The Inquisitor’s Tale, Or The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog (2016) by Adam Gidwitz2/22/2021
The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars “I hope, if nothing else, this book has convinced you that the Middle Ages were not ‘dark.’” The Inquisitor’s Tale, Or The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog (2016) by Adam Gidwitz begins with the narrator saying that in 1242 King Louis of France, the greatest king in Europe, is fighting a war against three children and their dog. The narrator asks if anyone in the inn he’s in knows anything about the wanted fugitives, and a female brewster begins a series of colorful Medieval types (Nun, Librarian, Chronicler, etc.) telling different parts of the children and dog’s story as the main narrator interjects bold font questions and comments about what he’s hearing. The children are varied: Jeanne, a peasant girl subject to fits and prophetic visions; Jacob, a Jewish boy capable of supernaturally fast powers of healing; and William, a huge biracial bibliophile oblate possessed of superhuman strength. Their dog Gwenforte, a white female greyhound, became a holy dog after Jeanne’s parents wrongly killed it. After the children meet, they have run-ins with natural or supernatural denizens of medieval Europe, including a band of brigand knights traumatized by their Crusader experience; a giant Benedictine monk called Michelangelo reputed to be as wicked as he is fat; and a dragon afflicted by deadly flammable flatulence. They also encounter historical figures, some of whom like Chretien de Troyes and Roger Bacon play cameo roles, some of whom like the ultra-pious and complex King Louis and his ultra-pious and unpleasant mother Blanche of Castile play substantial supporting roles. Why is the King of France down on the children? Will they become martyrs? Who IS the narrator, and what is his agenda? Gidwitz’ novel has many virtues: endearing characters, lively writing, suspenseful events, surprising developments, humorous touches, beautiful scenes, appalling actions, and philosophical-moral depths. It combines contemporary vision (the interracial, interfaith, intergender, interspecies friendship of the protagonists) with medieval worldview (miracles, supernatural beings, ignorance, and faith). It teaches readers (like me) ignorant of the Talmud something of its nature and importance to Jewish people (e.g., “Whoever destroys a single life destroys the whole world”). It gives readers ignorant of or interested in the middle ages some historical-cultural illumination. The scene where the children see the vast, teeming city of Paris for the first time is great, especially when they encounter Notre Dame or witness a Lombard moneylender beating a Jewish one. As he vividly depicts the era, Gidwitz does not sugar coat its cruelty and squalor: a lord and his lady use a corner of their hall for relieving themselves, Christian teenagers’ idea of fun is burning down the Jewish part of their town, and the Crusaders in the Holy Land think to liberate Damascus by killing everyone in the city. He also reveals some of its virtues: beautiful books, awesome cathedrals, cultural mixing, and some open-minded, educated, tolerant, humane people. The novel rejects intolerance, prejudice, and cruelty and accepts a universal conception of God (though I kind of wish William were Muslim). It vividly depicts life, which is said to resemble an eye-wateringly potent cheese: “Rotten and strange and rich and way, way too strong.” It presents humanity in its complexity: “People were too strange to understand. . . They were like life. And also that cheese. Too many things at once.” It also splendidly conveys the wonder and value of books, each of which, even today, represents multiple human lives. There are moments of sublime beauty, like a wonderful description of sunset at Mont Saint-Michel. The illustrations by Hatem Aly are full of interesting details and wit. One of the pleasures of reading the book is scrutinizing the pictures to see how they do or don’t depict what’s going on in the story. They make the book feel like an illuminated manuscript. Although the novel does some interesting things with narrative, different people telling the different parts of the children’s story that they witnessed, most of the “tales” are told in what sounds like a single narrator’s voice (except perhaps for the Jongleur’s pseudo-cockney). Indeed, Gidwitz’ use of short punchy sentences and paragraphs for most of the storytellers and of present tense narration for many of them, as well as plenty of contemporary English idiom, makes the book’s style too current YA for my likings, e.g., “You gotta understand,” and “The sacks. With the books. The only Talmuds in all of France.” (view spoiler)[Finally, I have mixed feelings about the unambiguous, unified nature of the novel. Despite the book’s title and chapters called “The Nun’s Tale” and so on, this is NOT a modern take on the Canterbury Tales, in that here all the different “tales” are chapters combining to tell a single story. And it turns out that the supernatural or divine elements of that story, including an Archangel slumming it up in the world, a Holy Dog being resurrected for a mission, and children performing miracles, are all real. It might have been more interesting had some narrators been unreliable or contradicted each other’s versions of events or disbelieved the children’s miracles etc. (hide spoiler)] Moreover, there is too much potty humor meant to entertain young readers. The farting dragon is fine (inspired by a medieval text Gidwitz read, the creature resonates with the themes of life as a rich cheese), but there is an unconvincing early slapstick scene involving a dung heap, and a few too many jokes confusing ass (donkey) with ass (bottom). But it is an entertaining, moving, unpredictable, and thought-provoking novel, especially in its last quarter. And in his “Author’s Note: Where Did This Story Come From?” and “Annotated Bibliography” after the novel, Gidwitz interestingly explains features of the middle ages depicted in his novel (like heretics and inquisitors), as well as his research and inspirations for the characters and events. He references the recent killing of 140+ people in Paris by terrorists: “Zealots kill, and the victims retaliate with killing, and the cycle continues, extending forward and backward in history, apparently without end. I can think of nothing sane to say about this except this book.” View all my reviews
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