“There are many who believe that this isn’t the only world, that there may be millions, perhaps an infinite number, of parallel worlds just as real as our own. Maybe they’re created out of dreams, by dreamers who waltz in their sleep,” says Fede, the protagonist of Charles J. Musser’s breathtaking work of magic realism, Gichi Manidoo. This novella is a frame story: the outer frame features Federico, a veteran, realtor, and poet, and Marie, an unhappily married woman with her own demons. When they meet, they immediately connect and quickly form a deep friendship that neither of them understands. The most astounding aspect of this scenario, which happens very early, is that even under the unusual and unlikely circumstances of their surroundings and behavior, the connection is completely believable. This is possible because Mr. Musser’s writing style is so lyrical and descriptive that a reader can’t help but to be pulled into the story and willingly, as with a dream, let it take them wherever it goes.
As their relationship deepens and inevitably gets complicated, Marie becomes injured under suspicious circumstances. A teenage girl named Elizabeth tells Fede that Marie is in a coma, and that his listening to her own strange, magical tale is the only way to save her. By the time this story, the inner frame, begins we are so caught up in the poetic reality that is Musser’s mundane world that it’s easy to accept Elizabeth’s surety, even as Fede remains skeptical. Elizabeth goes on to explain her journey through a magical, technicolor world called Gichi Manidoo, whose characters and setting Mr. Musser fills with magic, spirituality, and talking creatures. The existence of this setting and these creatures don’t make this a children’s book, however. The world and creatures are in turn sympathetic, enigmatic, and sometimes antagonistic.
If the writing for Fede’s world is captivating, Gichi Manidoo’s world is spellbinding. As I read, I was reminded of so many other examples of magic realism, a genre I’ve always loved. Fede and Marie’s world, grounded in reality, is already enthralling and somewhat mysterious because of Mr. Musser’s graceful prose. Just enough happens in this frame to allow readers to glimpse that something else lies beyond it, much in the way of Bernard Malamud’s stories such as “The Magic Barrell.” Elizabeth’s world, by contrast, is completely magical and almost overwhelmingly rich in sensory detail. Elizabeth’s interactions with its inhabitants, all of whom force her to challenge the question of who she is and where she belongs, ground us here. She is a sympathetic character because we feel her confusion, her sense of loss, and her anxiety over where she is and how she arrived. There are echoes in this frame to Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling. Unlike those writers, Mr. Musser’s logic is based on belief, magic, and emotion. His graceful prose allows us as readers accept the world’s strange reality hungrily and readily.
The protagonists in both frames face similar questions: what is their purpose in life? What is the right course of action when one isn’t even sure of where they belong? Federico, who suffers from PTSD after deployment, and for Elizabeth, who is unsure of her own identity, each face difficult, sometimes heart wrenching decisions as they struggle with this issue and journey through their very different realities. When the two narratives intersect, we discover that their journeys and their worlds, aren’t as different as Fede once might have thought. That realization will, just maybe, allow each hero to save the ones they love and to glimpse an understanding of how to find peace.
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