Edward Carey is interested in art as it imitates life. In Alva and Irva (2003), a woman re-creates, in miniature, the city where she is afraid to venture. Little (2018) is a fictional account of the people behind Madame Tussaud's wax museum. The Swallowed Man is a much darker and emotionally complex exploration of this theme. This is the story of Giuseppe, the woodcarver who creates Pinocchio--a man whose art "comes through with more grace, more life in it, than you had supposed possible." In heartbreaking, increasingly mad narration, enriched with vintage-style line drawings, Giuseppe tells how he simultaneously loses his son and winds up in his current, fatal predicament: riding in the belly of a great fish.
Giuseppe creates Pinocchio to soothe his loneliness and challenge his woodworking skills. But pride takes over and he decides to exhibit Pinocchio for recognition that's eluded him his entire life. "How well, I thought, I shall be known for it. How celebrated--the creator of life." The tension between parenting and exploiting his art tugs at him throughout. "My son, my love, my art," he calls Pinocchio, unsure of which comes first. In wrenching, brutally candid memories Giuseppe recalls his conflicted feelings about his creation: "I own it: I was expecting not just a boy, but a fortune. I was wishing not just for family but also for fame."
Pinocchio runs away after Giuseppe punishes him for lying. Giuseppe dedicates himself to finding his son, who may have been set to sea in a boat. As Giuseppe himself rows out to search, an impossibly large fish swallows him. At some point, the "monster-beast, this hunger-creature" also swallowed a schooner and so, using found items from the ship, Giuseppe makes confinement bearable. If he was lonely before he created Pinocchio, the abandonment he experiences in the belly of this behemoth is exponentially greater. Art once again provides solace. "I have set about the business of making myself a family," he says, creating figures and drawings, naming and talking to each. "Ever since losing my Pino I have begun to look differently at objects. Wondering if they have life, too," he remarks. Are humans doomed when they create life outside of God and nature? The Swallowed Man is a haunting tale that provides no easy answer, but readers looking for a compelling story rich with insight and compassion will appreciate Carey's work. --Cindy Pauldine, bookseller, the river's end bookstore, Oswego, N.Y.
Shelf Talker: Giuseppe, the woodcarver who created Pinocchio, narrates the story of his miraculous creation in this moving tale that hews more closely to the traditional Italian folktale than to the cartoon.