When The Eight first came out, I read some reviews of it,
probably in Publishers Weekly and Library Journal (my
parents are, like me, librarians), and thought, "This book sounds really
interesting." I saw it in the public library, and I thought I would like
it, but, since I was in college at the time, with never enough time to
read everything I wanted to, I decided to wait. Then I saw the review in
The New York Times. Unlike all the other reviews, this one was
completely negative, and it made me think that maybe I wouldn't like the
book, after all. So, I gave up all thoughts of getting it from the public
library. What a big mistake that was!
The next time I saw The Eight was in 1990, when I was taking a
class called Change and Tradition, which included a section on the French
Revolution. The class got me somewhat interested in the French
Revolution, although at the time I was concentrating on medieval and
British history. When I saw The Eight in paperback, I remembered
that part of it took place in the French Revolution, so I decided to buy
it, in spite of the negative review I had read, knowing that I might not
get a chance to read it for a long time.
I really don't know why I waited as long as I did. Possibly the New
York Times review had something to do with it, but I think the real
reason was that there were so many other things I wanted to read, and,
unfortunately, The Eight was near the bottom of my "to-be-read"
pile.
I did not rediscover The Eight until 1994, when I was about to
graduate from library school. I was looking for a nice long book to read,
to reward myself after I graduated; as I was looking through all the books
on my bookcase, I happened to notice The Eight. I started looking
through it and decided this was the one. It was the very first book I
read after library school, and I will never forget the experience of
reading it for the first time. I loved it, from the very beginning, and I
could not put it down the whole time I was reading it (except to eat and
sleep, of course), in spite of the fact that I had a terrible cold.
After I finished it, my mother read it and loved it, too. My father
borrowed it next, even though he didn't get a chance to read it until two
and a half years later. Meanwhile, I became fascinated with the French
Revolution as a result of reading The Eight; it is one of my main
interests right now. More recently, I have become interested in Algeria,
too. I would love to see the mountains and caves that Katherine Neville
describes in The Eight, if there is ever an end to all the violence
in Algeria.
My father read The Eight at the beginning of this year (1997);
he and I had many long discussions of it. In fact, we still do. After he
finished it, I read it again, and, not long afterwards, I read it for a
third time; I also read some of my favorite chapters over and over again.
My very favorite is the one about Mireille in the desert; I have read that
at least ten times. Also, I write down my thoughts about The Eight
in a notebook, which I show to my parents; the articles which I am going
to add to this home page all come from this notebook.
What fascinated me so much about The Eight? First of all, I
love stories that involve intellectual puzzles. Also, The Eight
combines several genres that I like, especially fantasy, mystery, and the
historical novel. It is completely original, too; I love the combination
of the modern and historical storylines; reading The Eight was, for
me, almost like reading two novels in one. I enjoyed Katherine Neville's
"playing" with history, too, especially in the Mireille/Marat section (I
know that some people who look for realism in novels would probably not
like this, but it did not bother me; this is a novel, after all). As I
said before, I was fascinated by the settings, too, particularly Algeria
and Paris during the Terror. Finally, I felt a strong identification with
the two heroines, not because I am anything like them (I could certainly
never be as brave or self-confident as they are), but because they
represent what I would like to be. I find the character of Mireille
particularly interesting because of her experiences in the French
Revolution and in Algeria and (spoiler!) because she discovers the elixir
and lives to be 200 years old.
I do not want to neglect A Calculated Risk completely, even
though I don't love it as much as The Eight. I bought A
Calculated Risk not long after I finished The Eight, and read
it for the first time in the summer of 1995; I have read it for a second
time since then. What I liked most about A Calculated Risk was
Katherine Neville's sense of humor, which comes out much more in this book
than it does in The Eight. I also admire her knowledge of her
subject; this is true of The Eight as well. The character of
Verity gave me an idea of what Catherine might be like ten years after
The Eight, but I think my favorite character in A Calculated
Risk is Tor, who is so similar to Nim. (Nim is one of my favorite
characters in The Eight.) I've always liked reclusive geniuses, I
guess.
So, this is the story of how I got interested in Katherine Neville. If
you would like to tell me how you got interested, just let me know and I
can publish your contribution here.
Copyright 1997 Vicki Kondelik.
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