New Book Alert: The Voyage of Gethsarade: Book Two of the Everwood Chronicles by M.G.Claybrook; A Cynical Hard-Edged Tale of Heroism For Adults Disguised As Cute Children's Book
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: On the surface, M.G. Claybrook's book, The Voyage of Gethsarade looks like a children's book. The cover features bright adorable creatures in vibrant colors. The plot involves cute little squirrels, pirate rats, buried treasure, and adventure on the high seas.
However, if the Reader looks closer, they will find a book that is written for adults similar to Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, Animal Farm, Watership Down, or Maus. Adult Readers will find a hard edged cynical satire of heroism, fame, and the lengths some will go to for money and to make their names heard disguised as a cute adventure story about talking squirrels.
The story begins with Sangareth, a flying squirrel/sea captain who has a reputation as a daring adventuror and hero. He is travelling with his crew, his wife, Alya, and his and Alya's infant son. He is journaling a mysterious message when the ship is overrun by pirats, rats that are pirates (get it?), led by the sinister Barrogan Black. Alya manages to get the little one safely away on a lifeboat before the ship is overrun and she and Sangareth are drowned trying to escape. Meanwhile, their squirrel pup is pulled ashore by Lady Ridroga, a kindly elderly ground squirrel who raises the pup as her own and names him Gethsarade.
Years later, Gethsarade is a struggling musician who writes and performs songs about a legendary figure of his own creation called Vincent Poppaldi. As he flees from creditors, town roughs, and a non-paying boss, Gethsarade stows away on a ship that happens to have pirats and of course the pirats are led by Barrogan Black. (The narrative questions this contrived coincidence so the Reader doesn't have to.)
Gethsarade fights his captivity with the help of Gyr and Tiburtine, a pair of stage magicians/con artists. He spins the fiction that he is Vincent Poppaldi, leader of the Free Army now in exile. So his new friends believe him to be Vincent, a hero, and help him escape from the pirat's prison.
After the pirats are removed from the ship, Gethsarade and the boys find a journal which speaks of a place called Hesperia where squirrels can fly and there is an ultimate treasure as well as a prophecised hero who will save Hesperia from danger. Well, there are three broke squirrels with nothing to do, a new ship, and little cash so on they go to Hesperia.
There is a sense of humor to this book that adults will get but kids won't. Gethsarade's beloved guitar's name, Lucinda, will go over kid's heads but music savvy adults will acknowledge the tribute to B.B. King's special lady, Lucille. One character exclaims "Great Grendel's Cabbages!" and Tiburt boasts that he kissed a squirrel and "(he) liked it." (I apologize for the Katy Perry earworm. You have no idea how much I am paying for it.)
This is also a book that isn't afraid to throw out salty language or hint without subtlety what pirates like to do to their female captives. It cannot be stressed enough how adult this book is despite the juvenile exterior.
The biggest commentary is on heroism and the reputation that comes with it. An ongoing line from one of Gethsarade's Vincent songs is repeated: "All righteous revolutions always begin the same way-by not being paid." Suggesting that despite the ideals and vilifying and heroification of the people involved, these struggles are based on the basic needs for money. In war and revolution, no one is innocent because everyone wants the same things.
That is the prevailing attitude found in The Voyage of Gethsarade. The line between heroism and villainy is seriously blurred. No one is particularly guilty, because no one is particularly innocent. The only difference is how bloodthirsty and murderous characters will get to achieve their means.
When Gethsarade, Gyr, and Tiburt encounter other prisoners, they argue whether to set them free or sell them to slavery. Later Barrogan Black uses this conversation to manipulate the former prisoners to join him. He lets mistrust grow which had already been planted by the actions of Gethsarade and his friends.
Things become more complicated when Gethsarade and the others reach Hesperia. This may seem like "the typical outsider is mistaken for hero of legend and becomes hero for real" plot seen in such works as The Three Amigos and Galaxy Quest. However, the behavior of the Hesperians calls that plot into question. For one thing, there are questions if there even was a legend or a hero to speak of. Gethsarade is mistaken for Sangareth by the Hesperians and is hailed as a hero by many. However, the comments made by some including the Great Father Tadwick, the leader of Hesperia and his daughter, Amalie suggest that Sangareth was not as heroic as he seemed.
Further complicating things is that if Gethsarade is not who he pretends to be, and neither was Sangareth, then neither is anyone else. This confession is revealed later when Gethsarade comes clean about his real identity throwing over his previous presumed monikers of Vincent Poppaldi and Sangareth. After he confesses, it is revealed that Tiburt, the Great Father, and Amalie are hiding secrets as well. The book turns into a den of cons who strive to outdo each other and need to admit the truth before they are worthy to recognize treasure when they see it.
While honesty becomes an important plot point, there is also value in the legend as well as recognizing one's worth and identity. This is realized in a bizarre philosophical conversation that Gethsarade has with a lonely shark. The shark does not realize what he is until Gethsarade tells him. He even asks how can he know he's a shark unless someone calls him one? Likewise, how can anyone know that they are a hero, unless someone calls them one?
There are many times that the narration calls this theme forward. The first person narrator, who is revealed at the end of the book, chronicles Gethsarade's adventure well aware that he must separate reality from legend. In the opening reveals how when he met Gethsarade, he believed his stories about being the leader of the Free Army and then spends the rest of the book dissecting the legend that the narrator believed. However, the final chapter presents two alternate endings: one where treasure is found, heroes are honored, lovers are united, and more adventures lay just beyond the horizon. The other ending is less cozy, darker, more violent, and not as tidy. The narrator asks the Reader which ending they want to believe?
There is value in honesty and knowing heroes weren't perfect. That often they made decisions that weren't planned and made by luck, coincidence, or by fast talking. Sometimes they were looking out for their own basic needs or selfishness that they were like us.
However, the legends are necessary too. They are a part of our cultures, but they also represent the people that we want to be. These stories are spread not necessarily because they are the world, but they reflect the world as we want it to be. We want to believe that the hero will defeat the villain in a one on one battle, even when we know that he won't or that the hero is equally as conniving as the villain. Gethsarade realizes this when he reconciles his real self with the legend that he and others created and the Narrator realizes this when he chronicles both truth and legend, leaving the resolution up to the Reader.
Like any children's book for adults, The Voyage of Gethsarade, asks difficult questions of the Reader underneath the cheerful facade of a book with talking animals. It challenges the traditional children's takes of heroes and villains, but asks why we need them in the first place.
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