W.A. Smith’s literary novel, Einstein’s Fiddle, references the parable of the Prodigal Son. In the novel, we follow the prodigal Davy Calhoun’s flight from his family and his failure as a writer, his fall into despair, and a barely held hope for redemption and ultimately forgiveness.
In 1985, alcohol-fuelled Davy sets off to his hometown Charlottesville, Virginia, after kidnapping his infant son from his estranged wife Molly in Chicago. Before reaching Virginia, Davy leaves the baby on a doorstep in a town he doesn’t know the name of. From Virginia, Davy heads to the West Coast, where he ends up on the streets of San Francisco with his new companion, Sheila, an educated woman he believes to be homeless too. Sheila offers him a chance at redemption as she takes Davy under her wing and encourages him to return to the wife and son he …show more content…
Davy’s journey across the country becomes reminiscence at the beginning of the book, as his past loops into his present. Smith has the ability to combine lyrical writing with action; despite Davy’s past superimposed on his present, Einstein’s Fiddle does not lose its momentum or suspense. At first, the writing felt as inebriated and confused as Davy; the reader tries their best to make sense of what drives the character with Davy’s glimpses into his recent memory. As the novel progresses, the writing sobers up with the protagonist in the final half. Smith doesn’t tell, but leaves it up to the reader to interpret what happened, just as Davy himself struggles to sort through a swirl of drunken impressions. Reading Einstein’s Fiddle wasn’t a passive experience; I found it engaging because I had to think, not just sit back and wait until the author explained everything. Of course, there is resolution at the end, but I enjoyed piecing the events together long before