An Instance of the Fingerpost

Christian Century, Nov 18, 1998 by Wcp

An Instance of the Fingerpost. By lain Pears. Riverhead Books, 691 pp., $27.00.

Since Umberto Eco has made a great deal of money writing thick post-modernist historical detective stories, you might think that others would have picked up the genre. But it's hard to pull off; writing such a book requires both thorough research and immensely clever plotting, lain Pears has succeeded.

Marco da Cola, gentleman of Venice, seems to be offering a straightforward account of his trip to England in 1663, during which he met some of the great scientists and writers of the time. But after 200 pages, three other characters in the story, having seen da Cola's manuscript, angrily set out each in turn to tell us what really happened. By the end, can we be sure whom to believe, or even what counts as real? (That's the postmodernism.)

Most reviews have emphasized the scientific and philosophical context, but the core of the story (like the core of 17th-century English history) turns out to be religious. Unfortunately, it's impossible to discuss the religious element without giving away a quite astonishing turn of plot.