’s name, C.B. Everett. Remember the author’s best friend and fellow author who was called in to annotate Russian Doll? The name of that character is also C.B. Everett.
So that is what intrigued me most.
Was this just the use of meta fiction or was more going on? The spy in the Russian Doll used many identities in his career. The author’s-best-friend-and-fellow-author-who-was-called-in-to-annotate-Russian-Doll also used various names. He wrote under his real name and under a pen name within the pages of this novel. Is that the point? Am I to ponder what’s in a name?
Here’s the research:
C.B. Everett is a pen name (here we go again) for British author Martyn Waites, who has written nine novels under his own name. He has also co-written five books with his wife, Lynda Waites. All those books use the pen name Tania Carver. Martyn Waites has been nominated for every major British crime fiction award. He has also been chosen as a Guardian Book of the Year and has won the Grand Prix du Roman Noir.
I should note that this is the second book Waites has written as C.B. Everett.
In a wonderful interview with Nadine Matheson on her show The Conversation: Coffee Break, Waites explains a lot.
- His goal is to take the cliches and tropes of crime fiction and upend them while still telling a good story.
- Such a novel is not one that Martyn Waites followers would be looking for.
- Thus, he used a pseudonym. The initials “C.B.” are initials he borrowed from his daughters. And “Everett” was the last name of a teacher (now deceased) who inspired him.
- C. B. Everett is like a ventriloquist act, allowing Waites to say things he wants to say that couldn’t be said in a “normal” book by Waites.
- The book was inspired by a 999-line poem called Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. It is an epic poem by a poet who was murdered. His editor is writing notes for the poem, and the notes point the way to who murdered him.
- Waites wanted to use this concept for a full-on crime novel.
- This book turned out to be two books in one, though he might not have understood that to be the case at the start of writing it.
- He soon learned that writing two books at once is a very challenging feat!
- He compares it to the old variety act of plate spinners. You put a plate on a stick and start it spinning. Then you add another plate and stick and then another.
- Writing both narratives at once was like this. Too many plates in the air. So…
- He wrote the spy story first and then wrote the other book and tweaked them to make them work together.
Here is my final take on the book:
Fascinating! Here we have an established writer challenging himself to turn out something new. No cookie cutter, formulaic books for him. Just the next challenge. I not only admire him greatly, but next time I’m thinking of reading crime fiction, I will turn to one he has written.
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