Review: The Adventures of Vaclav The Magnificent & His Lovely Assistant Lena

REVIEW: THE ADVENTURES OF VACLAV THE MAGNIFICENT 

& HIS LOVELY ASSISTANT LENA

Wow. What a big title. But wow. What an amazing book. I read it in two days. I just couldn't put it down. And when I eventually did put it down, I knew that I had to tell you lovely readers all about it, because this is a really special book. The first novel by American author Haley Tanner, The Adventures... is a compact 292 pages long and divided into four main sections: Together, Apart (focused on Vaclav), Apart (focused on Lena), and Together Again. Within each section there are no chapters. Instead Tanner employs an interesting literary device of labelling each paragraph according to the most significant that happens within it, eg. Riding on the Q Train for when Lena, Vaclav and Valcav's Mum take a ride on the Q Train. I personally really enjoyed this method of delivery. It's almost like breaking down the story into its constituent components and then assembling them together one by one, to gradually build up the bigger picture. It means that you as the reader subsequently have less information to focus on, thus allowing you to greater appreciate these smaller yet equally significant and important details that otherwise may succumb to being overlooked. And in many ways, these important little details are exactly what makes this unique story so compelling and brilliant.

The main plot line of The Adventures... revolves around two young Russian immigrants, Lena and Vaclav, who have been brought to America by their families in search of a better life. With their respective families settling in Brooklyn, NYC, Lena and Vaclav's lives intertwine at the age of 5, when a series of events lead to a play date that cements the special bond that will irrevocably bind the two friends together for life. Tanner's 3rd person narrative initially begins by sketching the outline of the daily life of a 10 year old Vaclav and 9 year old Lena, highlighting the difficulties they face, the premise of their lives up until this very point in time, and the unique friendship that they share together. We hear about Vaclav's dream to be a magician, with Lena his loyal and much loved assistant. We begin to learn about the difficulties that prevail and hinder Lena's life. We start to realise how their respective pasts are shaping who Lena and Vaclav are, and who they will be. We gain an insight into the daunting, challenging and surprising difficulties that immigrants face upon arrival in a new country. We view life through Lena's eyes, Vaclav's eyes, as well as from the perspective of Vaclav's parents, in particular his doting mother Rasia. We see how the two central characters divert and greatly differ in personality, aspirations, abilities, chances, potential, obstacles, circumstance, and how natural evolution is slowly pulling them apart again. Yet there's this core indescribable similarity, a unification of souls, perhaps, that resolutely binds them together, and means the unique bond they share can never truly be broken, no matter what challenges they may face.

The story then takes a turn when one day, Lena suddenly disappears, right on the eve of the special magic show that her and Vaclav have been plotting for weeks. Even though I read the blurb prior to reading the story, and was aware that something would happen to Lena, I wasn't prepared for the suddenness with which Lena's disappearance strikes. Tanner captures the acuteness and perplexity of the situation, and all the provocation of subsequent emotion, perfectly. You just don't see it coming until suddenly it's happened. Lena has gone. Vanished from the story without a trace or indication. And as a reader, you find yourself sympathising with the exhausting, terrifying, momentous and unfair loss that Vaclav feels at the sudden inexplicable loss of his best friend. The heart break he feels is so honest and powerful and saddening. However Tanner is careful not to reveal too much information about Lena's disappearance, instead choosing to use Vaclav's mother as a point on which to focus our attentions and emotions and perplexities until later in the story, when the truth is finally revealed. 

Fast forward seven years, and we are greeted with 17 year old Vaclav and Lena, each living separate lives yet unable to forget one another and their shared past, which was abruptly paused and left behind. The awkwardness and rigidity of their younger years, reflected in Tanner's linguistic choices and prose, which perfectly capture Vaclav and Lena's attempts to refine their innate Russian characteristics to fit the new dictations of American life, as well as that infamous adolescent struggle for social acceptance, is gone. Instead we're greeted by two mature and refined young adults who have fully acclimatised and assimilated into their new lives and culture. Both Vaclav and Lena are extensions of their younger selves, and I loved how Tanner accentuated and preserved certain characteristics, and developed and recast others, all the while staying true to the heart of each character. You fully believe the orientation and direction that each character's development takes, something that certainly can't have been an easy feat to achieve. In the current day, Vaclav and Lena are still trying to adjust to a life without the gravitational pull of each other, and in their separate sections, we learn about where life has taken them in the passing years, as do we learn more details about the past that has shaped who they are today.   

Somewhere along the way, you become so invested in the story and destinies of these characters, that you can't help but believe in their integrity. They feel so real, so imperfectly perfect, so rounded, so honest, so beautifully flawed and rich, that you can't help but care about them. The concluding section of The Adventures... is perhaps the most emotional and moving because it's moment in which we finally learn the truth. It's the moment when the past finally catches up with the future, when the fragility and power of Vaclav and Lena's relationship is truly demonstrated, when the paths of all the central characters finally intersect at a junction, when everything falls catastrophically apart and the healing process begins. I won't spoil anything for you here, because I don't want to take that joy or right of finding out for yourself away from you. But the ending truths, when interwoven with the rest of Lena and Vaclav's stories, really do the whole story arch justice and round it off completely, taking the whole thing full circle. It leaves you understanding and accepting the most frustrating and elusive question of all: why. The ending was so heartbreaking, so pensive, so cleverly done, so beautiful, so hopeful, so poignant. A real testament to Tanner's literary skills. And most importantly, it makes you think, and I adore books that leave me feeling like a slightly different, and hopefully better person, to who I was when I prior to reading it.

The Adventures... made me think about so many different things, and reconsider my current views or add depth to the ones that aren't so well fleshed out. I was left with this notion about how life can be so cruel, and yet so wonderful. I felt a lot more sympathetic and understanding about what it's like for immigrants, and the difficulties that they face, all in pursuit of a better life. It was interesting to see how these two different cultures collided and interacted with one another, and how the upheaval can create these seismic waves of effect in so many different ways. It reminded me of the importance and power of love and hope and friendship and family, and how these small little gifts are often more powerful than anything else in this world. It made me realise how just because your past has been dictated by misfortune and obstacles and hardship, it doesn't mean your present or your future have to be dictated by those things too. Wrongs can be righted, things can turn around. You have choices, chances, opportunities. You can be better, stronger, wiser. There are people who care, and fate to play a hand when the timing is right. The world is full of bad, yet it is also balanced and often outweighed by all the goodness that resolutely prevails. 

This books is easily one of the best I have ever read, and I don't say that lightly. It's incredibly well thought out. You can tell Tanner has put her heart and soul into every word and page of this book, and that she evidently cares so much about telling Vaclav and Lena's story the right way. How it was intended. She uses all these clever literary devices that really make the book pop and fizz and shine and set it aside from anything else that could even marginally compare. The structure is unpredictable and exciting. The storyline is unique and addictively complex. The linguistic elements, from the word choices through to the sentence structures, are well thought out and supplement all the other literary components of the book perfectly. The characters are utterly fabulous in every sense, so 3D, so full of substance and depth, and in my opinion, unfaultable. The Adventures... is a story that keeps you guessing. Dancing on your toes. It's ingenious and inventive and intelligent. It's not what you expect and yet it's everything that you could ever want. It's a story filled with love and depth and integrity and resilience and hope. It's just amazing, and if you're looking for a story to connect with, a story to make you fall in love with reading all over again, a story to make you feel, a story unlike anything else you've read before, please go and find a copy of Hayley Tanner's wonderful book and experience Vaclav and Lena's story for yourself.

You can buy The Adventures... here!