New Book Alert: Shadow of the Mole by Bob Van Laerhoven; Dark Psychological Mystery About Amnesia, Obsession, and The Cost of Searching for Ones True Identity and Self

 

New Book Alert: Shadow of the Mole by Bob Van Laerhoven; Dark Psychological Mystery About Amnesia, Obsession, and The Cost of Searching for Ones True Identity and Self

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Ignoring all of the soap opera and rom com cliches about the condition, but amnesia can be a terrifying experience. There can be huge gaps in a person's memory, even their whole past, and no real way of filling it, especially if they are alone and without identification. That person remains a blank slate for anyone to fill and they may be filled with whatever the other person wants. The amnesiac may have no control over what new identity is fashioned around them. The people observing the amnesiac may be so obsessed with putting together that puzzle that their identity is caught up with the one who has amnesia. They may put the amnesiac into an identity that they create and has nothing to do with the reality of who that person really was. The amnesiac may never get their real identity and memory back and are left with what they are told, leaving them a complete stranger to themselves.

That concept is explored in Bob Van Laerhoven's Shadow of the Mole, an absorbing dark psychological mystery about a World War I era patient with amnesia and the obsessive nature of his doctor to find out who he really is.

In 1916, Dr. Michel Denis is fascinated by a patient known only as "The Mole" (so called because of his rodential facial features.) At first The Mole remains silent and non responsive so no one knows anything about him. Is he a soldier, if so which side? Is he a deserter? Some of the attendants are frightened of him. Is there something supernatural about him? When he is active, he asks provocative questions and gives no verbal clues to his identity. He also scribbles furiously a book that he claims must be chronicled. Denis treats The Mole and sees him through his nightmares. He also thinks about his strange request to chronicle the story. Denis compares him to someone  like Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, cursed to tell his story before he dies.

As Denis reads The Mole's writing, he is consumed by the story itself. The Mole writes of a man, Alain Mangin who lived a life surrounded by dark magic, the supernatural and a curse laid upon him seemingly by a Romany drummer who appears periodically, with his dancer sister, throughout Alain's life. As Denis reads the story, he is obsessed with finding answers about the Mole's identity and his connection to the words on the pages. Is he Alain? Is he the Drummer? Is this story true and autobiographical or is it a complete fabrication meant to make himself more enchanting and mysterious than he really is? Why is The Mole so obsessed with putting it down? Why does he remember every detail of this story but doesn't know his identity enough to say it or is he revealing his identity through the pages? Is he a victim of a curse or atoning for causing the curse? Also what does Denis need from this man? Is he projecting his own doubts and insecurities about the world through The Mole's past? Is he finding answers towards his own? Is he seeking answers for The Mole or for himself?

Like in many books that feature a story within a story, it is the past story, in this case Alain's, that is is the most interesting, grippig, and unforgettable. What is rather interesting about The Mole's writings  is the intentional literariness of it. He is allegedly telling his story which should be an autobiography, but it takes some huge lapses in narrative literary techniques into a fictional account (or more fictional than the actual novel that Shadow of the Mole starts out being).

Some of these literary techniques like the constant reappearance of the Romany dancer and drummer, border on dark fantasy or supernatural horror. I mean we know that characters don't constantly reappear in someone's life, unless they are related, friends, or workmates. They don't just drop in and out at random odd times in different locations, over the years, seemingly for no reason at all. They don't at least in the real world, but they do in  fiction. They follow the whims of the author who uses their characters however they choose. The constant reappearance of the Romany siblings in Alain's life could be a clue that the Mole's writings could be just a work of fiction. A novel that he constructed from his mind to overcome the bland ordinariness of the real world.

Alain begins the narrative as a bright imaginative boy who because of his reading of Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon wants to one day visit the celestial object in the sky.  He wants to become famous, perhaps as a soldier or a statesman but he wants to be famous. Later he becomes a spy and gets involved in plots that in the 19th century lead to ramifications that later echo into the beginning of the First World War. The story seems to be that of a man who wants to believe that he shaped history in his own way.  It seems that The Mole's writings are giving Alain the fame that he craved so badly.

The other possibility is that the Romany siblings are metaphors for a mind that is about to snap.

Perhaps since the Mole has amnesia, the  Romanys exist because he hallucinated them or they reflected the gaps in his memory. They may be more than a plot device. They may just be the parts that the Mole doesn't remember or doesn't want to remember. They may represent the darker forgotten parts of the Mole's mind that he chooses to suppress. Every time he forgets something, he throws in the Drummer and the Dancer to cover up or hide from what really happened.

Reading this story actually works its way into Denis' mind as well. He is living in a world torn apart by War. Discovering The Mole's identity and getting to the truth of Alain's story becomes more important to him than anything or anyone else. He develops a relationship with a woman that fizzles because of his obsession. He makes questionable decisions that puts his career in jeopardy. He wants to find sense in a world that is losing its grip on reality and sends young men around the world to fight other young men. 

Following the clues to the mystery almost soothes the doctor's mind. After all, a mystery needs to be solved. Finding the solution to a mystery gives the investigator some power and control to the narrative. In a world spiraling out of control. Denis needs to find that solution. Unfortunately, his investigation becomes an obsession when he tries to shape the Mole into the idea that he fashions for him. 

As the Mole controls Denis with providing his narrative, Denis controls The Mole by his trying to discover the answer. Their relationship veers into dual obsession in which neither can escape.