Anthony Marra’s novel could be ‘book of the year’

As one of the organizers of the Out Loud! The Metro Library Network Series, I was early to pick up Ann Patchett and take her to the event earlier this month. Anticipating a short wait, I took “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena” with me. Ms. Patchett was ready to go, however, and after the introductory chitchat, she wanted to talk about Anthony Marra's debut novel.

Hers is the first blurb on the back of the book. She calls it “simply spectacular” and says of Marra, “I can't imagine how far he will go.” She told me the novel is probably “ book of year,” something she's in a position to know because she has already had the opportunity to read many of the books set to come out later this year. I told her I had, perhaps prematurely, suggested in a review that “A Questionable Shape” by Bennett Sims is book of the year. She didn't know the book; I lost her at “zombies.”

Book of the year or not, “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena” is everything Patchett says it is. Marra, who is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, has penned a beautiful, funny, tragic novel set in war-torn Chechnya. It would be nigh unto impossible to be overly effusive in praising Marra's accomplishment.

Among the many things the author does well is sketching the past and future of minor characters in just a few deft strokes that turn them into fully realized human beings. He's equally adept at juxtaposing comedy and tragedy, as when a hilarious conversation about U.S. presidents is followed by a dire medical emergency that calls upon the characters to summon up reserves of calm and courage.

The writing: “At that moment, Havaa hated the hospital. She hated the chemicals that sharpened the air and burned her throat just like the bleach her mother used to launder sheets, when there had been bleach, and sheets, and her mother.”

The novel is filled with arresting sentences and moments like that. This novel is “vital” in both senses of the word - it is dynamic and filled with the stuff of life; it is also essential reading.